Windows 10: Software to repair damaged spinning hard drive

I had an old XP machine that I ran my email server on. A few days ago it started to give me BSODs and after a few reboots refused to boot any longer.

I purchased a new desktop that came with Windows 10 Pro. I then removed the hard drive from the old XP machine and attached it to that Windows 10 computer and tried to read data off of it. Unfortunately Windows Explorer was very slow to read the "Users" folder on the old HDD and eventually started to give me CRC redundancy errors.

Luckily I had a somewhat recent backup of most of the data, but still I will lose about a week of data if I don't read it from the HDD that crashed.

So I'm curious if there's any software that can recover data from that hard drive? Anything in Windows 10 itself?

PS. I tried to use SpinRite but that software is very old & slow and it doesn't seem to work with newer hard drives larger than 500GB. (Mine is 750 GB.) I tried it on two desktops and it crashed twice on me with this error. Worse still their support blame my BIOS for which I tried every possible setting with no luck.

:)

 

UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10 DESTROYED MY HARD DRIVE. It will cost me more than $350 to replace & repair computer

Repairing hard drives? How? If it's damaged as opposed to needing a reformat, you can't repair it. If it's not damaged, it doesn't need repairing just formatting and reinstalling.

 

I have a problem with my hard drive on Windows 10.

I had Windows 7 Home Premium but I cannot go back to it as the hard drive it is on is failing and Win 7 is damaged beyond repair by a system repair disc.

 

You need to use a Sector by Sector program like EaseUS Todo Workstation. When you want to copy information from a hard drive that is failing, you never want to try and use it any more than you can. Otherwise you are going to end up with not being able to rescue anything after the heads have thrashed the coating on the platters so much that they are wrecked.

You are best to always keep a copy of files like media, documents, etc on a NAS or cloud drive, so that you always have them in a safe place.

 

Try a technician and ask them to fix the drive for you. It sounds a hardware problem not a system problem.

Drives are not reliable (damaged, virus, dead, etc). Should back up data multiple times. Technology cannot work for such a long time. It isn't like books where they last for a very long time unless they are wet or something.

 

People should confirm that there is a Hardware failure, before they assume is Bad and go to Rescue.
There 2 ways doing that, one: Disk Manager and checking the "Status" of the HDD. If it not marked as "Healthy", probably is Bad.
Option 2: Run test (no destructive) from HDD Manufacture. It will says if it is Bad or not.
If it is "Healthy", then probably there is a problem with File System and this must be correct before any rescue Software comes into play because the Software probably will also produce garbage.
If the HDD is older than 5 Years, a Hardware failure is a strong possibility.

 

Drives cannot be fixed. When data rescue is done by a company, it is usually going to cost $2 grand or more. Using Sector by Sector like EaseUS Todo workstation, works just fine as long as the drive is not to the point that the motor is seized up and cannot spin at the proper speed.

 

You do realize that they are probably beyond that point. Even if it was just a simple rescue, doing a Sector by Sector transfer has always been the best way since floppy disks and platter drives were created.

 

Thank you everyone!

I was able to run the Disk Manager on this HDD and it said that it looks "healthy":





I then tried to run it through Windows check disk with the following command:

Code: chkdsk g: /f /r /x[/quote] but the disk was very VERY slow to read and almost immediately started to give me these errors:





Here's the HDD itself:





So I downloaded the WD diagnostic tool, but to be honest, their UI sucks, or I'm not sure what this means. I can't find the correct drive. It shows drive G: in the bottom list but there's no association with the physical drive in the list above. Right-clicking or just clicking it doesn't yield anything either:





The HDD is attached via a universal drive adapter device thru the USB port to the current Windows 10 desktop. I can see files on it via the Windows Explorer but the drive is very slow. (Note that if I hook a good/working drive, it works really fast. So this is not the drive adapter's fault.)

Also if I just go via Windows Explorer and try to open the folder I need to copy, it first gives me access denied error and I have to go in and take ownership of that folder via security tab. For some folders, it gives me cyclic redundancy error, or something of that sort, so copying fails.


I understand that the "real" way is to pay someone to open up the hardware and try to recover it that way. But at this point I'm not ready to pay several grand for that. So I'm asking for an "easier" or software-based way to try to recover the data first.

So what else can I try with it, guys?

 

The only way that you can tell if the drive is failing is with a S.M.A.R.T. test by using a Linux Mint Live DVD. As I stated before, the more you access that drive if it is truly failing, you are one more power up closer to it freezing and crashing the heads to further destroy the platters.

 

Hi there

I suspect in any case whatever other problem your HDD doesn't has the power it needs is via your external connector.

I usually use proper powered HDD external bay (2 or 4 bay) HDD connectors if I'm attaching those types of HDD's to computers.
Your HDD is probably too defective to repair - although as a final try you could open up the machine and temporarily connect it to the mobo and see if you get any better luck.

I always tell people on these boards AD NAUSEAM to take regular backups - I would have thought that if you were using that machine as an email server backups would have been taken NIGHTLY as a matter of course. !!!

Anyway this is what I use for external HDD's -- really good - has (switchable) RAID, JBOD (Just a bunch of Disks mode), or standard individual HDD mode. I usually use 2X 3TB HDD's in RAID 0 mode (speed) for fast backup of my multi media NAS server.

Amazon.com: Hornettek HT-3210U3 X2 USB 3.0 3.5-Inch Dual Bay External Enclosure with Built-in Cooling Fan: Computers Accessories

Brilliant piece of kit -- well worth the price if you use a few external HDD's -- I bought 2 of these both with 2 X 3TB HDD's. More convenienient to use than the 4 bay model - especially moving between different computers and they aren't too heavy or noisy either even with both 3TB HDD's working. Built in switchable cooling fan too.

Cheers
jimbo

 

That "Healthy" Status is what is stored in "S.M.A.R.T." of your HDD. Widows and other Software are just reading it from HDD.
Your Drive is 8 Years old, so it looks like the time to change it for a new one has arrived.
For many years, there was a Software around , so far I recall, was something like "Regenerate HDD".
You could give a try to it, it will re-magnetize Sectors, so HDD will be more readable when you want to get your data back .

EDIT: For to use that Regenerate HDD you must have a floppy. It could be that in the mean time the Autor also provides a CD-ROM base solution.
And it takes a very long time to re-magnetize, may be 24h or more.

 

You need to show the full S.M.A.R.T. output of just that drive, not just what the program shows that they passed basic tests. All that does when you ran that first step was if it is able to read the MBR and Partition table. It does not get into the Meat and Potatoes to show the Hex values of what is really going on.

 

This: Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring would show you particulars about SMART and do full disk tests.