Recovery hard drives means bringing the disks into a state that allows you to read from them necessary information. We do not deal with repairs in cases where data recovery is not required.
Recovery of hard drives in the presence of unreadable sectors
As a rule, if the disk is not periodically checked for bad blocks, their appearance manifests itself in reading errors, the disappearance of folder files. May appear as unformatted or disappear logical drives, stops loading operating system.
Recovery of hard drives in the presence of unreadable sectors is carried out using a software and hardware complex. This complex allows you to work with disks in technological modes, carry out multiple reading sectors and reading with ignoring the control-cyclic code. With the help of these operations, in many cases, it is possible to read information from a significant part of the bad sectors.
In the case when unreadable sectors are located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe partition table or service information file system, you must first make a copy on a working medium. Then data recovery proceeds in the same way as in the case of a healthy hard drive.
Recovery of hard drives in case of violations in the ROM or SA
The drive is not detected in the BIOS or is detected incorrectly. Can make uncharacteristic sounds, "knock". There are cases when the carrier is determined correctly, but when further loading BIOS gives an error.
Recovery hard drive, in this case it consists in restoring data from the service area of the HDD or ROM. These works are carried out at the stand, in the technological modes of operation of the drives. After that, data recovery proceeds in the usual mode.
Recovery of hard drives with a faulty controller
In this case, in most cases, the disk knocks, or is not detected in the BIOS.
Hard drive recovery work mainly consists of replacing or repairing the controller. Sometimes a flashing of the disk firmware is also required. After repair, data recovery occurs as from a working drive.
Recovery of hard drives in case of malfunctions in the containment area
This type of malfunction most often causes a knock or rattle in the HDA. An exception is the “sticking of heads” and the “wedge” of the engine, in which case the disk does not spin up. The drive is not detected or may be detected by the BIOS.
In the event of failure of one or more magnetic heads, or a switch (it is also located in the HDA), to restore the hard drive, you need to open the HDA and replace the magnetic head unit together with the switch.
In case of “sticking”, the containment area is opened and the “heads” are removed to the parking area. The jamming of the engine is eliminated by repairing it or changing the "pancakes" to a working drive.
After that, data recovery is performed on the complex
Naturally, accidental and intentional deletion of files destroys information previously recorded on the information that can be restored using special utilities. But you can also find cases of quick or complete formatting of hard drives, when data is believed to be permanently deleted, not to mention damage to the hard drives themselves. What to do in this case? Here programs come to the rescue for recovery of hard disks. You can download mostly simple utilities for free. However, even they help, as they say, bring the disc to life. Consider the most popular, including both free and paid utilities.
How is the process of deleting files from a hard drive?
Before considering the main topic, let's make a small digression into the theoretical part and see how information is deleted. In Windows systems, there are two ways: deleting to the Recycle Bin and without it. In the first case, the files are simply moved to the area reserved on the hard drive, so restoring them from the Recycle Bin is as easy as shelling pears.
In the second case, it occurs when the first character in the name is changed to unreadable ($). If during the work in the clusters where such a file is located, the overwriting was not performed, it is also possible to restore the information.
The situation is worse with fast or full formatting disks and partitions, as well as situations when the hard drive begins to “crumble” or simply undergoes physical damage. Many users mistakenly believe that it is impossible to recover files in this case, they say, only professional experts can do it. Nothing like this! If you use, for example, the same programs to restore hard Seagate drives Barracuda, with which many problems were observed at one time, any, even an unprepared user, can carry out such a process. And it is absolutely elementary.
Programs for recovering hard drives after formatting: can it be done?
When quick format of the hard drive, the partition tables are overwritten, and when it is full, it also checks the disk surface with the subsequent correction of bad sectors. At the same time, we are not talking about factory low-level formatting at all.
This is what allows many developers to create programs for recovering hard drives, which, as it were, perform the reverse process. This gives the same recovery effect. But first things first.
