Hi guys, I'm some what a newbie with the physical side of hard drive data recovery - but was hoping you guys could steer me in the right direction. Here's my situation:

My laptop a Dell Inspiron 1525 has a Hitachi 5K320-250 - MODEL: HTS543225L9A300 5400 RPM hard drive. I lightly dropped the laptop and within 24 hours Windows booted very slowly - the screen resolution was jacked - and it said this copy of windows isn't registered and I couldn't click in my my computer, etc. and windows really wouldn't even run.

I went to Best Buy and bought the Backx Duet USB hard drive reader. I was able to view my file structures but all I'm trying to save here is my pictures in my my pictures folder (about 2200 of them). There are subfolders within my my pictures and when I click on one for examle that has 15 pictures in it - I could only view 8. So I copied what I could and got 1750 out of about 2200. I'm trying to get the rest. Once that finished I'm running Windows 7 - so I right clicked on the drive - went to properties - then clicked error checking - and checked automatically fix system file errors. It finished successfully and now when I plug in the hard drive via my blacx USB it tells me drive F: needs to be formatted. It's like now windows can't even read it.

So I read about a program called Data Rescue PC3. I downloaded the demo - made the boot CD and ran it. Upon doing the initial scan it said it found a bad sector and recommended making a clone of the drive before proceeding to fix it because it could possibly mess up the drive. You can't clone without buying the $100 software which I'm sceptical will work if I'm having physical hardware issues.

I called the company and support wanted to sell me to send in my drive for repair.

FYI - I also have a mac and just tonight plugged the hard drive via my Blacx USB into the mac and the mac can still read what Windows 7 used to be able to read before the error checking. But I still can't access those 400-500 pictures on the mac either. But that shows me there is some life to the drive still.

I downloaded the full version of Data Rescue for Mac and didn't know if it would scan on the mac and it was scanning but was saying it required the deep scan and had some ridiculous 36,000 hours left so I stopped it.

I listened closely to the drive and I don't hear any unusual sounds. It certainly sounds like it's spinning - I do hear occasional clicking noises but nothing that sounds like it's getting stuck or repeating - just normal hard drive noise.

Todoay I read up on possibly buying a similar hard drive (same model #) and swapping out the heads. I also read that it could be only the platter or the head or both that need to be swapped?

That's where I need you guys help. Any suggestions if there's any more tests via software or does it sound like hardware? If it's hardware - what should I plan on swapping out and do you have a good tutorial somewhere you could point me at? I watched somethings on you tube and it doesn't seem too scary however I recognize you guys are pro's so please let me know what you suggest. Thanks for your help!

Its not what you want to hear but you should seek pro help. They might still be able to recover all or most of what you are missing without needing any physical work. If it does need physical work, trying to do it yourself is a recipe for failure.

It is correct that a clone should be made of the disk, and it is also correct that trying to clone it using consumer software could/would damage it further if it is having mechanical issues. At this point you need a proper diagnosis, and running more things like checkdisk or recovery software scans is just going to make things worse.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Agree 100%

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www.datarecoveryne.com

head swap DIY is Internet bullshit. It is a 5K so any intervention require extra care. To me, this is a simple case for pro. Otherwise, the rule is : your data your choice.

Any pro candidates? Takers for the job? I'm not looking to pay a fortune because I only need about 300 missing pics. Pm me price quotes. Thanks!

You should better say how much you are willing to pay...

hahaha

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It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
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Good luck. I don't think you will find any takers.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

chrome1wave, check your pm.

Even if someone agrees for this rate, I would say only one word - "Beware".

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Bitlevel Data Recovery