Imagine: you are working at a computer and here you need documents from an external hard drive. You plug it in, and ... nothing happens. Your HDD is not working. Don't panic, there are several ways to extract data from it that you can try before contacting the professionals.
Failure can occur for a number of reasons, but most often for the following two. The first (and most easily fixable) problem is in the software. You may have accidentally deleted the folders you want or formatted the disk. The second - and most common - damage to the disc. As a rule, in the event of a damaged disc, there is little you can do on your own; you will need professional help. However, here a few tricks that can save your files.
Data recovery software
The first thing to remember when recovering data is the damaged disk should be disconnected... With every second of his work with the computer, the chances of his recovery are diminishing. The operating system of the computer constantly reads and writes information to the disk, regardless of whether you are working with it or not. It will define the space freed from lost files as "unallocated" and write new data, erasing the last chances of recovery.
Turn off the computer to which the disc with the lost data is connected. Now that the HDD is relatively safe, you can make a copy of it and try to recover data from it.
There are many different programs for cloning a disk, Clonezilla and Redo Backup Recovery are suitable for Linux.
Scan the clone with several recovery programs: TestDisk (Windows / Mac / Linux), Recuva (Windows), PhotoRec (Windows / Mac / Linux), Restoration (Windows), Undelete Plus (Windows).
The main components of the hard drive are: cover and circuit board removed.
Disassembling a hard drive
Congratulations if you were able to recover your lost data programmatically. But what if the disk is not detected, or the computer detects it, but freezes when accessing? Or does it just not start, you cannot hear the characteristic rotation sounds?
Let's take a quick look at the main components of a HDD and the symptoms of a breakdown.
Printed circuit board: The green board at the bottom of the device contains the main controller (analogous to the processor in your computer) and many other electronic controllers. It is an interface that turns binary code into commands available to the computer.
Magnetic disks ("pancakes"): HDD contains from one to several thin magnetic disks. Data is stored directly on them. Made of glass or alloy, they are magnetically coated and rotate at speeds from 5900 to 7200 rpm.
Head block: Data from magnetic disks are read by a set of magnetic heads. During operation, they do not contact the disk surface, but "hover" nanometers away from it, reading and writing information. Typically, each HDD has two voices, one on each side. If the heads break after dropping or hitting the device, they stop "hovering" over the disc, but come into contact with its surface, destroying data at a speed of several thousand revolutions per minute.
Firmware: Data processing is controlled by the device firmware. A firmware failure can result in the inaccessibility of data on the disk. Unfortunately, the firmware of the HDD is not the same as that used in a mobile phone or tablet - it cannot be updated or flashed.
Now, having familiarized ourselves with the main components of the HDD, let's look at the breakdowns and their symptoms. Having determined where the problem arose, you can estimate the likelihood of fixing it on your own.
Disk won't start
The case when there is a good chance to resurrect a hard drive if you are willing to put in the time and effort. If the disk does not respond at all when connected to a computer, in 99% of cases the reason is in the printed circuit board.
For old HDDs, sometimes it was possible to find a suitable board from a similar device and replace the defective one. Modern hard drives use a new architecture and technology, each HDD contains a unique microcode. In this case, a simple replacement of the board will not only not solve the problem, but can also lead to a complete loss of data.
There are two reasons for this failure: due to a voltage drop, the TVS diode burned out or one of the main components of the board failed. To protect against voltage surges, the hard disk board is usually equipped with two TVS diodes: 5 and 12 volts. If the problem is only a burned out diode, replacing it will bring the device back to life. It is easy to check with a multimeter - if the resistance is near zero ohms, the diode is burned out. Remember that after removing the TVS diode, the hard drive remains unprotected from voltage surges!
PCB: marked TVS diodes
If the multimeter shows the correct resistance, the problem is in the printed circuit board and needs to be replaced. A ROM block with a unique microcode is soldered on the board; to restore the device, it must be unsoldered and transferred to a new board. Some hard drives, such as Western Digitals, lack a ROM block, and the firmware is contained in the main controller, which is almost impossible to replace. Also, check the connectors for the heads on the board. Sometimes they corrode over time, which can be easily removed with an eraser. 
Corrosion of the contacts can cause the drive to fail.
The disc starts up and clicks are heard
This serious damage to one or more of the magnetic heads can also mean damage to the magnetic disk. In this case, it is worth contacting specialists. The HDD will be opened in a clean room (without dust), the head will be replaced and the data will be restored. The clicking disc should be turned off; turning it back on may permanently damage it.
