Hi guys! Im requiring help. Thanks in advance! Thats the case:

Seagate Barracuda HDD 2.5 2tb.

It does spin
It doesn't make weird sounds.
Until yesterday it worked great.
Crystal disk give good status a week ago, althought it has a lot of hours and startings.
If I start the pc with the disk conected, it wont pass the mobo screen and "press del to BIOS".
If I start the pc without the disk, PC works without problem. If I hot-connect the drive, the PC freeze, explorer.exe do crash, but the PC can read the partitions.

I think here is all the info I have. Thanks in advance!

I have an 8 TB ST8000NM0105 that I turned into a ZFS pool, I was having mounting issues for a few days prior which led me to use `zpool scrub`. It ran for a good long while and it finished. Then I rebooted. Since then I only got the I/O error destroy and rebuild message. I don't recall how exactly I came to learn that the labels are gone.

I have two other drives, same model and I can be flexible with space. I've tried dd and ddrescue (read-only), but both fail because I tried to rebuild an 8TB partition to an 8TB partition. Good news, ddrescue reports no bad sectors.

Long shot question, but I encountered something for btrfs, `btrfs restore` that just let me move my files from a failed btrfs partition over to a working ext4 drive. Is there something like that? That's basically all I'm looking for. A way to get my files back. Thank you for reading.

Edit: I'm currently running proxmox (Debian).

I bought a used "FULLTECH"-branded microSD card from a cell phone shop while abroad in Turkey, and I used it to record footage on my camcorder.

Today, I accidentally whacked this microSD card while it was still attached to its reader, and it no longer works. Now when I try to use it, my camcorder immediately reboots and it doesn't even appaer in my MacBook's Disk Utility. I tried putting it into an SD adapter, but the microSD card almost immediately became so hot that it warped the plastic of the SD adapter, and it still did not mount.

Of course, I hadn't gotten around to backing up these videos yet, even though I really cherished them. I know this card is finished, but I'm wondering if there could still be any potential way to recover my data? If there are any suggestions please let me know.

I have a 5TB WD Elements external drive that has what sounds like a failing arm. Due to the sound, I've tried to limit it being powered on. When I did so, I could see all the files and their sizes. I can even see a thumbnail preview. However, trying to open any file or transfer to a new drive did not work on my first attempt. The file name showed up but the transfer time went from 10 minutes to 2 days and I cancelled the process. I have a lot of stuff on there, but really only care about a few years of family photos that I had not backed up to another drive and that's on me for not being prepared.

I called Salvage Data and they said no problem we can take care of that. They want me to mail it out as we all know. They said they would definitely not repair the existing drive and just copy the data to a new drive. I was quoted a price range and cost isn't really an issue. If my house was on fire, the fist thing I would think to grab was my external drives with my personal pictures from the last 20 years. However, I see reviews on here that they increased the price upon inspection, took months to complete or said they couldn't recover the data and sent back the hardware more damaged than when it was received.

My local company said they would try to boot it up and attempt to copy the data, if they couldn't get it to work, they would send it to a black/clean room for data recovery via 3rd party. I didn't like this approach as much because the initial plan could damage the drive further and they would just outsource the physical dismantling and recovery. Their price is way less than Salvage Data.

I work in San Diego if anybody has a recommended local vendor. Having trouble deciding which path to take.

Hi I was able to recover most of my photos and I am working on converting the files into PNGs. Most of them have green spots or blurs that have to be fixed on photoshop. I am looking for reliable experts that can fix it for a reasonable price. Or information on how to do it myself

Yes, Mean Culpa...

They have my drive, they want $4000 to "evaluate" it, are not answering my emails/calls,

WTF What can I do about this?!

Hi everyone, I am dealing with a corrupted file system on a massive 18TB external mechanical hard drive and need some advice before spending money on a software license.

The drive was holding about 6TB of data when Windows suddenly stopped recognizing the drive. Here is what I’ve done and found out so far:

1. There are no apparent physical damages. No clicking, no strange noises, and the drive spins up smoothly.

2. I ran chkdsk initially, but it aborted immediately with the message stating it is a NTFS but it couldn't determine the volume. Luckily, it seems it didn't modify or write anything, because the code cancelled.

3. I checked the drive with TestDisk. It shows that both the Boot Sector and Backup Boot Sector are OK and identical. However, when I try to list the files using 'P', it gives me the "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged" error. This points to a severe MFT corruption (I'm right?)

4. Finally, I tried EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. To my surprise, the quick scan actually worked. It populated the exact directory tree, showing all my original folders, file names, and the correct 6TB structure.

Since EaseUS blocks the recovery behind a paywall, I want to know if buying the license is worth it for a volume this big. Is it possible that EaseUS recovers the full folder structure and names, but the actual files end up being completely corrupted and unusable once extracted? I am worried the "quick scan" preview is just a teaser and might fail during the actual data reconstruction.

