Hard Drive Help

[Antar Bolaeisk]

Hello all,

Trying to help a friend get data off their hard-drive but it looks like the entire drive has been wiped (possibly related to the magnet floating around in the case). Are there any Linux (currently using Linux Mint 9) applications I could use in an attempt to recover files from the hard-drive?

Thanks in advance,
Antar.

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

I agree more info is needed. What was the cause of the data loss? If it was a simple partitioning error that it will be a lot easier to recover. However it sounds like an external factor (see random magnet) then it could have mutilated the data on the drive. In Mint what does it say about the drive in GParted or similar disk partitioning program.

It was an NTFS file system (windows xp). The random magnet came from within the laptop, it was behind the screen bezel and served to keep the laptop closed. It's quite strong though and I had difficulty removing it when I stuck it to the filing cabinet for safe keeping. The drive mounted okay in mint, registered the correct drive size, but it's completely empty. I didn't chance moving a file onto the drive as I didn't want to interfere with any files potentially still there. GParted is saying the drive is nearly completely empty with only 100MB in use.

I'm guessing the magnet is the cause of the loss, it seems the most likely but I don't want to rule out a partitioning error either just in case.