Best HDD Recovery Utility

Nikumba · 19 Dec 2011 at 10:05

Got a HDD which I need to recover the data on, however it needs to be done with a LiveCD as its in a laptop and don't have time to get a 1.8" cable adaptor.

Any one have any suggestions for a live CD that will do the job?

Thanks

Kimbie

CaptainCrash · 19 Dec 2011 at 10:20

If it's just a case of the system being unbootable and the HDD isn't physically damaged or the filesystem scrambled, pretty much any Linux live CD (eg Ubuntu) will do the job.

If you're not comfortable with Linux, check out Hiren's BootCD: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Nikumba · 19 Dec 2011 at 10:23

The system wont boot into Windows, so assuming the filesystem is damaged, will give Hiren's a look

Thanks

Kimbie

JustBen · 19 Dec 2011 at 12:37

CaptainCrash said:
If it's just a case of the system being unbootable and the HDD isn't physically damaged or the filesystem scrambled, pretty much any Linux live CD (eg Ubuntu) will do the job.

If you're not comfortable with Linux, check out Hiren's BootCD: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

+1 for this, the latest version gives you live boot cd too

Philtor · 19 Dec 2011 at 15:55

TestDisk is what I use. Great bit of software and free as well.

lec7grs · 9 Jan 2012 at 12:23

I have a 2TB Western Digital external HDD that got knocked off a desk and stopped working. I've taken the physical disk out of the enclosure and hooked it up in my system - it (very slowly) gets recognised by the BIOS and in Windows, but windows says "Not Initialised" and TestDisk says its capacity is 512b.

Does anyone know if the hirens boot cd would be suitable to attempt to get the data off?

Thanks in advance.

boosfuk · 9 Jan 2012 at 14:01

philtorrens said:
TestDisk is what I use. Great bit of software and free as well.

+1. Used quite a few times on friends PCs with disk crashes to save photos of their dogs/children, presentations, documents etc.

It is also included in most Linux rescue disks (e.g Parted magic, SystemrescueCD) so is easy to get running if the disk cannot be moved to another PC.

lec7grs · 9 Jan 2012 at 15:32

TestDisk does look extremely useful. The only problem is that it says do not use unless it detects the size of the drive correctly (which it does for all my working drives) but for the questionable one, its wrong.

Philtor · 9 Jan 2012 at 16:44

Could have a look at Get Data Back too which is very good. Not free mind..

lec7grs · 12 Jan 2012 at 10:54

Thanks Phil, I will check it out.