recovering hard drive

I recently had my hard drive fail on one computer. I was annoyed that it failed after owning it for under 2 years, so I bought the components to build my next computer myself. This is the second time I have built a computer, and the new one is working swimmingly. I say this so you understand I am not new to computers, but I am still pretty inexperienced. My question is that I am trying to recover some files from the old hard drive, nothing super important, just save game files. When I pulled it out of the old computer and plugged it into my new computer, the computer did not recognize the hard drive even though it booted up to it's own hard drive. Is there a way to get my computer to recognize it so I can go in and get the data? I read that using a SATA to USB converter can work, but is that only for people who do not know how to plug it right into the motherboard? The failed drive is a Western Digital SATA drive. Thanks.

Hello TimB, Sorry to hear you're having problems. To be honest, your best bet is to go a data recovery specialist. If the header is gone, then there is no way to recover the data in it's current condition. When you say failed, what exactly do you mean? Did it just stop working? Was it making grinding noises? Does it make any noise at all? Cheers, Nahumi

When I say failed, I mean it will not post. It sounds fine, still feels like it is spinning, but it is not booting up. This started happening after I got a virus about 5 months ago. I got the virus cleaned up, but it started to not post when I would boot up the computer. I would restart it and then it would post fine and boot up without a problem, then it would happen twice in a row, then I would have to restart 5-6 times in a row before it would boot, now it won't boot at all.

Okay, I need to try and clear things up a bit and try to verify the facts.

When your saying the HDD won't POST, you probably mean the BIOS fails to POST. In most cases a failed HDD will not stop the initial POST from completing. Although it is true that your HDD may do it's own tests while the initial POST is running, it will simply return an error. This error will usually result in a "No Bootable Devices" type error. If the machine fails to POST it's more likely to be a hardware problem elsewhere.

At any rate, you should still be able to access the BIOS, even with a faulty HDD.

Now moving onto your new build. When you plug in a HDD via SATA, the BIOS decides which HDD gets to boot first based on the user defined Boot Priority List. Unless you changed it, the SATA1 port will have the first boot priority by default. This means that as soon as the new HDD boots, the BIOS skips the rest of the list. Now if you had changed the Boot Priority list to make the old HDD boot first, it is possible that the virus has corrupted the old HDD to the point where it was un-bootable.

(NOTE : Not all devices are bootable. A boot sequence is defined by the MBR, and the boot.ini (for Windows XP) or the BCD (for Vista / 7))
(NOTE 2 : Motherboard Manufacturers like to describe SATA1 and SATA2 is "Primary Boot" connections for your HDD. The only reason they suggest you use that port is because they know that the BIOS already puts those higher in the Boot Priority List. It just makes life easier to plug a HDD in a SATA connection that's higher in the list by default than your DVD Drive.)

So… here this is the bit where we try and figure out what's going on. The only real test to see whether the old HDD is broken is to unplug the new one. When you restart, simply go into the BIOS and try to find the remnants of the old HDD. Even if it says something like "unknown device", that's better than nothing.

If it really does come up with nothing in the BIOS, then we'll have to assume it's long gone.

Now, chances are if the BIOS recognize some sort of device, it's probably not accessible due to the virus you had. It could have infected and damaged some key information on the drive, making it unrecognizable in Windows. Repairing these files and retrieving your save games may infect your new HDD. So in the case that the BIOS does recognise something, I will need to alert someone from the Malware team to help you clear the infection properly.

Unfortunately it's a bit of a catch22 situation ; we can't clean the infection without restoring the HDD and potentially infecting your new build.

Yeah, I was a little worried when my new computer just sat there waiting to go into BIOS for ten minutes. I didn't think it should take that long, so I powered it down. When it POSTs, it shows the second hard drive, but then at the end it says there was an error reading the hard drive and then the partition doesn't show up when it boots up. The failed drive is plugged into port 4. The New HDD and DVD drive are in ports 1 and 2. If the issue is just going into BIOS, I would rather try to do that with the old computer. Any reason I couldn't do that? Would starting it with a Puppy Linux boot disc allow me to see the failed hard drive? Or is it such that if Windows doesn't recognize it, then Linux would not recognize it either?

