What does this mean?

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

Well I have an update ...

I don't know what the heck is wrong with my hard drive .. It detects in EASY RECOVERY software(Ontrack, it didn't detect yesterday). It detects in most of the recovery software but only when i use a bootable CD. I have just tried Easy recovery as of now.

I shows all my files and nothing damaged, everything is perfect and can be recovered without any problem ! I cannot recover it yet bcos since I am using bootable media it doesn't detect another HDD or physical media ... Anyways will figure it out how to recover.

Now we know there is no physical issues with the HDD and we also know that the data is intact.

Another weird thing, I mentioned that the HDD doesn't gets detected in the OS. I tried one more thing. I booted the OS and then i connected the HDD and then scanned for changes in device manager .. It detects in device manager and when I open MY COMPUTER .. itz Loading(The Windows 7 file bar loading thing) I can see a new drive letter but ofcoss 'My computer' is not responding and after 'My computer' finishes loading the drive vanishes and when I try scan for hardware changes it doesn't detect again but If i reboot the computer and then connect HDD and scan for changes gets detected again but only for a while !

Now back to my original question, this should be simple for the pros

Why is the HDD not getting detected in OS and showing the contents of the drive ? and what can I do to rectify.

Below info is what we know so far

1. Data is safe and can be recovered and has no issues
2. Drives gets detected if you use Bootable media like HIREN and Easy Recovery bootable and things like that
3. I don't think there is any physical issue with the drive
4. Partition Table is also fine and not corrupt


Also the recovery i ran was not advanced recovery .. It showed all my contents under 4 mins. I have used Easy recovery lotta times and I know this can be recovered (just gotta to figure out how to get another physical drive detected when i boot with the CD)

PS: Please excuse typos and grammatical errors. In a hurry, gotta go get the data recovered

Before saying you got data let it finish and CHECK data thoroughly if data is consistent and effectively recovered.

May I ask, what was wrong with the original board? Was there any visible damage? What was the failure symptom?

Yes there was visible damage. The chips and other things were burnt out due to surge voltage. Hence i needed another PCB.


Can anybody suggest me a recovery software which will detect other physical media during recovery ?

I figured out how to recover the data from Easy Recovery. It needs a FAT32 filesystem HDD. I had an old IDE drive which I converted to FAT32 and plugged in. Now that is detects in Easy recovery.

EasyRecovery detects my faulty hard-drive and when i choose that HDD for scanning it gets stuck at 0% for long time. It used to finish the entire thing under 4 mins.

Before it used to scan and I had a chance to recover but didn't have another physical media to recover. Now I have another physical media for recovery but EasyRecovery doesn't scan anymore for the files.

I also tried other recovery programs(bootable diskette) same case there too. Scanning seems to take a long time and doesn't progress at all.

I have HIREN BOOT CD. Are there any tools that I can run to see what could be the problem with the hard-drive ? Boy, haven't slept in 3 days and I am losing the mind.

But do you have a copy of your valuable data yet? It looks like you don't and are close to losing it or making an easy recovery much more difficult.
Just because you can see the folder structure dosn't mean it is intact. There is always a possibility of data shift. So many posts I can't even remember if the adaptive data was successfully transfered???

No i haven't still recovered the data yet.

Now the problem is the SCAN is taking a longer time.

I tried couple of HDD utilities to scan the surface for bad sectors and it is running very very slow. It said the estimated time is around 300hours ! Hence Easyrecovery software says 0% bcos the scanning is very slow.

How is it possible that yesterday it was scanning fast and today it is not. I haven't not performed any other tasks on the HDD which could have done this.

What is weird is. 1st day it doesn't detect anywhere except BIOS 2nd day it detects in recovery softwares and it scans fine and it gives me the list of the files to recover 3rd day it detects the HDD in the recovery software but the scan is extremely slow.

What HDD tools can i use to correct this issue and why is the scanning taking a long time?