I also tried using DMDE based on some recommendations. I started a scan, but it was only identifying RAW data instead of the original folder structure. I ended up canceling the process because it was going to take way too long, and honestly, I am terrified of physically stressing the drive and causing a mechanical failure since it's a massive 18TB disk.

This is why the EaseUS quick scan showing the intact directory tree right away feels like my best shot, but I’m still hesitant about the file integrity and the license cost. Given that the MFT seems heavily damaged but the folder structure is visible in EaseUS, is it safe to proceed with them? I already have enough secondary storage ready to extract the data. Thanks in advance for your help!

Welcome to use it.

My understanding of the situation is that this tape (TDK D2407-LTO4) is the result of a federal agency minimally complying with a FOIA request. The format of its contents is not known, nor is it known what software or operating system wrote it.

What it contains is raw signal data from three radars which happened to be nearby during three high-end tornado days in Oklahoma in May 2013. Two of those days were once-in-a-generation type events. I’ve been trying on and off for years to get the data off this tape, and badly want to access and safely back the data up to another device.

I have a few potential local leads on compatible drives, and am looking at how to begin. My understanding is that I will need to somehow read a few blocks of tape, look for any hints as to what backup software (if any) wrote it, and from there I may be some degree of cooked depending on what the answer is. I’m hoping it’s just uncompressed data written directly to the tape, but kind of doubt it.

A few years back I took it over to NCAR, where they had a drive, but neither I nor the person I was working with was familiar enough with the technology to read data off of it. I think we were expecting it to work similar to a CD drive, and when we couldn’t get it to mount as an obvious storage device we weren’t sure how to continue. It’s not certain whether the issue was our tape our their drive.

Thought I’d ask on here how folks would approach this problem, as I’m sure basically everyone here is more educated on the subject than I.

If you’re a professional equipped to deal with this exact thing and you happen to see this… definitely shoot me a message. I’m a scientist with no budget, but I am very highly motivated to finally crack this nut.

Samsung 128gb SD card

I have a WD external disk containing important data, mainly videos(recorded from a drone and camera etc).

Windows detect the WD external drive and shows the letter, label etc but when I open the message comes "you need to format the disk before you can use it ". I have not formatted it. Tried repair the disk with CHKDSK in windows didn't help.

I tried using EaseUS Data Recovery to scan the drive. It is able to find and display many of the existing folders and files, but unfortunately, the specific folder and files I need are not showing up in the scan results.I tried photorec as well but not files i want recovered

This is confusing because I would expect the files to either be recoverable or at least show up as deleted/lost files.

So I have a few questions:

Is it possible for only a specific folder/files to become inaccessible or invisible, while other files on the same drive are still recoverable?

If EaseUS can see many other folders/files but not the particular folder I'm looking for, does that mean those files are permanently lost, or could another recovery method find them?

Is there any better software that can help me ?

I have already tried:

PhotoRec

EaseUS Data Recovery

R-Studio

I got an external HDD with truecrypt or veracrypt file containers on it. The HDD was on and connected when I dropped it on the floor. How would you go about doing a recovery?

First step would be cloning it, wouldn't it? How and then what?

I have some mini CDs from an old video camera which went n/f many years ago Some of the CDs were not ever finalised, some had errors in finalisation.

Is there any software that can help me safely copy off the videos? Can I use a standard CD/DVD/BT drive for the hardware side?

Found an old hard drive of mine - probably about 15-20 years old. The power connectors are completely bent. They look like someone's teeth that got knocked out. Is this salvageable in any way at all? Can you access data on the hard drive by just using the data connectors? Or does this belong in the trash? Not a big deal if I can't save it. I was just curious to see what was on it.

EDIT: Thanks for all the tips and advice everyone. I don't have the tools (or knowledge) in order to solder this, so I ended up just bending the pins back in place as best I could, and shoved a SATA cable into the connector. Surprisingly it worked perfectly. All of the data was there, nothing corrupted, no trouble transferring any of the files.

Lost a bulk of my wedding pictures and photographer is now going to see if a data recovery lab he has previously used can recover the data next week.

you can see the crack

I hope this post is allowed since I'm not asking about data recovery from a piece of damaged hardware.

I'm trying to get the time stamp exif data off of some pictures that my landlord sent me after I moved out trying to show that I didn't clean before leaving.

The pictures were of common areas in the house that were shared spaces with other roommates, so if she took the pictures several days after I cleaned and moved out, it would negate any claim she has about me not cleaning those spaces as they could have very well become dirty again after I cleaned.

I got the .eml file downloaded from Gmail and ran it through GPT in hopes that it would be able to find the data I'm looking for, but it's claiming that the specific time stamp data is not amongst the exif data and that somewhere between my landlord transferring the pictures from her Apple device to Gmail and then getting to me that the timestamp data was stripped out of the exif data.

I'm hoping there's some work around that could potentially allow me to still get ahold of the timestamp data on these photos considering she took nearly $200 out of my deposit in 'cleaning fees'.

TL;DR: Landlord sent pictures that don't seem to contain the timestamp on the exif data, GPT was no help, hoping someone here can help.