Hard drive after damage to the magnetic heads that scratched the drive.
The hard drive starts up and is detected by the computer, but freezes when trying to access.
This usually means damage to the surface of the magnetic disk. The disk tries to read bad sectors, of which there are too many, and freezes. If SMART monitoring shows a large number of reassigned sectors, the diagnosis will be confirmed. This is a common problem that can be solved with professional disk imaging equipment.
If you want to fix this problem yourself (at the risk of worsening the situation or losing all the information at once), you can use software tools to take a disk image. The Linux application dd_rescue is best suited for this purpose. However, the effectiveness of such programs is limited, since the commands still go through the BIOS.
When turned on, the hard drive beeps
Beeping sounds mean that the motor is trying to set the disc in motion and cannot. This could be a "sticking" of the magnetic head. If the heads are not properly parked and remain above the surface of the disc after it stops, they can "stick" to the surface of the disc. To eliminate this breakdown, it is required to open the disc in a clean room, remove and replace the heads. Definitely a job for professionals.
Parked heads after stopping the disc. When they stick, they get stuck on the surface of the magnetic disk.
Another cause of beeping sounds when turning on the drive may be a spindle lock. This is the axis of rotation of the magnetic disks. The spindle may jam due to falling or impact HDD ... There are two solutions to this problem, both requiring professional intervention: replacing the spindle or swapping the magnetic disks into a new donor hard disk..
The hard disk starts up normally, but it is not detected or the disk size is incorrect
This usually indicates a problem with the firmware. It is not read correctly, possibly by a faulty head, or is incorrectly written for the same reason. In this case, modern HDDs require professional intervention.
To summarize, in several cases you can try to reanimate your hard drive yourself. However, remember that any such attempts are very risky and if the lost data is very important, it is worth seeking professional help.
I'll show you how to recover a disk using HDD Regenerator 2011. Using Crystal Disk Info, I checked my hard disk. Faced with such a problem.
As you can see, reassigned sectors have appeared on my disk, sectors are unstable, unrecoverable sector errors.
I will show you how to recover a disk using HDD Regenerator 2011.
Download HDD Regenerator 2011 (it's free). Reading S.M.A.R.T. the program information also shows that my disk is dying. And it is recommended to make a copy of all files on disk (Backup data immediately).
Check the condition of your hard drive, as I showed in the video.
1. Create a bootable USB flash drive to recover bad sectors.
To use the program for recovering a damaged disk, we will make a bootable USB flash drive to safely boot from it and do a disk check and restore bad sectors. To do this, you need a flash drive larger than 1 GB.
If you try to restore defective disk sectors 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 click Bootable USB Flash to make a bootable USB flash drive to recover bad sectors.
If you get an error Error has occured! Bootable regenerating flash not created! An error has occurred! No bootable recovery flash drive was created.
Then, first, we format the USB flash drive and erase all data from it. Push Reset Flash Size.
All data on the flash drive will be destroyed and the flash drive will be reformatted. Click OK.
Select USB Flash drive and click OK.
Ready. We now have a bootable flash drive for recovering bad sectors on the disk. The program asks to restart the computer now? Click Yes. By the way, a very good solution to the problem is an SSD drive in the article.
2. Put the bootable USB flash drive in the BIOS in the first place in terms of the importance of loading.
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 from the bottom left
On my Samsung laptop, I have to press F2 to enter BIOS.
All devices from which the download can be performed 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 the 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 USB 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 first be searched for on the USB flash drive.
We reboot the computer.
3. Recovering bad sectors using HDD Regenerator 2011
So now we have booted from the USB stick. 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 (we 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. We type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
1. Start Sector 0. Start from sector 0.
2. Resume Last Proccess. 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. We type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
Pre-scan and search for bad and bad sectors started.
After some time, the prescan found that I had bad and bad sectors on the disk.
After 1 hour and 48 minutes, the prescan returned the result and showed that I had more than 46 bad sectors on the disk. They are denoted by the letter B - bad. Disk delays were also detected (124), they are denoted by the letter D - delay.
1. List sectors scanned. List of sectors scanned.
2. List this session sectors. List of sectors for 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. We type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
Here is a list. After looking at it, press any key to exit the list.
1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Pre-scan (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. We 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 not fix (show bad sectors).