I would image the drive ASAP using a non-windows s/w (e.g. dd_rescue or Media Tools Pro), as it sounds like media issues (bad sectors) or possibly a bad head and WILL fail completely sooner rather than later. Then use regular recovery s/w ON THE IMAGE.

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I tried Media Tools Pro and Tried to make a image. It says 500 hours remaining !

I tried File recovery in Media Tools pro it gave me the list of files and it also asked me the destination to cover. I select a 10MB file and it says recovering and the 0% never changed !

I could see all the files name again.

Any other solution beyond 500hours?

What happens if you select reverse clone option in Media tools with retry count set to 0?

I haven't tried that. Can you tell me what does that do ?

Also since i have another IDE drive which 40GB capacity I don't think it is going to be enough. Coz the fault drive is 250GB.

I need to get another HDD and format as FAT32 and then try that.

Why is that I cannot even recover even a single file ? Also are there are HDD tools I can try to diagnose the problem of the drive ?

It is all in the Media Tools/Prosoft manual if you bother to read it!

Yes, for sector cloning you would need a drive at least as big as the partition you need to recover from.

Why do you need a fat32 partition???

Yes, MHDD or Victoria but you would have to read the manual to understand the settings and results.

Good luck cos I think you are going to need it!

Because your drive probably has issues that cannot be solved by means of simple software, otherwise at least you should be able to recover ONE file. It's not normal (or better it's normal in these conditions) to have every piece of SW hanging when accessing the disk.
I told you "Before saying you got data let it finish and CHECK data thoroughly if data is consistent and effectively recovered" because it's quite common to have your scenario.
With an appropriate strategy and tool (NO you can't download from the net , you would need at least teletransport...) is possible to override the problem and get your data back safely (assuming the FW is OK and matching and the drive has not suffered from other problems).
Probably more physical intervention is needed, but it's only guessing as I didn't see the drive or the internal status (firmware, tables, etc.). Playing with unstable drive and maybe with everything not matching perfectly is always a bad idea.
In my opinion, when you will try with other "tools" for imaging or data access, if you are lucky enough you'll see the structure of the FS but it would be very difficult or impossible to get data. I can be wrong, but if you put an ear on the drive, 7'-80% you'll hear not only seeking noise but also recal / retry noise all the time when accessing data. If so, drive sooner will stop working completely because another problem will come out.
Do one thing : in India there are valuable members of this forum who have all the tools and experience to handle your case safely and at reasonable price.
If you want help with commercial software or a solution, I think it's not the right place. You have the drive in your hands and no technical info on the internal status of the drive. Your data, your choice. PERIOD.

Can I try flashing the firmware to see if it is a problem ?

I used MHDD to SCAN the drive and I got bunch of Warnings for few sectors.

Sorry , I give up. I can't understand anymore where the problem was and where now is, each time there's a different scenario.

I FINALLY suggest you two valuable members of this forum on your country : one is "amarbir" in Chandigarh, the other is "darkforce1" . They will be able to handle your case , having the drive in their hands. Be sure you provide the ORIGINAL PCB with all his stuff, and leave diagnosis and everything else to them.

Exactly! That is what baffles me, everyday it is a different scenario. I tried reverse cloning and other options. Even I tried to mention starting and ending LBAs(only few blocks) which I know is good but then again it shows 20 hours. For the whole cloning it says about 600 hours !



Thanks will try that. I have got another HDD 750 GB Same scenario, waiting for the PCB to arrive. It has got very very important data in it. All my PhD thesis and papers and all my 10 years worth of computing life !Hopefully that works without a hitch.

Will keep you guys posted on the progress. Thanks so much for all the effort trying to help me

I visited my local technician and he says that it might be a "freozen lock" issue. You read it right, "freozen"(I made him write it for me). No idea what it is and tried to search everywhere and got no results, what does this mean ?

Was it the same you went some time ago ?

Yeh. He is doing HDD repair from 15 years and have gotten several repaired before. So there is no such thing called as "freozen lock" ?