Urgent help!! Corrupt Hard drive.

It does not look good. Try the suggestions mentioned in this link.

http://tinyurl.com/8ff6b

OK first remove the HDD from the computer and fit it to a USB Caddy. Then plug it into a XP computer and see if you can read the HDD. If you can then do an immediate Backup of all the data forget about things like Programs and the like just grab the data and all of it not just the files in the My Documents folder.

If you can not read any data at all on the drive you will then need to consider just how important the data is that hasn't been backed up and how much it will cost to replace as apposed to paying to have the Data Recovered.

If the drive is dead and unable to read anything at all you'll be looking at least $1,500.00 + to recover the data is it worth this much?

If it is reading the drive but corrupting any data that is transfered off the drive it may be slightly cheaper to pay to recover the data but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

You should have got an error message prior to this happening as this type of BIOS gives you ample warning that you have a HDD on its way out long before it reaches this stage but if that didn't happen then it's possible that you have picked up an infection on the drive and it may be possible to recover your data by running AV and Spy Ware scans but from your description it sounds very much like the HDD has died as you are not even getting a message to Insert a Boot able Media and press any key to continue.

If the drive is running there are some software data recovery utilities available which may recover your data with varying degree's of success depending on what has gone wrong with the HDD if you like you can have a try with these but [b]Never Write to the Drive you are attempting to recover data from![/b]

You can try any of these links for Data recovery software

http://www.getdata.com/

http://www.iolo.com/sr/3/

http://www.stellarinfo.com/

http://www.ontrack.com/Homepage.aspx?id=3&pagename=Software

http://www.bitmart.net/r2k.shtml

try to put the hardisk on USB hardisk case. hope your hardisk is IDE type.. lol

We use Winternals Administrator's Pak to recover disks that still spin. We slave the bad disk to a good computer and recover the corrupt files. Initially the program is expense ($1,000) but the yearly maintainence/upgrades run about $250. This program has more than paid for itself with the recoverys I have made. Sending a 250 GB hard drive out for recovery will cost over $2,000 (been there done that). If they won't spin you have to send them out.

You will not like this answer but you need to send the drive to a data retrieval company. I have had to use them twice $400.00 one time on a regular drive and 650.00 on a mirrored scsi drive.
Do not try to boot the drive or run any thing on it.

Thanks for your help, recovered the drive and the data myself.

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