The best hard drive recovery programs
As for the most famous utilities today, an approximate list might look like this:
- Victoria HDD;
- R.Saver and R-Studio;
- HDD Regenerator;
- Acronis Recovery Expert and Active Partition Recovery Pro;
- Hetman Partition recovery;
- Zero Assumption Recovery.
Naturally, it is impossible to give a complete list, since today such software products hundreds can be found. But let's dwell on the above utilities in a little more detail.
Victoria HDD
If we consider the most popular programs for recovering hard drives and disk partitions, of course, the leadership belongs to one of the most powerful utilities modernity under name Victoria HDD, the developer of which is Sergey Kazansky.
The program has five levels of hard drive testing, is able to identify and display failed areas, fix errors, plot surface conditions, measure performance, etc. The operating modes also look interesting. The application can be run in a regular graphical shell, or you can use a somewhat unusual DOS mode. By the way, it is with such a check that the most powerful effect is achieved.
R.Saver and R-Studio
These two programs for recovering hard drives from a flash drive work just fine and are very similar to each other. They can even be used as portable versions.
The main advantage of these utilities is that they support almost all file systems known today and are able to recover data on any type of media, including even formatted or damaged cards memory.
HDD Regenerator
This utility among all programs is relatively new. It is designed specifically to restore bad sectors and, as the developers themselves say, even to resuscitate the surface of the hard drive.
Applied here latest technology the so-called magnetization reversal, which allows you to completely restore the hard drive and the information that was previously recorded on it. It works, however, only in DOS mode, which causes some bewilderment for many. In addition, the technology itself looks almost unrealistic, because some do not imagine how it is possible to remagnetize the surface programmatically. Nevertheless, everyone who has come across it expresses only admiration - the application is able to revive even completely “dead” disks.
Acronis Recovery Expert and Active Partition Recovery Pro
Before us are two representatives of the family of utilities for HDD recovery. The peculiarity of these applications is that they support a large number of file systems and hard drives.
In addition, they provide a mode for creating bootable media, with which you can fix many problems if it is impossible to start the operating system from a problematic hard drive.
True, the first utility is paid, the second is not. But the second application is also interesting because it can be run from both DOS and Windows.
Hetman Partition Recovery
Another USB device or memory card and the information stored on them is interesting because it can work with all types of virtual partitions. It goes without saying that data can be recovered even after a full format.
But the most important thing is that the program can work in manual mode, and in the "Wizards" mode, which allows any user to apply automation of the entire recovery process.
Zero Assumption Recovery
Finally, another small and fairly simple application, abbreviated as ZAR. This program is intended mainly for recovering file FAT systems and NTFS, although it can also be used for Linux. For users of Windows systems, it is the best fit.
But it is worth considering here that this case we are talking exclusively about the recovery of information (even from bad sectors). At the same time, the program does not make any corrections on the hard disk itself after the analysis.
Conclusion
Of course, only the most basic programs were considered here. When choosing a program, one should be guided by the situation itself, that is, choose which operation should be applied (information recovery or troubleshooting on the hard drive itself), and only then make a decision about using this or that utility.
Hard repair disk (or HDD disk drive ) - a procedure for bringing the HDD to a working state, in which it is possible to read the necessary data from it, including service information, file table, user data, multimedia information, etc., even if the BIOS does not see HDD. In this article, you will learn how to fix the hard drive, if possible, and what to do if hdd is not detected in the BIOS or an error occurs when trying to load the operating system.
What to do if the hard drive is clicking suspiciously
Clicks during HDD operation are another characteristic symptom when the hard drive does not start and, accordingly, is not detected by the system. The cause is usually wear or breakage. hard heads disk. Like any other mechanical failure HDD, you can't fix it with your own hands.
However, if you hear clicks on a working hard drive (that is, it reads and writes files normally), then you need to urgently take certain measures and play it safe. Be sure to complete backup valuable information to another hard drive, flash drive or cloud hosting, since in our time this is not at all an expensive procedure. After all, at one moment it may happen that the hard drive will not start or will no longer be detected - and if you have made a backup, then the loss of information will not cause a shock.