3. Regerate all sectors in a range (even if not bad). Repair all bad sectors in the range (even if not bad ones).
We type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
1. Scan Sectors 0. Start from sector 0.
2. Resume Last Proccess. Resume the last process.
3. Set Start / End Sectors Manually. Set start / end sector manually.
Let's start scanning and recovering bad sectors of the disk from sector zero. We type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.
Scanning and repairing 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, the progress was 45% complete and 140 bad sectors on the disk were found and repaired.
After about 8 hours, the progress was 55% and 827 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired.
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 hanging! Set BIOS to IDE compatible mode. But there is no IDE mode in my BIOS. I have a laptop and there is only SATA mode. This is a program error because she thinks the hard drive is not working in that mode, but in fact. Bad sectors on my hard drive so much that the whole process of recovery almost freezes and moves ooooooooooochen medleeeeeeeeeeeenno.
I interrupted the process by pressing ESC. And I booted Windows, it worked in it, the behavior of the disk became noticeably better and it began to freeze less. Then the next day I rebooted from the flash drive and proceeded to restore the disk.
Returning to the main menu of the program.
1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Pre-scan (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. We type the number 2 on the keyboard and press Enter.
1. Continue proccess. Continue the process.
2. Show statistics. Show statistics.
3. Change start / end sectors. Change the starting / ending sector.
4. Change mode. Change mode.
5. Exit program. Exit the program.
Let's continue the process of recovering bad sectors. We 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 stopped altogether, stopping and restoring 10,001 sectors. Drive is not ready! The disc is not ready!
But this is again a problem of my particular disk, which is already dying and there are places on the disk by going to which the disk simply becomes 100% loaded and hangs tightly and saves from this only by turning off and turning on the computer again.
As a result, the statistics showed that it had recovered a lot of bad sectors, but when it reached those sectors in which the disk hung tightly, it could not recover them.
Later, when trying to continue scanning and repairing bad sectors on the disk. The program displayed an inscription stating that the Disk is not ready, restart your computer and try to continue the process again.
This is a problem of my particular case, in which, when moving to a certain sector of the disk, the disk completely freezes. 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, separating the defective (dead part) from the whole, but then the hard disk will decrease in size) I just copied the data that could and bought myself a new hard drive. Hard drives for laptops cost from 1500 rubles. In principle, it is not expensive and you can afford it.
4. Results
Before buying a 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 a second hard drive on which to periodically copy all the information from the main drive.
To be sure, you can still check the hard disk for errors and repair bad sectors.
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The computer may intermittently malfunction. Viral activity, power outages, and more can be the cause. As a result, the hard drive disappears, that is, the system cannot recognize it. Worst of all, the data on the hard drive can also be lost.
If a similar situation occurs, you need to use specialized software for recovering disks and data. These applications include the TestDisk program. It should be noted that this software is distributed free of charge.
Before using the program, it is recommended to get to know it better. It is also recommended to restore using the instructions. If everything is done correctly, the hard disk will be restored to work within half an hour.
What is TestDisk
The TestDisk utility is a program that can find and recover hard drives, boot sectors and data. The program contacts the BIOS in order to find a device connected to the PC. In the same way, the utility determines the CHS geometry and LBA disk size.
The program checks the hard drive for errors. If errors are found in the hard disk partition, the application repairs the bad sectors. If necessary, the application is able to create a new partition table, or if the old table is not found or is empty. In addition, the utility is capable of creating a new MBR.
It should be noted that everyone can download the TestDisk program for free. It is worth knowing that the application is open source. The utility copes with the tasks as well as its paid counterparts. If you wish, you can use the additional software that is included in the TestDisk package.
Program features
On the network you can find more than a dozen programs that restore the work of hard drives and data, but most of them are plane trees. As far as TestDisk is concerned, the program has more features than some paid products. Before understanding how to use the program, you should consider its capabilities. The program is capable of:
- Fix the partition table;
- Repair the boot sector;
- Copy files from a remote partition (FAT, NTFS);
- Reconfigure boot sectors;
- Select table files;
- Define a backup SuperBlock (for Linux);
- Recover deleted files;
- Create a backup.
Data recovery will be faster if newbies study the TestDisk instructions. Specialists can also use this application. It is important that users pay attention to the contextual hint. All commands are located at the bottom of the terminal.
Where to download the program
The TestDisk application can be downloaded free of charge from the official website located at: "www.cgsecurity.org". On the page that opens, click on the "TestDisk" link.
