Data recovery on a fried comp?

[Mo.Raider]

My younger sister's computer died while surfing the net. This comp has many pictures of her kids and a lot of data stored for her business. I have heard of data recovery software and suggested this to her. She took the computer to a local computer repairman and he has used several different recovery tools and can't seem to retrieve anything from the hard drive. I thought as long as there wasn't any physical damage to the hard drive that the data was still there.

Any of the tech detectives out there have any ideas?

[terpkristin]

Did the local tech take out her hard drive and try it in a different comptuer or with a HD-reader cable (such as an IDE cable) to try and get at the data, or did they just try to do it from her (fried) system?

That'd be what I'd try to do.
Depends entirely on why the computer died as to whether or not it's recoverable..

/tk

[Mo.Raider]

I am not sure, but I think he just tried to retrieve it from her fried machine. He said he thought her hard drive could be formatted from a lower level and rebooted up, but all data would be lost? It just didn't make sense to me, because I didn't think a fried hard drive could ever be used again.

That'd be what I'd try to do.

Sorry, but I wasn't clear on which one you would do. Thanks man for helping so quickly. I have learned over the years that there are some pretty sharp hombres on this board. ;)

[Tasan]

I have a program that is excellent at recovering data from fried harddrives. I haven't used it in a few months, so I'll need to find it again and give you the name. I've gotten data off drives that I didn't think would ever get recovered. If you can't get access to the program, I would consider doing it for you if shipping expenses and alternate data storage options were supplied.

[terpkristin]

I'm not sure about the "formatting from a lower level"...all formatting I know of definitely wipes everything.

As far as trying to read the drive...
There are cables that let you read data off of hard drives. Most hard drives have IDE outputs (a standard connector). If the hard drive is OK on her computer, you can probably read the hard drive in another computer. One way to do this is to remove the hard drive from the current computer and install it as a second drive on a working computer. Another way to do this is to get an IDE-USB cable like this one (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=764739&CatId=468). Using this, you can read an existing hard drive on another computer via a USB connection. I.e., this method turns the hard drive on the old computer into a readable "external hard drive."

If anything is on there that is recoverable, reading the drive in one of the two above methods will allow you to recover it.

Of course, if it's the hard drive that died, you're out of luck on those counts. Probably on most counts, sadly. :( Hopefully she'll be able to get her stuff back, but if not (and even if she does), remind her to backup her important files to CD or DVD at least once a month (or change frequency depending on how often important files are added).

/tk

[MizzouRah]

You could slave the drive to a working PC and see if you can retrieve the data.

If that doesn't work, you could sent it to someone like CBL or Ontrack, but it's expensive. We have Ontrack software at work and it's decent, but most of the time the drive needs to be sent to a company that specializes in data recovery.

[Tasan]

This is what I have:

http://www.bitmart.net/r2k.shtml

Works real good, even if the drive has been formatted multiple times. Basically as long as the drive will still halfway spin up (i've done one that was audibly clicking) you can get the data off.

Edit:
There is a demo on the site, but I don't remember how much it will do for you, or how comparable it is to the actual software. FYI I have the Pro edition. I used to do some freelance work for people out of my house and it came in real handy.

[Masked]

My parents were able to recover everything from their hard drive that sat in Katrina floodwaters for two weeks (the same water that left holes in their stainless steel pots); however, it was very expensive (~1.5K). So the data should be available even software options don't work because the mechanical parts are broken.

[Mo.Raider]

Thanks guys for the help! She is pretty upset because many of my nephews football pictures (went to final four in state as a freshman this year) were on the hard drive.

Tasan- thanks; I took a look at the software and I will direct her to the website. The man who worked on it says he used three different programs on it and one is used by the FBI, so maybe he has done all that can be done.

[Tasan]

FYI, unless you KNOW the guy, I'd call BS on that statement.

[Mo.Raider]

Tasan- Yeah I agree with your last statement. He seemed to be kind of a cooky. He also told another customer that was in the store while my sister was in there that LCD monitors will make you go blind. Kind of an odd statement for a small comp shop.

[Mo.Raider]

Tasan- Sorry to bug you again, but my sister downloaded the demo program you recommended. She has found a few files that look like they may be able to be accessed but she becomes a little overwhelmed by the process. Do you have any suggestions for her such as any simple tests to see if there is actually something still there? Thanks in advance

Mo