Repair of a hard drive with a bad ROM and corrupted service information (BIOS does not detect the drive)
What to do if the BIOS does not see the hard drive? HDD where the similar errors, has characteristic symptoms: it can also produce strange noises (clicks, taps). In some cases, the hard drive is available in the BIOS, but is not able to boot the operating system.
Accordingly, to restore the ROM and service data on the HDD, you will need correct work the above hard disk components. This type repairs are carried out by specialists special equipment. It is impossible to make it with your own hands. At the same time, the physical structure of the hard disk surface is read correctly, so the data remains physically intact.
Are the ways to recover an external hard drive different from an internal one?
Answer. Definitely not. The stuffing of the devices is identical, the difference is only in the form factor of information storage - that is, roughly speaking, in the box in which the stuffing of the disk is packed. An external drive is more easily exposed to physical damage and other risk factors. But they are more mobile and offer the user convenient connection via eSata or another interface to connect to a PC. In this way, this manual How to restore a hard drive will be useful for both owners of "traditional" drives and external ones.
The hard drive was in the laptop, the system in which stopped loading. What am I going to format it for - but! It wasn’t there, as an “External” disk (I stuffed it into the case from an external “Transend” 500 GB) it is only visible as local disk"G" and "F" without any information. All attempts to call properties lead to Windows 8.1 freezing on a laptop - it is not visible in Disk Management, HDD Low Level Format too. Tell me, if the hard drive does not work, then how can I bring it back to life with my own hands?
Answer. Try partitioning the hard drive again (Partiton Magic to the rescue), it is advisable to perform a low-level HDD formatting, see related information . By the way, in addition to HDD low level Format, there are many alternative formatting utilities. It will not be superfluous to check working condition disk, to do this, check the SMART indicators and scan the disk using HDD Regenerator or Victoria HDD.
What to do if the hard drive clicks? That is, it works, but sometimes it makes characteristic sounds - that is, clicks. At some points, a freeze occurs, and the operating system freezes, and then dies along with the disk.
Answer. In rare cases, the problem is associated with a violation of the power contacts and sata / ide connectors connected to motherboard. Therefore, first of all, we advise you to turn off the PC and check the connection with hard drive. Second, do it backup data on the disk, as clicking is an unhealthy symptom that indicates that the HDD has problems, and a crash can be expected at any time. Third - to diagnose the state of the disk, use specialized programs– HDD Regenerator, Victoria HDD Doctor, etc.
If the hard drive clicks and is not detected, the situation is more deplorable (write wasted). In this case, the mechanics are already worn out, and you will not be able to restore the HDD, only hard replacement disk to a new one.
How to increase hard speed disk? I have OS Windows Vista.
Answer. Users of Windows Vista and above are indignant about slow work disk subsystem. In practice, copying files is noticeably slower than in XP. Why does a hard drive slow down? One of the reasons lies on the surface and is easily eliminated. The fact is that by default in Windows the maximum performance of the hard drive is disabled. Therefore, we urgently take measures:
- Open Device Manager (Win + Pause Break, Device Manager link).
- In the list of devices find disk device and in context menu select "Properties".
- Select the "Policy" tab and activate the "Enable enhanced performance" option.
- For acceleration hard disk, restart your computer.
I reinstalled the system and I have it on the PCE SSD suddenly stopped detecting another 4TB hard drive? Then I went into computer management, further into disk management, it shows a capacity of 3.7 TB and 3.7 TB free, that is, it turns out the disk is 100 percent empty and there is 2TV of information! Please tell me what can be done?
Answer. Perhaps the problem is related to the failure of the file system table, in such a situation, you can advise the TestDisk utility to restore a partition that is not detected by the system, but contains important information.
I have an HP 620 laptop. Everything was fine, but I started to close the windows and the computer froze. I thought it would go away, 15 minutes passed - nothing, there was no reaction to anything. Even software shutdown could not reset.