After 1-3 seconds, the product description page will load. You need to go down to the "Operating systems" section and then click on the "Download" hyperlink.
Immediately after that, another page will open where you can download the latest stable and beta version of the product. Download the software by clicking on the graphic link "TestDisk 7.0 Free Download".
After the utility is downloaded, you need to unpack the downloaded archive to any convenient location. If desired, the program can be moved to removable media, since it is completely portable. This means that the software does not need to be installed and does not need to be unpacked into a system folder such as Windows or System32.
Now it remains to run testdisk_win.exe and you can start working. It should be noted that the program is not distributed in Russian, so do everything according to the instructions. Users who are not familiar with English are advised to use a translator.
How to work with the program
After starting the program, a terminal window will appear. First, the application asks if it needs to generate a progress report. To create reports, select the "Create" item. To control the program, just use the "Up", "Down" and "Enter" buttons. 
In order to select "Yes", you need to press the "Y" button. If you need to abandon the action, press the "N" button. To exit the menu, just press the "Q" button. It should be noted that the ESC key does not work. To copy files, just press the "C" button.
Now you need to select the hard drive on which the loss of files occurred. It should be noted that the list displays not only local drives, but also removable media. After selecting the hard drive, click the "Enter" button.
When a list of available Partition Tables appears, you need to select the one that matches your computer. For example, Intel. Most often, the utility automatically detects the partition table and places it in the first place in the displayed list.
To test the structure of the sections of the selected storage medium, as well as to search for missing files, select the "Analyze" item. When the result appears, you will see the disk information. Now you need to select Quick Search from the menu located at the bottom of the screen. Immediately after that, the program will ask if you want to search for partitions created for Vista. Your best bet is to agree and press the "Y" button, which means "Yes."
After a few minutes, the screen will display all partitions of the disk, even those that need to be restored. To view the list of files, select the section and press the "P" button. Directories and files with Russian names will not be displayed correctly (short names are displayed normally). If necessary, files can be copied by specifying the destination folder and pressing the "C" button. The copying process may take some time.
To exit this section, press the "Q" button. For a thorough search of files, the "Deep Search" command is selected. If you need to write structure data to the MBR section, you need to press the "Write" command.
After you manage to restore the partition, you need to restart your computer. When the PC turns on, you can see the appearance of all the missing files. It should be noted that the hard drive may not appear immediately, since it does not have a letter. To do this, you need to enter the administration section and then assign a letter.
Advantages
An application such as TestDisk has a number of advantages that we recommend you pay attention to. The main advantage is that it can be used completely free of charge. At the same time, the program has open source.
Users will like the fact that the program is capable of not only finding a missing hard drive, but also recovering information. The data can be copied to another hard drive. It should be noted that the application handles such serious situations that even paid products cannot handle.
In addition to restoring information and connecting a hard drive, the utility is able to find errors. After testing, all errors found are automatically corrected by the program. Similar work can be done with any file system.
Another advantage is the ability to restore the boot sector. Most of the programs are not able to reanimate the operating system disk. It does not matter which OS was installed on the computer.
Flaws
Despite all its advantages, the application has several significant disadvantages. First of all, it should be noted the lack of a graphical interface. The user will have to work through the terminal, and this can confuse many newbies.
The second drawback arising from the first is the lack of a Russian-language interface. All commands are written in English. The same goes for prompts. If you have difficulties with the language, you will have to use a translator.
Conclusion
Users faced with the loss of a hard disk or information from it should use the TestDisk program. Of course, the utility is controlled through the terminal, but there is nothing difficult about that. It is enough to carefully study all the commands and read the questions asked by the application, and the recovery will go smoothly. It is best to follow the instructions, then it will be much easier to work with the program. Use the program only if you really need to.
TestDisk video review
We will tell you about an easy way to recover bad sectors using HDD Regenerator from Windows 10 and previous versions.
This version of HDD Regenerator can recover bad sectors (bad blocks) from under Windows of any version and bitness. The program makes it possible to work with several hard drives at the same time, as well as with portable USB drives.
Recovering a hard drive using HDD Regenerator
Attention: connect the disks to be restored only after the Windows operating system is loaded and do not use them while the program is running.
The first thing to do is HDD Regenerator, run the program as administrator and by clicking on the "Regeneration" menu, select "Start Process under Windows" from the list (run from under Windows)
If the program asks to switch to "IDE mode" and reboot, then click the "No" button, as your Windows system may not start in IDE mode.
