Is Your Data Recoverable in event of OS failure? Often YES!
Sep 4, 2012 11:57:02 #
saichiez
Loc: Beautiful Central Oregon
I posted this in response to a recent posting about lost date due to the Operating System failing.
99% of the time, when a computer crashes, data is available for recovery...99% of the TIME!!!
There is a huge difference between a system crash and a HARD DRIVE FAILURE. If the OS does not boot, that rarely means the files on the hard drive are lost.
Do not be in such a hurry to get the system reloaded. 99% of the time, restoring the OS is what loses the data.
I have been working on computers, consulting and techning for 25 years now.
In most cases, the solution for getting the data off the hard drive, simply take the hard drive out of the computer, connect a USB external adaptor to it (Available from many sources for $20 or less) and hook it to another computer as if it were an external drive. Then dive into it, and locate all your data and transfer it out to the supporting computer, or other media, such as another external drive.
It is not a time consuming or user unfriendly operation. If you have used an external drive and understand even slightly about exploring the folders in an external drive, you can get your data out of 99% of the drives that won't boot because of a failed operating system.
The other 1% of the time, the hard drive actually fails and won't run. Even then, it can be sent to recovery services, who can dismantle it and put the storage platters in a working bench drive and recover the data/contents of the drive. That costs on the order of $800 to $1000.
YOU CAN RECOVER YOUR OWN DATA FROM A FAILED OPERATING SYSTEM. If that is beyond your means, a local tech can do it rather easily.
But, when you go ahead and reload or restore to get the computer up and running again... that is a data destructive process. The drive will be reformatted in most manufacturer recovery processes, or loading a new operating system.
Windows System Restore is not user data destructive, BUT Windows has to be running before the Windows System Restore will operate.
To Summarize:
When your computer refuses to boot because the OS has failed, or become corrupt, the DATA and other files are very likely still on the drive. Those files are easily attainable most of the time, if you simply hook the drive to another working computer with a USB external drive connector. ($20 online many places)
OTOH, if the hard drive actually crashes, as in dead and won't spin up, Sorry about that. But then you wouldn't be able to reload such a drive anyway. It's dead... which is actually quite rare.
99% of the time, when a computer crashes, data is available for recovery...99% of the TIME!!!
There is a huge difference between a system crash and a HARD DRIVE FAILURE. If the OS does not boot, that rarely means the files on the hard drive are lost.
Do not be in such a hurry to get the system reloaded. 99% of the time, restoring the OS is what loses the data.
I have been working on computers, consulting and techning for 25 years now.
In most cases, the solution for getting the data off the hard drive, simply take the hard drive out of the computer, connect a USB external adaptor to it (Available from many sources for $20 or less) and hook it to another computer as if it were an external drive. Then dive into it, and locate all your data and transfer it out to the supporting computer, or other media, such as another external drive.
It is not a time consuming or user unfriendly operation. If you have used an external drive and understand even slightly about exploring the folders in an external drive, you can get your data out of 99% of the drives that won't boot because of a failed operating system.
The other 1% of the time, the hard drive actually fails and won't run. Even then, it can be sent to recovery services, who can dismantle it and put the storage platters in a working bench drive and recover the data/contents of the drive. That costs on the order of $800 to $1000.
YOU CAN RECOVER YOUR OWN DATA FROM A FAILED OPERATING SYSTEM. If that is beyond your means, a local tech can do it rather easily.
But, when you go ahead and reload or restore to get the computer up and running again... that is a data destructive process. The drive will be reformatted in most manufacturer recovery processes, or loading a new operating system.
Windows System Restore is not user data destructive, BUT Windows has to be running before the Windows System Restore will operate.
To Summarize:
When your computer refuses to boot because the OS has failed, or become corrupt, the DATA and other files are very likely still on the drive. Those files are easily attainable most of the time, if you simply hook the drive to another working computer with a USB external drive connector. ($20 online many places)
OTOH, if the hard drive actually crashes, as in dead and won't spin up, Sorry about that. But then you wouldn't be able to reload such a drive anyway. It's dead... which is actually quite rare.