Turned it off physically with the button, turned it on again and got the message: non-system disk or disk error replace and strike any key when ready. After that, the system does not see the hard drive. But when the laptop is turned on, it spins, that is, everything is ok with power.
About 2 years ago I updated the bios from the official site. Maybe that's why the hard drive won't open? But worked hard before, all the time well. What could be? Please help, I have such a hard drive - Toshiba HDD2E67 320GB.
Answer. If the problem was related to the BIOS, the OS would not boot. Or at least a factory reset could solve something.
Try to start looking for the cause on the surface: the hard drive is not working because it has failed. This could happen for a variety of reasons (for example, physical damage or wear - which is less likely). If it is possible to test a similar hard drive on the same laptop, do so.
In this category, it is difficult to give an unambiguous conclusion, since it cannot be said what will help restore a hard drive without conducting detailed diagnostics. Ordinary users we do not recommend trying to revive the device in order to avoid negative consequences. Before starting such work, computer HDD you need to study, understand its algorithms, learn to navigate in command line etc. Simply put, it's best to leave the matter to the professionals. Moreover, from formatted disks and other media after full overwrite data cannot be saved.
We recommend periodically, if you suspect a hard drive malfunction (files disappear or take a long time to open, Winsows XP-10 executes chkdsk before each system boot, etc.) to check its surface and SMART using HDDScan. The utility can be downloaded for free, you only need to understand English minimally. It holds a readout of all important hard information.
For data recovery use Hetman Partition Recovery- it will pull out the maximum information, even if the volume is no longer displayed correctly in the explorer. A step-by-step wizard will help you complete the procedure quickly and easily. Zero Assumption Recovery or Acronis Recovery Expert from the Acronis suite will help you troubleshoot the partition structure Disk Director. We also recommend effective remedy Seagate File Recovery, but pay attention to its peculiarity - compatibility only with Seagate hard disk.
Let's talk a little about each worthy, in our opinion, utility.
HDD Capacity Restore Tool saves when the volume of the disk suddenly "decreased" from hundreds of GB to several MB. The application is moderately simple, effective, able to return the capacity of the hard drive after a failure or if the laptop manufacturer initially “cut off” part of it for the needs of the subsystem.
low level format tool - a good thing for flash drives and disks on which information is not needed. Recovering data after it will not work. The main function of this program is the so-called. " low-level formatting» - overwriting both normal and bad areas with zeros. This helps to permanently erase files and improve the speed of the hard drive by avoiding fragmentation for new data.
Program HDD Regenerator mercilessly criticized by experts, but for the "semi-pros" it is useful, because it turns the resuscitation of damaged partitions into an easy task. You boot from a disk/flash drive, select a drive, ask the tool to scan and repair it, and drink your tea in peace. Boot sectors and "logical bads" she will "cure". This removal of damage 100% does not hurt, the utility itself is easy to use, but it is expensive.
The cohort of professional solutions is made up of a trinity , . The last two are very popular. Initially, they were created under DOS, but alternative developers were able to port applications to Win, depriving only some of the "branded goodies".
The features of the +- products are the same: "low-level formatting" and remapping of bad sectors (Advanced Remap). In simpler terms, setting a mark about the impossibility of writing to a bad block. Against a large number"bads" this will not help, but if there are several dozen of them, you will extend the life of the drive.
The algorithms of the utilities are similar. It is better to keep on your computer due to the ease of disk selection, its interface is simpler than that of . But the trouble is that both projects stopped - support for hard drives latest models can only be found in . High speed the work of programs also distinguishes them favorably from HDD Regenerator.
Summarizing the above, we note once again that it is better for beginners not to "play hard". If problems are found, just restore individual files(images, audio, video, etc.) using the program Hetman Partition Recovery and carry the "screw" to the workshop. If "making friends" with the solution from Hetman does not work, free, but less effective 7- data recovery suite, mini tool power data recovery will come to the rescue.