Then a new window will appear with a text menu of the HDD Regenerator program. Use the numeric keys to select the required actions. Select 2. "Normal scan" and press "Enter"
In the next window, we are offered to choose the mode of operation of the program. We are interested in "Scan and repair" (scan and repair). To do this, select item 1 and press "Enter".
In the next window, select "Start Sector 0" (start scanning from the very beginning of the disc), press 1 and then "Enter".
After the actions taken, the process of scanning and restoring the disk will start. Red letter " B"Bad sectors will be marked with a green letter" R"Will mark the recovered sectors, and the white letter" D "will mark the sectors with read or write delay.
After scanning, you will be shown a window with the results of the work: the number of damaged and recovered sectors, as well as sectors with delays.
Important: P Take care of uninterrupted power supply to the computer on which you will be recovering data.
HDD Regenerator perfectly recovers bad sectors on hard drives, but we strongly recommend that you save all the valuable information from the recovered hard drive and do not use it in the future, as it may fail at any time.
The official website of the program is located.
Most of us store a lot of important information on our computer's hard drive. And almost always everything is fine, but it so happens that the unexpected happens. Once again you start the computer and get an error - a message that the hard drive is damaged. In this case, you need to rebuild the hard drive. In principle, this is a simple procedure, but not for a beginner. Let's take a closer look at this issue.
Mechanical damage to the hard drive
There are many problems that arise through the fault of PC users. But it so happens that not everything depends on us, and the hard drive fails without human intervention. This can happen due to damage to the power supply when the engine stops starting. In this case, it is enough to use special utilities that will help solve problems. A little later we will definitely consider a few of them.
If you notice that the hard drive is constantly knocking or making other incomprehensible sounds, then most likely the matter is in the damage to the magnetic head unit. In this case, you will hardly be able to do it on your own, so you will have to call a specialist who will solve the problem.
There are other common problems such as switch failure or motor inoperability caused by negligence in technology. It is worth noting that logical errors are much more common, which are eliminated by installing special programs.
As a rule, hard disk recovery takes place without complications. All that is required from the user is to install special software and spend some free time.
Recovering data from hard drive with Recuva
This utility is ideal for working with file systems such as NTFS and FAT. It is worth noting that there is a so-called portable version that runs from a USB flash drive. This is necessary in cases where the hard drive refuses to work, and there is no disk drive. Since it is completely free, it is very popular among ordinary users, but not professionals, which is due to some shortcomings, for example, the inability to recover files that were deleted some time ago.
During the first launch of the utility, you will be prompted to select what you want to restore. To mark all files, click opposite "other". Then indicate the path (in our case, this is the hard drive). The process takes a lot of time. It all depends on the capacity of the HDD, as well as on the reading speed. We can safely say that in 90% of cases, data recovery from a hard disk with the Recuva program is successful. You just need to make sure that after deletion, no records are made to the hard drive.
UndeletePlus - hard drive recovery software
If you formatted your hard drive, and there was extremely important information, do not worry, this utility will solve all problems. It is completely free, but its functionality is suitable only for a beginner, since the number of tools is very limited. Everything here is extremely simple and understandable thanks to the Russian-language interface.
To begin with, select the disk on which important information was stored, and start scanning it. At the end of the process, select the location for recovery. By the way, it is desirable that this was not the medium on which the work is carried out, since the correctness of the files may be violated. There is also a recovery wizard. It is more suitable for beginners as it has step-by-step instructions. Basically, this hard drive recovery program is good for home use, and nothing more. Moving on.
For professionals - R-Studio
The optimal solution for most large offices and companies that save gigabytes of useful information on their computers every day is to install paid programs. This is exactly what R-Studio is. Its main advantage lies in the fact that it allows you to recover files that were lost as a result of formatting, deletion, or trivial damage to the hard drive. If the operating system does not even start, then for our utility this is not a problem at all, since it is possible to create a bootable disk or drop it onto a USB flash drive. Here are the main features of R-Studio:
- data recovery from HDD, flash drives, memory cards, CDs, DVDs;
- work with damaged hard drives;
- support for FAT, NTFS on MAC OC, Linux;
- recovering files from hard disk, RAID arrays, etc.
It is safe to say that this program is one of the most demanded among professionals. This is due to its wide capabilities and relatively low cost.
