How can I do a DYI data recovery?

[Doom Shepherd]

So Dell has informed me that my computer’s hard drive is borked (though not precisely how), and they’re shipping a repaired computer and my old drive back to me.

While I don’t have CRITICAL data on the drive, I have some files that were very time-consuming to build that I wish to recover if at all possible. But for various reasons I would prefer to do it myself if I can. (Okay, I don’t want strangers rummaging through my poetry, the wife’s list of meds, or my Hot Gadget Hackwrench folder.)*

I’m willing to purchase an external reader (I heard that I might need such a thing) if necessary.

All I really know at this point is the error code I got when I ran the diagnostic.** And that my computer came on, but wouldn’t finish booting up - just had that little circle of dots going round. No clicking, no smoke, no external indication that anything is physically damaged.

What do?




*Oh that’s the tip of the iceberg. The less you know, the better.
**Error code 2000-0145, validation number 66497, O-S/N W4Y0K47D drive, if it matters.

 

[Marc]

Depending on the Dell model y
You might be able to open it up and run with your old drive hanging out or plugged in.

Or get a USB to sata adapter from
amazon.

If the drive spins up you could get lucky and it will show as another drives and then you can simply copy across.

If not it becomes more complex.

Google tells me the code relates to a SSD drive that is or has physically failed.

Can"t really give more advice until you get the unit back and we know what happens when the drive is plugged.

Being a solid state drive, when those suckers die there's little you can do.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

Depending on the Dell model y
You might be able to open it up and run with your old drive hanging out or plugged in.

Or get a USB to sata adapter from
amazon.

If the drive spins up you could get lucky and it will show as another drives and then you can simply copy across.

If not it becomes more complex.

Google tells me the code relates to a SSD drive that is or has physically failed.

Can"t really give more advice until you get the unit back and we know what happens when the drive is plugged.

Being a solid state drive, when those suckers die there's little you can do.

Will update when drive is returned. I don’t want to open up my computer, I just had the warranty renewed, don’t want to void it.

Sata to USB cord... will look that up on amazon.

 

[Marc]

Sata to USB cord... will look that up on amazon.

For exaxmple.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com...91757&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=SATA+to+USB&psc=1

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

If you don't use a professional data recovery company, software is available that is designed for recovering data from SSDs, for example:

https://www.powerdatarecovery.com/hard-drive-recovery/ssd-data-recovery.html

I don't know of any free software to perform this task. The following article mentions other available commercial recovery software:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/data-recovered-failed-ssd/

 

[JasonJ]

If you don't use a professional data recovery company, software is available that is designed for recovering data from SSDs, for example:

https://www.powerdatarecovery.com/hard-drive-recovery/ssd-data-recovery.html

I don't know of any free software to perform this task. The following article mentions other available commercial recovery software:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/data-recovered-failed-ssd/

There are a few... Piriform Recuva has given me excellent results, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Ed. is very good, if he can find a copy of GetDataBack, that works well.

Of course, this is all predicated on the drive being able to spin up and be read to some degree.. If it's physically damaged, crashed heads, bad spindle bearings, etc.. then really you're looking at $600-$2000 for professional data recovery done in a clean room.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

There are a few... Piriform Recuva has given me excellent results, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Ed. is very good, if he can find a copy of GetDataBack, that works well.

Of course, this is all predicated on the drive being able to spin up and be read to some degree.. If it's physically damaged, crashed heads, bad spindle bearings, etc.. then really you're looking at $600-$2000 for professional data recovery done in a clean room.

I thought we were discussing SSD recovery - they contain no moving parts!

 

[Santaman]

Depends on what you managed to destroy.. if it is just the filesystem then you could try and scan/repair the partitions/filesystems, if it is a hardware error then usually it means the SSD is dead.

 

[JasonJ]

I thought we were discussing SSD recovery - they contain no moving parts!

Doh! Brain fart. I missed that part. Yes, clearly no moving parts in an SSD!

We'll I guess then the question becomes, if the drive is put in an USB enclosure and plugged in, does the system recognize it and load the partitions? If so, straight file copy, even if it won't load windows off of the SSD. You don't need a working OS to retrieve data files..

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Doh! Brain fart. I missed that part. Yes, clearly no moving parts in an SSD!

We'll I guess then the question becomes, if the drive is put in an USB enclosure and plugged in, does the system recognize it and load the partitions? If so, straight file copy, even if it won't load windows off of the SSD. You don't need a working OS to retrieve data files..

Not a question that I can answer as it isn't my SSD that's broken but I guess that method won't work if the GPT or file system metadata has become corrupted.

