Windows 10: Is it possible to recover cleaned hard drive data for free?

The title says it all.

:)

 

recovering data possible dead hard drive

i was wonder if there is a way to recover data from a possibly dead hard drive?

few days ago we had a power surge in town causing an area wide power spike. lost power for only a few seconds but i think it was enough to cause damage. power came back and i tried to boot up my system but to no avail. i have 2-1 tb hard drives in my system drive one is a western digital 1 tb and the other is a hitatchi 1 tb. when i rebuilt the system and tried boot up, the WD hard drive was not recognized and the hitachi was reconized in BIOS, i assumed that it was a bad connection, checked and rechecked all cabling to the mother board. all connections appeared to be well connected,satas were enabled in BIOS. no noise coming from the WD hard drive, not sure if it is even spinning, but i think its dead. have important data on the drive i would like to recover.

so i guess my question is can i recover the data from the drive and possibly hot swap it to the working hitachi drive? are there any free or recommendable programs or devices i can use to even just recover the data from the WD drive available?

 

recovering data possible dead hard drive

Hello, @victorm294!

Well, I'm really sorry to hear about your accident with the WD HDD.
I'd still advise to try that WD drive on another PC just in case, and see if it will get detected there, or if it even spins up. You also mentioned you checked all connections, but did you try connecting the WD drive with a different SATA cable?

If none of these worked, then recovering your data might be a lot more difficult. *Frown
I'd suggest to turn to a professional data recovery, it also won't hurt to try what @RCoon suggested. However I'm not sure it's going to work, if the drive doesn't even spin up.
Data recovery companies are costly indeed, but if your files are that important, I'm not sure you have any other choice.
If the drive doesn't even spin up, we are most probably facing a physical damage from the power surge. This means you won't be able to fix it yourself. HDD physical repairs require a clean environment and technical knowledge of the HDD's structure and components.

My suggestion would be to get in touch with such a company and explain your situation, hopefully the repair will be affordable. Here's a list of all our data recovery partners worldwide: http://goo.gl/kkn4Vs

Just a tip: This is exactly why we recommend keeping backups offsite as well, power surges/system failures can result in such unpleasant situations. :/

I hope this helps you!
And if you need further assistance or more information,
I'd suggest to contact our tech support:
http://goo.gl/BXehMx

Good luck, @victorm294!

P.S. Thank you for notifying me, @RCoon! *Smile

 

Clean a hard drive

I use a progam called Dban for cleaning off all the data.

Edit: If you don't care about the hard drive getting broken (hey I destroy all my old HD's), then do what I do. Real secure data removal requires the following:

Rifle (I have an SKS)
10-15 Rounds FMJ (I use Chinese Steel Core 124gr 7.62x39mm, but bonus points if you use incendiary (black tip) rounds.)
Ability to shoot well.

Set up the hard drive 20 yards away or more. Scrap metal is possible, but usually the aluminum is pretty tame. Mark 10-15 spots on hard drive to shoot, and 1 in the spindle. Then just step back, shoot, and see that you made data removal quick, easy, and most importantly fun! Nothing says "No Warez Here" like 15 bullet holes in your hard disk!