Sep 4, 2012 12:22:48 #
Even with hard drive failure, MOST of the data can be retrieved. In fact, even when a hard drive only spins up for 30 seconds per hour, all the data can generally be restored. I capture data from "dead" hard disks all the time, as long as they can spin up some of the time. I once had one of my Macs chew on a mostly dead PC boot drive for six weeks 24/7, but ended up getting all the data.
Fully dead drives (no spin) need to have their platters installed in a new working drive case, and that, as mentioned before, is expensive.
Fully dead drives (no spin) need to have their platters installed in a new working drive case, and that, as mentioned before, is expensive.
Sep 4, 2012 12:53:03 #
The Book of Digitus: 3:16 "Thou shalt have an adequate backup plan lest thee incurs the wrath of mechanical and electrical perversity."
Backing up is so much easier and far faster than data retrieval.
Backing up is so much easier and far faster than data retrieval.
Sep 4, 2012 12:54:55 #
I agree. I usually keep, if only by paranoia, 3 to 10 backups of every file in many different physical locations. Petabytes are my world.
Sep 5, 2012 08:10:20 #
Ok I got a stupid question.A few years ago,I took an old harddrive apart to see what was in there.If I remember correctly,there was a type of disc in there that would spin.Now even if your harddrive crashed,couldn't a technician take this disc out and still retrieve important data?
Sep 5, 2012 08:20:05 #
saichiez wrote:
The other 1% of the time, the hard drive actually fails and won't run. Even then, it can be sent to recovery services, who can dismantle it and put the storage platters in a working bench drive and recover the data/contents of the drive. That costs on the order of $800 to $1000.
The other 1% of the time, the hard drive actually fails and won't run. Even then, it can be sent to recovery services, who can dismantle it and put the storage platters in a working bench drive and recover the data/contents of the drive. That costs on the order of $800 to $1000.
The costs are directly proportional to:
1 - how fast your need your data
2 - how far away you have to send your drive. I'm in San Diego and even though everyone ships by FedEx or UPS, costs to ship to Los Angeles were less than costs to ship to New York City.
3 - how much data there is to recover. A 2 TB drive with 1.9 TB of data will be much more expensive than a 2 GB drive with 1.9 GB of data on it.
Been there, done that.
Sep 5, 2012 09:51:30 #
I've done e actly what the OP suggested about removing the HD and plugging it into another computer as an external HD. Worked like a charm.
Sep 5, 2012 12:01:17 #
DennisK wrote:
Ok I got a stupid question.A few years ago,I took an old harddrive apart to see what was in there.If I remember correctly,there was a type of disc in there that would spin.Now even if your harddrive crashed,couldn't a technician take this disc out and still retrieve important data?
It all depends on how "crashed" is used in this context. A crash used to mean a head crash. The heads fly over the surface of the disk itself and never actually touch it. When the disk is powered down, the heads move to a landing zone and park. A head crash is when one or more heads actually hit the data part of the drive, damaging both the heads themselves and scratching the surface of the recording medium.
A disk crash could also mean the electronics have crapped out. This isn't usually a severe problem if you have an extra drive of the same type and capacity. Pull the circuit board off the good drive and put it on the bad one. Retrieve the data and then swaps boards back and throw the old drive away.
If the drive won't spin up, it could be a defective motor or drive electronics. If it still won't spin up after swapping circuit boards, the media assembly must be removed and put into a new drive to read it. This is a "clean room" job and, as others have said, not cheap.
A good backup plan is always cheaper and fastest option.
Sep 5, 2012 12:02:38 #
One more thing. If the drive spins up but is throwing errors, bag it up in a Baggie, put it in the freezer for an hour or two, unbag and plug it back in. Try to pull the data. It might work for long enough to back the data up.
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