What can i do to regain access or recover the files?

One place suggested that i make an image of the whole hdd so i have that in-case the hdd does go completely dead. How/Should i do this?

llyrroberts wrote:
What can i do to regain access or recover the files?

First, you need to realise that there are risks with DIY recovery. If you cannot afford to lose the data, then you should be considering using the services of a DR company. There are reputable members of the board in the UK, if you ask the folks here for recommendations.

If the data is not worth anything, and you don't mind if you lose it (recovering it would just be a bonus), and so you accept the risks of DIY and the fact that you might cause a recoverable situation to become unrecoverable and you're OK with that, then...

llyrroberts wrote:
One place suggested that i make an image of the whole hdd so i have that in-case the hdd does go completely dead. How/Should i do this?

You may be quite limited about how to do this, due to lack of experience with some utilities. If you search my posting history and the words clone or cloning, I've described this often enough in recent weeks, including program names & pros vs. cons. I'm not able to dedicate time to going through the whole process again.

For a disk drive like yours, where it is not yet clear that the problem is only logical (filesystem) corruption (ie we do not yet know whether the whole disk is readable), then I would always clone it first, for the reason you have stated - but you need to use appropriate software which has control over bad sector handling (so not clonezilla, ghost, acronis etc.).

Good luck!

To make an image can be done with r-studio paid version

I have been facing with the same problem with my 2TB segatte HDD i hve found a software for recovery (SYStools hard disk recovery) but its asking for registration which is very costly can any one help me with its crack version it will be a great help for me as i have some imp data in it

THANKS IN ADVANCE