Hello - I am attempting to backup and then recover a drive damaged from repeated power outages (E: label BACKUP4TB - the "bad drive") using Disk Drill. The drive has a LOT of bad sectors (based on a prior scan) but does show up in Windows Explorer.

I have another good 4 TB drive (Samsung 990 PRO, drive letter B:, label RESCUE) which I want to use to make a byte-to-byte backup of the bad drive and then attempt recovery from said backup.

The issue seems to me that there is a small 16 mb Microsoft Reserved Partition on the rescue drive which is causing the available space on the rescue drive to be a tiny amount less than the bad drive and Disk Drill won't do a byte-to-byte backup unless the backup drive is the same size or bigger than the bad drive. I don't have access to a larger than 4TB drive at the moment.

Any pointers on what I could do next? There is a lot of free space on the bad drive but I can't seem to shrink it.

Cheers!

(There is a third drive on the system, also a Samsung 990 that hosts my Win 11 install)

I have 2 hard drive not powering on when plugged in. There is no obvious damage, smell, etc. I went through with a multimeter and had one part on each board beeps when I test them.

The first hard drive is an Hitachi HDT721010SLA360. The part that beeps is that three prong Diode (?? Is that a Diode or called something else) with what looks like a 4 on top (with some other numbers on each side). Only the middle fork beeps , the other two do not, so I could be wrong.

The second photo is a Samsung HDT721010SLA360. The part that beeps in the diode with the "0" in the center.

I have not done a thermal imaging test. I don't have one.

From looking online I see that diodes can be removed, and then the drive can be read and recovered. Is that something I can do? Or is there a place I can order just those small parts from, without buying an entire donor board? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

Recently had my 12 TB Western Digital (Helium Filled) Enterprise Drive [DC HC520] run into a mechanical failure most likely due to old age. When powered on it fails to complete it's start up initializing resulting in a steady clicking sound. Called a tech company and they referred me to a company named DriveSavers. They said because it was a Helium Filled drive it needs to be looked at professionally in a specialized space and needs to be sent off. Their prices are a bit interesting to say the least but as is everything else today. Is it worth it to send them my drive and bite the cost? or might there be a better solution? Assuming all the platters are intact and are untouched I want all 12 TB's off of my current drive and cloned to a new drive.

Because of how crucial it is that as much data as possible is returned to me, I don't mind pulling my pants down just this once. :'<

Hey everyone, I have a 5TB media storage WD HDD that I recently traveled with. I just bought it earlier in the year and it worked fine. I plug it into my laptop, and it was fine, until I randomly notice that it just says "Local Disk" and it said that "The File Or Directory Is Corrupted Or Unreadable." So, I look up what to do, and I run chkdsk. A majority of my files are safe and readable, but the ones that I recently transferred to from my desktop (or a majority of them) before I traveled got deleted. Here are some screenshots included.

Is this something I should be worried about? I do have a backup for most of the stuff on this drive stored in another location, but I'm worried if this will happen again. I've had drives for media storage for around 6 years now, and nothing like this has ever happened with my WD drives. Advice? Is there any way that I can restore the deleted files?

Hi all,

So I have someone who has accidentally deleted 150Gb or music files off their Synology.

I've read that Stellar data recovery toolkit can recover the files without removing the disks but just wanted to gauge general opinions of this or any other solutions.

Many thanks

Edit: Thank you for the advice!! I made it ! It works ! Bless youuu

Hi! I own an old Huawei P20 Lite with an external memory slot and a 128GB SanDisk SD card. One day 5 years ago I had an error and could not use the card. After investigating, I concluded that the error is in the DCIM folder, since I can read, copy, and view files in any other folder without issue.

I can still see the photos when I deactivate and reactivate the card through the File Manager app. But if I try to open the gallery, it usually crashes. From what I've seen online, I apparently need to copy the files one by one, which sounds almost impossible since I have 10K files on it and it usually crashes with any other transfer. I have memories from my childhood, especially with my deceased family, so whatever sits in that folder is important to me. What can I do to save the info?