Advanced users will appreciate LLF Tool, Capacity Restore Tool, HDD Regenerator or its cheaper counterpart DRevitalize, Windows version the popular DOS utility Victoria.
The choice of the pros is unambiguous - these are boot , or - a project that continues to develop, unlike eminent "colleagues". Updates on the official website appear regularly, developers enthusiastically continue to improve the tool and add support for new drive models.
I'll show you how to repair a disk using HDD Regenerator 2011. I checked my hard disk using Crystal Disk Info. Faced here with such problem.
As you can see, reassigned sectors appeared on my disk, sectors are unstable, fatal errors sectors.
I will show you how to restore a disk using HDD Regenerator 2011.
Downloading HDD program Regenerator 2011 (it's free). Reading from the S.M.A.R.T. information the program also shows that my drive is dying. And it is recommended to make a copy of all files on the disk ( backup data immediately).
Check the status of your hard drive as I showed in the video.
1. Create a bootable flash drive to repair bad sectors.
To use the recovery program damaged disk let's do bootable flash drive to safely boot from it and do a disk check and bad sector repair. To do this, you need a flash drive larger than 1 GB.
If you try to restore bad sectors of the disk directly from under Windows (XP / Vista / 7 / 8), you will get the error Unable to obtain exclusive access to Hard Drive 1, because disk is in use. Could not access hard drive C because it is in use.
We return to the main menu of the program and press Bootable USB Flash to make a bootable flash drive to repair bad sectors.
If it gave an error Error has occured! Bootable regenerating flash not created! An error has occurred! The bootable recovery flash drive was not created.
Then first we format the USB flash drive and erase all data from it. Click Flash Size Reset.
All data on the flash drive will be destroyed and the flash drive will be reformatted. We press OK.
Choose USB Flash disk and click OK.
Ready. Now we have a bootable flash drive to repair bad sectors on the disk. Does the program ask you to restart your computer now? Click Yes. By the way, very good decision problems are SSD drive you can in the article.
2. Set the bootable flash drive in the BIOS to the first place in terms of boot importance.
Now we go into the BIOS by pressing F2 or del or F10 or the key that is indicated at the very beginning when you turn on your computer at the bottom left
On my Samsung laptop you must press F2 to enter the BIOS.
All devices from which the download can be made are listed here. In my case, the priority is as follows:
1. USB HDD: WD My Passport 0743
2. IDE HDD: ST500LM000-1EJ162
3. IDE CD: TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633A
8. USB HDD: SanDisk Cruzer Blade
that is, first it reads and searches for boot information from an external hard drive, then if it is not found, the search goes to the internal hard drive, then if it is not found to the DVD drive, then to the flash drive. And you need to put it so that initially there was a search for boot information from a USB flash drive.
Select the flash drive and press F6 to raise it higher to the first place.
Ready. Now the boot information will be first searched on the flash drive.
We reboot the computer.
3. Recovery of bad sectors using HDD Regenerator 2011
So now we booted from the flash drive. The disks connected to the computer are displayed here. I have
This 1 disc is simply divided into 2 parts. We choose the one that is larger, i.e. number 2 (type on the keyboard) and press Enter.
First, let's do a preliminary scan and find out how many bad sectors there are on the disk. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
1. Start Sector 0. Start from sector 0.
2. Resume Last Process. Resume the previous process.
3. Set Start/End Sectors Manually. Set start\end sector manually.
Let's start scanning from the zero (initial) sector of the disk. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
The pre-scan and search for damaged and bad sectors has begun.
After some time, the pre-scan found that I had bad and bad sectors on the disk.
After 1 hour and 48 minutes, the prescan returned a result and showed that I had more than 46 bad sectors on the disk. They are designated by the letter B - bad. Delays on the disk were also found (124), they are denoted by the letter D - delay.