 

[Marc]

Depends on what you managed to destroy.. if it is just the filesystem then you could try and scan/repair the partitions/filesystems, if it is a hardware error then usually it means the SSD is dead.

The error code indicates a hardware failure at worst, pending failure at best.

And with a SSD there's no sticking the in the fridge/freezer to squeeze the last bit of life out of them to recover/transfer data (and yes I have used that trick - on a dying WD 2TB drive).

 

[Doom Shepherd]

The error code indicates a hardware failure at worst, pending failure at best.

And with a SSD there's no sticking the in the fridge/freezer to squeeze the last bit of life out of them to recover/transfer data (and yes I have used that trick - on a dying WD 2TB drive).

I have the disk back.
According to Dell (or at least what the rep told me over the phone as I tried to understand heavily accented English), the problem with the Disk is that it is not getting power. He suggested the same thing you have, that I get a USB adapter.

I have the adapter, and plugged it in... and nothing. My PC shows a USB G-drive, but nothing there when I click on it it just asks me to insert a disc. It does not spin up, whir, click or do anything but lie there like a brick.

I see a 4-prong plugin area by the USB connection, Is that another power connection?

 

[Marc]

I have the disk back.
According to Dell (or at least what the rep told me over the phone as I tried to understand heavily accented English), the problem with the Disk is that it is not getting power. He suggested the same thing you have, that I get a USB adapter.

I have the adapter, and plugged it in... and nothing. My PC shows a USB G-drive, but nothing there when I click on it it just asks me to insert a disc. It does not spin up, whir, click or do anything but lie there like a brick.

I see a 4-prong plugin area by the USB connection, Is that another power connection?

it's possible (would have to read up on the particular adapter) for a 2.5" HDD or a SDD it the USB connection should be providing enough power to fire the drive up.

Go into Computer Manager (either Control Panel -> Administrative tools or under Win10 hit Windows key + S and start typing the name in). Under Computer managerment there's an option called Disk Management and see how the drive shows up but it's not sound good.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

it's possible (would have to read up on the particular adapter) for a 2.5" HDD or a SDD it the USB connection should be providing enough power to fire the drive up.

Go into Computer Manager (either Control Panel -> Administrative tools or under Win10 hit Windows key + S and start typing the name in). Under Computer managerment there's an option called Disk Management and see how the drive shows up but it's not sound good.

Under the G drive it just says "No Media."

Does this mean it can't be done, or only that _I_ can't do it?

 

[Marc]

Does this mean it can't be done, or only that _I_ can't do it?

I'm leaning towards the former.

As a last roll of the die look into some of the recovery tools mentioned above. Often they'll have a trial version that's either life limited (you can only use if for a few days) but more likely feature limited (such as it will show if the data can be recovered but not allow the recovery).

If they come back and say nada then yeah it's pretty much shot and unrecoverable due to the nature of solid state drives.

Just as matter of interest, what brand of drive is the failed unit?

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I'm leaning towards the former.

As a last roll of the die look into some of the recovery tools mentioned above. Often they'll have a trial version that's either life limited (you can only use if for a few days) but more likely feature limited (such as it will show if the data can be recovered but not allow the recovery).

If they come back and say nada then yeah it's pretty much shot and unrecoverable due to the nature of solid state drives.

Just as matter of interest, what brand of drive is the failed unit?

Seagate.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Anecdotally, the mean time to failure for SSDs is roughly the same as for spinning rust HDs. Backups are essential for preserving your valuable data.

 

[Marc]

Anecdotally, the mean time to failure for SSDs is roughly the same as for spinning rust HDs. Backups are essential for preserving your valuable data.

and like HDD's some drives are better (or worse than others).

when it comes to SSD's you don't want to touch OCZ/Toshiba or AData from what I've read.

 

[Santaman]

SSD's haven't been around long enough to say that they're about as reliable as HDD's also the type of NAND they use gets made on smaller processes which makes them die sooner and also the type of NAND, MLC, TLC etc has an influence on reliability.
Agreed on backups, backup or cry...

 

[Doom Shepherd]

My first computer lasted 7 years. My second, also 7. This one? THREE. That just ticks me off.

The funny thing is, I do backup most of my stuff to an external drive. And those, for some reason, seem to have long lifespans. I’m only on my second (Need to upgrade past 2 TB soon, tho.) I was in the middle of backing stuff up on it when the hard drive died, too. Got halfway through the night before. Just needed to pull a few more files. Small ones. Should have done them first.