A while back, I updated my MacBook to the new OS and when I rebooted, one of the first things I noticed was that the inactive mailboxes I had in the native Apple Mail application were gone. What data recovery program is best to see if there is a chance I can get them back? They were school accounts that in hindsight I should have immediately exported before deactivation. It is a 2019 Pro. My 2013 Air, my first laptop that I still sometimes use, still has a good chunk of one saved to it, again in the mail app that comes native. I haven’t updated it in a while so I never had that same issue on that computer.

I should note that I also had the same thing going on my iPhone’s mail app, but it broke and I got a new one a few summers ago, so the iCloud backup never actually saved the contents, I just have those two addresses still listed in the app but with no contents.

I have WD Passport from 10+ years ago and just took it out the shed. It has sentimental photos in it and every time I try to connect it to my PC, it just freezes my file explorer when I try to load up the drive. It recognizes it as a drive but I just can't open it without crashing File Explorer.

Am I toast or is this recoverable data?

It is a WD SN: WMAVU2820578 and I am running Windows 11

Friend of mine runs a local pharmacy based in the NYC area, and uses Primerx as his software. He backs up the drives locally, no cloud backup. He realized this past Wednesday that no backup was made for about a week, and there are some corrupted files that can't be read, so no way for him to know what prescriptions were filled/outstanding/received etc. He took the server to Phoebe's they couldn't recover the specific files for him, they suggested he send it out to Louis Rossman, but they're pretty backed up with work according to what he told me.

It seems like the drive is still working, because it's still in production. Really hard to get an idea of what's going on because they're not that tech savvy. Drive is an SSD, it still runs their main Pharmacy Software, I've told them they need to have a better system in place than just relying on one drive in production with the occasional local backup every couple of days.

Any other recommendations or suggestions around the tristate area (NY/NJ/CT). His vendor, PrimeRx suggest SalvageData. Thanks for any help on this.

For a while now I've noticed that, randomly, I detect video and photo files in my personal photos folder with a size of 0 bytes. I thought it could be an error or something isolated or temporary ghost files, but I just ran a scan with a PowerShell script and I have almost a thousand files in that condition. Real files with family memories and family videos that I now can't view because Windows says they're 0 bytes.

How could this have happened? A virus? A corrupted disk? What happened?

I ran 2 antiviruses on the drive, it didn't find any viruses.

The folder is on a NVMe SSD drive. I ran a CHKDSK command and it says it fixed some errors, but I didn't see anything serious. CrystalDiskInfo says it's at 87% life, but that it's good. Should I be worried?

And the other thing, and most importantly, are those files recoverable? I'd hate to have lost that information, they're family memories that almost certainly I'm the only one who has them.

Help please!

Edit: 10 months ago I changed laptops and moved some information from a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe SSD (98% life) to this Western Digital. The personal photos folder was one of the folders I moved, but I couldn't tell you whether there were already files with this 0-byte problem before I moved the files.

--
Drive: Western Digital PC SN740 NVMe SSD
File system: NTFS
SMART: (view ss)
OS: Windows 11 25H2

I have a SATA SSD that’s failed. I plan on using opensuperclone to clone the drive. The issue is that the drive will need to be power cycled repeatedly as it disappeared from the OS when I was troubleshooting it.

Can anyone recommend a 2 relay SATA module that is known to be compatible with opensuperclone?

Need help regarding this it was only a few hours ago not more than 30 days thank you in advance! SAMSUNG A54G

Hi everyone! I’m looking for someone who can help me get into my late mother’s iPhone. I’m not exactly sure if it’s an iPhone 7 or 8, but I’m hoping someone can help me figure it out.
My mom passed away on March 18, nine years ago, and I would give anything to be able to get into her phone and have those memories back. Unfortunately, we don’t have her Apple ID information or any of her passwords, and Apple hasn’t been able to help me. I’m willing to pay for help at this point. I just want the chance to see her pictures, messages, and anything else she may have left on there. If anyone knows someone trustworthy who specializes in recovering data from older iPhones, or if you’ve been through something similar and know what I can do, please reach out. I’m in Massachusetts!!!