Did you try going into the BIOS with just the new HDD plugged in? IF the old drive is operational (but missing config data), then it may show up on Puppy Linux. To be honest, it might be the best way to go anyway. If you do have an active virus on the HDD, then it's more likely to infect a Windows system than a Linux system. There should be no reason why you shouldn't try to go into the BIOS on your old computer. It shouldn't make much difference to trying to diagnose whether it's still alive. An addition to this, have you tried a different SATA cable, and a different PSU? Also, have you got a link to a forum topic regarding the virus you had? IT would be great to try and dismiss that as a possible source of the problems.

I have not tried to go into BIOS with just the old hard drive. I had a wireless mouse and keyboard and I think that is why I was not able to when I hit the keys that should allow me to go into BIOS before. I have another keyboard I can plug in. I can try a different SATA cable, have not tried that. I have tried a different PSU with the same SATA cable. I will try that and try booting with Puppy Linux.

Here is the link to the virus that infected my computer. virus help thread I actually caught the same virus right before the HDD's last gasp. That was what directly preceded my hard drive failing. When I shut it off to boot it in safe mode, it never booted back up. I had been leaving it on for a long time because as long as I didn't turn it off, it was fine. It was only when I shut down and tried to reboot that I started getting the error message and it would not boot. At first it would only happen once, then it would boot fine, and then it would happen twice, and boot fine, etc.

Hiya TimB,

If you are not to comfortable with hooking up your old drive to your new system or may be worried about something going wrong in the process.

I need to ask this question. Is the old computer working and if so then you can use a Puppy Linux boot disc to boot up by doing so to see if the drive lets say is not damage or really dead, then Puppy will let you see the drive and you will be able to copy all the files you need by moving them to a usb drive or ext. usb drive.

Here is the link to make a boot disk to try, it may be worth a shot.

http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows-vi…disk-vista.html

Have a good day.

Jimbo1

Nice link Jimbo, that's a massively comprehensive guide.

@TimB. The keyboard problem is quite common. There's a setting in the BIOS that enables (or disables) the ability to use USB Keyboards. It's a bit of a redundant setting these days, but it's still there. You may have to use a PS/2 keyboard to get into the BIOS.

Also give the SATA cable a go, simply to eliminate that as a problem.

Considering the nature of how this hard drive 'failed', I think it may be an idea to keep it within your old system. By the sounds of it, the HDD fails to boot every time this virus pops up. It is possible it's a MBR virus, or a BCD virus or hell…even a BIOS virus. Either way, you do not want to infect your new system with the same virus.

Well, I changed to another SATA cable and made the Puppy Linux disc and Linux booted up, but the HDD was not showing on the bottom, just the disc drive. I think the HDD might really be dead. I had previously tried Pandora and a couple other disc recovery programs with the same result. They did not see the HDD.

Nice link Jimbo, that's a massively comprehensive guide.

Thanks but Lee was the one who showed me the link, I like it better than the one I one I was using. I use another program to copy the files off of the hard drive because I like the lay out and it's easy to use, plus thats the one I got use to using.

Been playing with puppy because our Tech Teacher Doug said it would be best to understand it also. Puppy is a good tool for getting files off of drives but also to be used to test a hard drive to see if it's a bad drive or not. As you pointed out most times a virus will stop you from booting up, in such case puppy can be used to test the drive to see if it a hardware thing or not and if needed to get the files off the drive before formatting it or just to move them to another machine.

Hope you did not mind me adding on to this, and was not sure if TimB was comfortable of hooking that drive up to a new machine, this way by using puppy you can leave it in the old machine. boot up get what you need and then decide what the next course of action should be.

Jimbo1

@ Jimbo1, I never mind you giving advice. Two heads is better than one.

@TimB , Have you tried using GParted on the Puppy Linux Live CD? The drive will only come up if it's properly formated and partitioned. Using GParted will show you all drives, including unformatted and unpartitioned ones.

Alternately you can use the following command in the terminal to get the raw data :

sudo fdisk -l

No, I haven't. Is GParted one of the icons on the desktop of Puppy? I will look at it tonight. Thanks for the tip.

SATA to USB is the best bet, eliminating any outside interference. OK, that's my real answer.

Now, I'm going to do something I have never done before and hope I will never have to do again. That is foul language. I have tried on countless occasions to UNSUBSCRIBE from all parts of "What the Tech", but they have given me ambiguous

Removed foul language
Now I will remove you from WTT so you won't be botherd.
LDT

@woodneye,

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