How do you find something that suits everyone?
If you need a comprehensive hard drive data recovery, a program called Recovery Software is the best solution. This is due to the fact that it is a whole software package. Each separately taken utility is designed to solve specific problems. What features does this development have? Consider below.
By downloading this software package, you have seven programs at your disposal. For example, RS Partition Recovery is designed to recover a hard drive after accidental formatting. It supports all popular file systems today, while RS FAT Recovery is used to restore the logical structure of a disk, flash drive, etc. In addition, this package includes products that are specifically designed for photo recovery. It often happens that the resulting images have dead pixels. The assembly has RS File Repair, which is designed to solve this problem. Works with JPG, TIFF, PNG.
We can say that the main advantage of such a solution lies in its wide functionality, but often an ordinary user does not see the point of overpaying for packages he does not need, and this is correct.
What to do if bad sectors appear?
Sometimes users notice that folders start disappearing from the computer, and the operating system takes a little longer to load. If there are read errors and logical disks are violated, we can say that bad blocks appear. It is difficult to say exactly what causes this kind of problem. In some cases, this is due to the lifespan of the hard drive, and sometimes - logical failures. But in any case, you need to do something and somehow restore the missing folders.
There are many programs that will help us with solving this problem. One of the best is Data Extractor. Its main advantage is as follows: you can work with the hard drive in technological mode. This solution is good because you can perform multiple reads with skipping or ignoring the control code. As a result, 90-100% of the information that was on the broken sectors is restored.
Stellar Phoenix - powerful software for the hobbyist and professional
This utility is good because it has a very wide functionality. Recovering information from a hard drive can be performed regardless of what has been lost. This refers to the format of the document, executable file, etc. This is due to the fact that this utility recognizes more than one hundred and eighty seven formats, and the medium can be almost any - from a memory card and a CD to an external hard drive. There is also a drawback - it is impossible to restore RAID arrays, since it will not be possible to create a copy of the image to work with it, and not with the original.
I am glad that even a beginner will understand the menu and navigation. This is due to the fact that hard disk recovery after formatting takes place in Russian. You can hardly make a mistake, since after launching the utility itself will ask what needs to be done. The following choices are provided:
- work with a hard drive;
- image recovery;
- recovery of files on CD- / DVD-disks.
Victoria - fast and reliable
The utility is designed to work only on Windows, this is the main drawback of this product. But, despite this, he is very popular. Victoria was recently released, running on DOS systems.
The strong point of the utility is diagnostics, which can tell almost everything about the hard drive. The most interesting thing is that there is an opportunity to find out how much longer the hard disk will work. Based on the data received, you can conclude whether to buy a new hard drive or repair it with paid programs.
But that's not all. The fact is that if recovery of hard disk sectors is impossible, Victoria will simply mark them as non-working. After that, they will not be read, and the speed of reading, as well as loading the OS, will increase slightly. Even a beginner will understand how the utility works. There is a main window, which displays basic information about the hard drive, and a "test" section. The latter is needed in order to detect bad sectors, and, if possible, cure or block them.
What everyone should know
Most of the above utilities work the same way. But you have to gain a little theoretical knowledge, and only then proceed with the recovery. For example, after testing, you need to figure out which disk sectors are working properly and which are not.
Various colors are used as designation. For normal sectors - gray, for workers with signal delay - green. Orange is assigned to sectors that take too long to read. They are the ones that cause the braking, so there should be no more than 50 of them. Red ones are damaged and cannot be repaired. Sometimes there are also blue ones with a cross, information about which could not be obtained. Such sectors require re-annotation.
Several important points
Do not forget that recovering a damaged hard disk always takes a long time. During the operation, it is not recommended to perform any actions at all (write / delete / copy) on the hard drive, otherwise you can only make it worse. It is best to use utilities that can be dropped onto a USB flash drive or disk, so as not to download them to the hard drive. This will provide faster testing.
Conclusion
As you can see, not everything is as complicated as it might seem at first glance. Of course, there are free and paid programs. If you are not an employee of a large office, but an ordinary user, and just want to perform a hard disk recovery after a recent formatting or for any other reason, then it hardly makes sense to buy software. As practice shows, there are a lot of free utilities, the functionality of which allows you to do everything you need to do (and even a little more). There are fewer Russian-language software, but with due diligence, you will definitely find a suitable option. In addition, some programs in English have an intuitive interface.
