What to try o a laptop drive that suddenly lost partitions??

[JTT]

This is the first time in all my years that I've had a drive crash so completely that I cannot even mount it and recover files from a second partition.

The specs: 2.5" WD 320gb Black Edition Sata drive (from a Dell Inspirion laptop.)

It was a replacement for the original, so it wasn't that old, and had shown no errors or any signs of oncoming problems. I'd created two partitions (C drive/D drive), with most of what I'd like to get back being on the D drive. It was running one morning when I went to lunch, and when I came back the screen was black and the drive was completely dead.

I've put it into a USB 3.0 enclosure so I can plug it into another Windows pc to try to recover any data, and it will show as 2 or 3 'Local Disks' usually (why 3 I don't know..but 2 or 3 consecutive drive letters.) Clicking on any of those local disks just hangs everything with the drive letter 'Not Responding', and the screen goes white, etc. or the cursors simply spins forever. If I close the window, it may kill Explorer until I physically disconnect the drive!

So far I've tried a half dozen types of data recovery programs (Getdataback, Remo Recover, EaseUS, Hiren's Boot CD, Backtrack 5, Partition Find and Mount, and some others I can't recall). I think it was Getdataback that did manage to recover some files from what appears to have been the Windows (C:) partition (some shortcuts and files that were on the Desktop) but most of these programs simply see the drive (or don't see it at all) and get nowhere. I've tried freezing the drive, but am not sure that helped..might try it again.
Find and Mount sees it as a 320gb USB HDD, which is correct, but choosing to scan it just hangs at 0% and goes no farther, like every other program. It never even reports any partitions...the blue light is on but the red light showing disk read never flickers.

So, any suggestions on what could cause a drive to go this way, and how to access that second partition? I'm stumped why I could get some data from the first partition, and some programs see that there are other partitions, but won't access them or just hang when trying to read them.

Not having gone through this complete of a crash before, I admit I'm trying anything without a real idea of what I should try. But I'm lost on why a good WD drive (or Windows) would crash in a way that completely vanish all the files in the second 'D' partition. (yes..I hadn't yet backed up some of what I'm desperate to get off this drive :/ ..so my bad for that.)

Help me Obi'wan-kenobi..
JT

[dick]

Hi! You really need to run some basic diagnostics and work out if you can go any further with it on your own.

I would mount the drive in a pc with the bios set to compatability or ide mode. Don't use usb! Then boot from a Hirens cd, go into dos utilities and select Mhdd. In Mhdd you can check the smart attributes and scan the media. You should be able to work out if or where any media damage is located. You would also be able to see any tell tell signs of a weak/failing head. Depending on what you find will help you to decide the next move. Good luck!

[MindMergepk]

First of all Freezing the drive was really a bad idea.

All data recovery software are meant to be used on healthy drives but your drive is failing, could be bad sectors, weak heads. can you get the s.m.a.r.t status of the drive ?