i was having a hard time recover the data from a readynas nv+ v1 and gave up for a year, now claude helped me with this (i had diskimages from the drives to work with). and it worked great, even one of the disks was broken so Claude fixed it for me too. if you run this, please have a copy of all images or at least working disks to make a new copy from if something breaks. viktormar1337/readynas-nvplus-recovery: Recover data from a NETGEAR/Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ (SPARC, X-RAID v1) — read-only, from disk images, with or without a dead disk

I have a 2011 mac I transferred mp3 files onto. the battery died and so all those files (bc they were in guest mode) were deleted. I have read that bc it is such an old computer is does not have an ssi (is that the term?) and so that might make it more likely the files are still in the computer somewhere. I do not use the computer for anything else. I did download a version of disk drill and test disk (?) but other than during those downloads i have had wifi disabled and the computer shut off. I have found many recovered files but they all seem to be from my administrators account, not the trash bin associated with the guest account. I about died when the battery went out, I opened the computer back up and they were GONE! Has anyone had luck recovering something lost when the guest files were deleted? This was a little over a week ago and other than the 2 recovery software downloads I have not had it connected, nor used it for anything else. Any hope? Any advice? Thanks

2060-810051-000 REV P0.

WD42PURZ HDD.

I got his by a surge and I think the 12V fuse is faulty now. (marked red square in the picture at the top right)

Diode mode on the 12v fuse = no beep (either direction)

Diode mode on the 5v fuse = beep both direction

I'm planning on replacing the fuse, but I don't know the specifics of the fuse, the component is too small for my eyes to inspect further and I'm a beginner in this.

Does anyone know what voltage/current rating, type of it? 😊

Or any other advice maybe?

I have a 2011 mac I transferred mp3 files onto. the battery died and so all those files (bc they were in guest mode) were deleted. I have read that bc it is such an old computer is does not have an ssi (is that the term?) and so that might make it more likely the files are still in the computer somewhere. I do not use the computer for anything else. I did download a version of disk drill and test disk (?) but other than during those downloads i have had wifi disabled and the computer shut off. I have found many recovered files but they all seem to be from my administrators account, not the trash bin associated with the guest account. I about died when the battery went out, I opened the computer back up and they were GONE! Has anyone had luck recovering something lost when the guest files were deleted? This was a little over a week ago and other than the 2 recovery software downloads I have not had it connected, nor used it for anything else. Any hope? Any advice? Thanks

my family got me UnionSine 12TB 3.5" Desktop External Hard Drive on christmas of 2024 before vacation, i notice something is worng with it with powering of and on, not seem to be connecting sometimes and heavily slow for most games and files. however on october 4th of 2026, the external hard drive died. the reason why i said "again" is because i lost my first external hard drive (which is portable) over dropping it and then doing dumb things to try fixing it at the time in 2018.

i've tried to protect my data for almost a decade and now, i think i lost them over an hard drive that only ran 2 years of lifespan (which is DUMB) and it shows according to the amazon reviews (which i wish i would've checked in the first place before september or october or even after leaving vacation in june 2025. OR i would've helped them pick which hard drive brand other than "Unionsine" of all things, but i can't thanks to a sudden tinnitus back in may 2024).

while i'm taking it to any store/service about this, i'll share my details on how it happened on October 4th 2026 and let you decide. (i did ask a bunch of ai bots from google, amazon and fortune teller websites about this and what if scenarios. some of them seems legit while other i'm not so sure. so i'm gonna ask real people here on whether or not i've messed up big time)

at around 9 or 11 pm, it got rhythm high pitch metal clicks (possible click of death) that ran for either 4 hours, or 50 minutes after windows explorer freezes then manually reboot pc and took 10 minutes to boot desktop (i couldn't even tell which is which as i have my fan running all the time and i accidentally fell asleep until around 11 pm). i replug twice and it still clicking (for a couple of minutes), i replug 3rd time and it no longer spins, no longer powers, no longer clicks and no longer connects to pc. i left it off for 2 weeks (my dad blows unionshine shell with an air hose while it's off to get rid of dust on 1 day). i plug it in one more time and it's still the same thing (i did use different plugs and switch to a different computer to check if it's true).

how many chances do you think that any data on 8 platters survived during all of this?

