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Data Recovery

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I have a laptop hard disk which is not picked up by the BIOS. Because of this I am unable to make an image or recover any files off of this. Does anyone know of any tricks or software packages that could help?

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Data Recovery

In reply to Data Recovery

For about 10.00 you can pick up an adapter that will attach to a destop system and you can have that as a secondary drive, then you can retrieve the information from the laptop hard drive.

You can find this at CompUSA, or any computer store.I hope that this helps

Have it

In reply to Data Recovery

Thanks, I probably should have went into some detail. I have the above listed adapter. The problem is that it will not show up on any computer we have tried. We have also tried freezing the drive. (This has worked before) No luck.

Are you certain?

In reply to Data Recovery

If the BIOS can’t find the drive and the aforementioned adapter doesn’t do the trick in another machine, it sounds like the drive is either dead or not properly connected. Are you certain the drive is getting power and the data cable is connected properly? If it is dead, try Ontrack.com or PowerQuest.com. These companies have excellent reputations for data recover services, although it may not be inexpensive.

starting with THE dumb question ….

In reply to Data Recovery

If you have a hard drive that you can’t see, and you have data on there that you are trying to recover ….

just HOW did you manage to see the drive to get the data on there???

as a first step, I would try replicating whatever magic you used then to see it again and move the data to some network share.

If you never saw the drive and found it on your doorstep, then please throw it away and quit wasting time.

IF you once saw it on your laptop, perhaps you could review/relate the circumstances under which it suddenly decided to play invisible??

It sounds like hardware failure – but a lot of things get lost in the translation here – so I only have suggestions.

One VERY SERIOUS question: CAN you hear the drive spin up?? If not, then a simple solution is to somehow get power to the unit.

Good luck.

Thanks to all

In reply to Data Recovery

Thanks for the responses. To answer some questions: yes the drive used to work, yes it’s properly connected, and no we can’t hear the drive spin up. After talking with the owner of the drive, he has given up trying to salvage anything off it. The data was important, but not important enough to have it sent in. Just another lesson on the importance of backing up your stuff.

If you feel like trying one more thing

In reply to Thanks to all

I recommend linking the drive to a regular PC via the cable you were speaking of. Go download the program drivemaster 2000 (can’t recall the URL) then run it and have it scan that drive. The program will run for free for the time you need it, but i recommend buying it if it works for you, very useful tool as i have found numerous times as of late. I hope this works and you can recover some of the data if not all.

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