Broken Seagate st9320423as files disappear

[Ripei]

Hello,
Thanks for everybody who takes the time to read this.
A few months ago my notebook fell down and from this time on my hard drive was broken. (Seagate st9320423as - NTFS)
I had to buy a new one and install windows again.

I had a backup of most of most of my data, but not of all of it. Therefore I tried to recover the data.
The way I did that was: I run linux from a stick and tried to rescue it with the little tool "ddrescue".
However, this takes forever. (After running it for several weeks... it was probably about 10% done... so I decided to try it a different way:)

What I tried to do then was to just copy the data to an external drive (in linux). This works sometimes.
What I mean by sometimes: I can copy maybe 0-30 files and then it will just copy all the rest of the files with 0bytes. As soon as I look to the folder on the broken harddrive again - all files disappeared and only folders are visible. I have to un-mount and unplug it, after I insert it again... i can copy another few files... and the same thing happens.

In case this is helpful: Everytime I connect the harddrive to linux I get this error message:
Failed to write lock '/dev/sdb3': Resource temporarily unavailable
Error opening '/dev/sdb3': Resource temporarily unavailable
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb3': Resource temporarily unavailable
Although the harddrive is mounted, after I simply click "okay".

Does anybody know whether I have a chance of rescuing my data?
An answer would be greatly appreciated.
Ripei

[mr_spokk]

No, you can't recover your files by yourself.
As the laptop and drive was dropped you most probably have head issue on that drive, and if you need your files back I see no other option then seek out a pro recovery.

Member Jono ats http://forum.hddguru.com/member5276.html is in Atlanta, contact him.

[BlackST]

After several weeks of 'attempts' the poor disk to me is a 'little bit' toast, but should be worth a try.

[Ripei]

Thanks for you replies.
I checked at jono-ats website and as I figured I would probably need to pay 649$ in order to get my harddrive repaired. Since I am a student, I do not have this money. Is there really nothing I could do to get to the data?

[sathyan]

Thanks for you replies.
I checked at jono-ats website and as I figured I would probably need to pay 649$ in order to get my harddrive repaired. Since I am a student, I do not have this money. Is there really nothing I could do to get to the data?

DIY has its limits and risks. In your case you already tried ddrescue, which is the best you can do as DIY. But In process the drive and data may have degraded from its original state and recovery by a pro become costlier.

Expensive tools and donor spares (in clean room environment)along with knowledge and experience is required to recover data from drives that have experienced shocks . DIY is not advised on such drives if data is important.

If your data is very important, store the drive and till you have the resources to pay for the recovery.

You can send the drive to jono-ats, he does a free evaluation , and decide what to do.
good luck.