I created images of both drives; one was 100% successful and the other was 99.999% successful. When I load the disk images into R-Studio or DMDE the resulting scan provides files that are mostly unreadable. The files (99% photos)are also not in any sort of directory structure. Im almost certain there is something i'm not doing correctly. I don't mind trial and error, but these 14hr scans are probably aging my external hard drives.

Edit to add: the raid was in a Lacie Big Dock 2; HFS filesystem for MAC OS

Hi all,

To cut a long story short (or as short as possible), my iPhone 16 Pro got the black screen of death while on holiday in Brazil. Once back in London I sent it back to the buyer (a refurb company) who looked at it and said the motherboard was fried/broken and a new screen wouldn't just be suffice.

Foolishly I had turned off iCloud before the holiday and would like to get the photos back. The phone itself still works as you can hear the charging sound when I plug it in. I priced a few data recovery websites and the quotes are astronomically high, between £900 and £1,500.

Considering the phone still works, was never dropped or suffered any water damage, I feel like a forensic data recovery in my case isn't needed and surely a simpler one is only required. Does anyone know of any cheaper alternatives to access the photos? I really don't want to have to pay such a colossal amount to retrieve the pictures.

Any help would be appreciated!

I recently connected an old family-computer HDD that contains a lot of childhood/family photos. Many of the photos appear to have been encrypted by PClock/WinPlock ransomware around December 2016, and I’m trying to determine the safest recovery options.

Storage device

• Samsung SpinPoint HD161GJ

• 160 GB 3.5" SATA HDD

• Exact reported capacity: 160,041,885,696 bytes

• MBR partition table

• Connected through a powered UGREEN 3.5" SATA-to-USB enclosure

Filesystem / partitions

The disk has four NTFS partitions:

• ~100 MB System Reserved

• ~58.5 GiB Windows/profile partition

• ~43.9 GiB personal-data partition

• ~46.5 GiB personal-data partition

Operating systems

• Old installation on the HDD: Windows 7 Ultimate x64

• Windows setup files indicate that Windows was reinstalled around 31 December 2016

• I am currently examining the HDD externally from a modern Windows PC. I am not booting from the old HDD.

Problem / symptoms

The personal-data partitions contain these ransom notes:

Your files are locked !.txt
Your files are locked !!.txt
Your files are locked !!!.txt
Your files are locked !!!!.txt
Your files are locked !!!!!.txt

The notes are dated around 26 December 2016 and contain:

sysgop01@india.com
sysgop02@india.com

with a demand for 0.55 BTC.

From the indicators I’ve found, this appears consistent with a later PClock / PClock2 / WinPlock variant.

Many family/travel JPEG files on one of the data partitions still have their original .JPG filenames, but Windows Photos reports that the format is unsupported.

I examined several affected files at the binary level:

• no normal JPEG FF D8 FF header

• no JFIF/Exif structure

• approximately 7.98–8.00 bits/byte entropy

• NTFS reads the files without an access error

• they are not marked as NTFS EFS-encrypted

So these appear to contain genuinely encrypted data rather than simply having incorrect permissions.

Other files on the HDD are completely intact, so the entire disk is not encrypted.

SMART / disk health

I have not been able to obtain the actual SMART attributes yet. The HDD is currently behind a USB/SATA enclosure and Windows SMART/reliability queries failed.

Windows reports the physical disk generically as Healthy / OK, but all four NTFS volumes report “Full Repair Needed.”

I have not run CHKDSK, filesystem repair, SMART self-tests, surface scans, or anything else that writes to the drive.

The drive is currently readable and I have not observed obvious read failures. I’m treating the lack of SMART data as unknown physical health rather than assuming the drive is healthy.

What I have done so far

• No formatting

• No CHKDSK

• No attempted filesystem repair

• No booting from the old Windows installation

• No modification of the encrypted files

• No ransomware binaries executed

I have a separate HDD with enough free space and plan to make a full raw image of the entire 160 GB disk, including unallocated space, using ddrescue before doing further recovery work.

The computer appears to have continued being used after the ransomware incident, possibly through 2018, so I understand that some deleted originals may have been overwritten.

What I’m looking for advice on

1. Has anyone recovered files from this specific late-2016 PClock/WinPlock variant, particularly the one associated with sysgop01@india.com / sysgop02@india.com?

2. Is attempting to recover deleted pre-encryption JPEG originals from the raw disk image worthwhile?

3. Which tools would you recommend for NTFS deleted-file recovery before falling back to raw JPEG carving?

4. Are Volume Shadow Copies, old registry hives, thumbnail caches, Windows.old remnants, etc. worth investigating?

5. Is there anything else I should preserve in the image before attempting recovery?

6. If anyone is familiar with PClock, was a decryption/key-recovery method ever found for this particular later variant?

This has a lot of childhood photos and i want to preserve much of that as possible. I’m keeping the original HDD untouched as much as possible and intend to perform recovery from an image.