1. List sectors scanned. List of scanned sectors.
2. List this session sectors. List of sectors of this session.
3. List all sectors. List of all sectors.
4. Clear Drive Map statistics. Clear disk statistics.
Let's look at the list of scanned sectors. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
Here is the list. After looking at it, press any key to exit the list.
1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Prescan (show bad sectors)
2. Normal Scan (with / without repair). Normal scan (with / without recovery)
3.Version info. Version information.
4. Show statistics. Show statistics.
Now let's start scanning and repairing bad sectors. Type the number 2 on the keyboard and press Enter.
1. Scan and repair. Scan and fix.
2. Scan, but do not repair (show bad sectors). Scan but don't fix (show bad sectors).
3. Regerate all sectors in a range (even if not bad). Repair all bad sectors in range (even if not bad).
Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
1. Scan Sectors 0. Start from sector 0.
2. Resume Last Process. Resume the last process.
3. Set Start/End Sectors Manually. Set start/end sector manually.
Let's start scanning and repairing bad sectors of the disk from sector zero. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
Scanning and recovery of sectors has begun. This can take a very long time (up to several days) depending on the size of the disk and the number of bad sectors. But you can finish the recovery and scan, and continue it later, even after a few days or even weeks. The flash drive will save your progress in recovery and the place where you stop.
After about 2 hours, progress was 45% complete and 140 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired.
After about 8 hours, the progress became 55% and 827 bad sectors on the disk were detected and restored.
After about 20 hours, progress was 56% and 5,753 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired. And the inscription Interface HANG-UP appeared on the top right! Set-up BIOS to compatible IDE mode! The interface is down! Set BIOS to IDE compatible mode. But there is no IDE mode in my BIOS. I have a laptop and only SATA mode. This is a program error, because she thinks the hard drive is in the wrong mode, but it really is. The damaged sectors on my hard disk is so much that the entire recovery process almost hangs and moves ooooooooooochen a medleyeeeeeeeoeee.
I aborted the process by pressing ESC. And I loaded Windows and worked in it, the behavior of the disk became noticeably better and it began to freeze less. Then the next day I booted again from the flash drive and continued to restore the disk.
Returning to the main menu of the program.
1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Prescan (show bad sectors)
2. Normal Scan (with / without repair). Normal scan (with / without recovery)
3.Version info. Version information.
4. Show statistics. Show statistics.
Let's continue scanning and repairing bad sectors. Type the number 2 on the keyboard and press Enter.
1. Continue process. Continue process.
2. Show statistics. Show statistics.
3. Change start/end sectors. Change start/end sector.
4. Change mode. Change mode.
5. Exit program. Exit the program.
Let's continue the process of repairing bad sectors. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
The process continues from the same place where it was interrupted.
A day later, the process became 60% and 8,342 bad sectors on the disk were detected and restored.
After some more time, the process generally hung, stopping and restoring 10,001 sectors. There was an inscription Drive is not ready! Disk not ready!
But again, this is a problem specifically for my disk, which is already dying and there are places on the disk, going into which the disk simply becomes 100% loaded and hangs tightly and saves from this only by turning the computer off and on again.
As a result, the statistics showed that it recovered a lot of bad sectors, but when it reached those sectors in which the disk was hanging tightly, it could not restore them.
Later when trying to continue scanning and repairing bad sectors on the disk. The program gave an inscription that the Disk is not ready, restart the computer and try to continue the process again.
This is a problem specifically in my case, in which, when moving to a certain sector of the disk, the disk completely hung. Then I did not try to restore it (it took a very long time and I think my disk can no longer be restored, only if you cut it in size by separating the defective (dead part) from the whole one, but then the hard disk will decrease in size) I just copied the data that could have bought new hard disk. There are hard drives for laptops from 1500 rubles. In principle, it is not expensive and you can afford it.
4. Results
Before buying new disk I advise you to try to restore it. And if it doesn't work out for some reason, then buy a new one. Also, never forget to have second hard disk on which periodically copy all the information from the main disk.
To be sure, you can also check the hard drive for errors and repair bad sectors.