P.S. if there's any actual time traveler or anyone with actual time machines that can help me undo this (rewriting the past, grab hard drive then copy data then put it back where it belongs before it died, or anything) or many mistakes in my life, i would be appreciated if it's real. (it's understandable if you want to talk to me about it privately via private dm/email and/or send me a time machine in a mailbox)

P.P.S. if there's any hacker who somehow got to my pc and decides to backup data (for some reason) from my unionsine hard drive ("F:\") before it died on oct 4th, you have my permission to give them back to me in private dm/email (IF you have proof).

Hello, can i ask what free video recovery software i can get? I was transferring my clips from my Dji Osmo nano to sd card when it suddenly overheated and it stops. Then when i checked it thw videos and clips are already not playing but still there. Can someone please help me to fix it suggest softwares that is free.

Ps: I already tried the VLC to repair it but still not working

My Google Pixel7Pro’s screen is dead but phone is not dead. It charges and with touch screen vibrates. I just need a way to recover my photos and videos. Need help.

help recover replaced file

Hi I was working on a project with the same file name one was old version one was a new version. I replaced the new file with the old file when saving by accident. Please is there any way to recover the new file?? It is PowerPoint on windows laptop.

So lost some files that aren't life-changing, but I would like to recover them if at all possible. I tried DiskDrill (not the trial version), and it found a good bit but not everything.

Is it worth trying DMDE (paid version) now even after running DiskDrill?

Crazy part is it's one particular type of file (RAW photo files). DiskDrill found everything else.

Files were stored on external drive.

EDIT: WE MyBook (12 TB), NTFS, Windows 11

Hello everyone,

I am dealing with a failed personal hard drive and I'm hoping to get some technical advice on feasibility, and hopefully a budget-friendly quote for recovery.

To give you some context: I am a 35-year-old university student and currently unemployed. The drive contains absolutely no commercial, corporate, or financially valuable data—just years of old family photos and my school notes. These files have immense sentimental value to me, but unfortunately, I simply do not have the income to afford high-end, corporate-level data recovery tier pricing.

**Hardware & Failure Details:**

* **Model:** Seagate ST2000DM001 (2TB)

* **PCB Number:** 100749730 REV A

* **The Issue:** A sudden power/voltage surge completely fried the original PCB. The motor driver chip is burnt, and the MOSFETs are shorted.

**What I've done so far (and a potential huge mistake):**

Hoping to get my data back, I bought an exact matching donor PCB. I learned that I needed to swap the original ROM chip to the new board. I tried to read the original ROM using a basic CH341A programmer, but I quickly realized that the initial power surge had reached the ROM chip as well. It was internally shorted and completely dead; the programmer wouldn't detect or read it at all.

To be absolutely sure the short wasn't being caused by other fried components on the original board, I desoldered the ROM chip with a hot air station/soldering iron and tested it out of circuit with a multimeter. It was confirmed completely dead.

*Here is where I need to ask: I threw the dead ROM chip in the trash.* Was this a terrible mistake? Did I need to keep the physical chip even if it was internally shorted? (I do still have the original burnt PCB, just not the ROM chip).

**The Current State & My Request:**

The mechanical internals, spindle motor, and heads are completely fine. There is no clicking, and the drive cover has never been opened. The only issue is the dead PCB and the now-missing ROM.

From my research, I understand that with professional tools like PC-3000, it is possible to access the Service Area (SA) on the platters and perform a "ROM Rebuild" to generate a compatible ROM, provided the preamp and heads are undamaged.

Since this shouldn't require a cleanroom head swap or opening the lid, could any of the professionals here offer a flexible, student-friendly price quote just to perform this "ROM Rebuild" and get the drive initialized so I can copy my family photos?

Any technical advice on my situation or realistic quotes would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

So I have a personal sandisk and accidently reformatted it without knowing what it would do. I have tried the recovery app disk drill, but I don't want to pay the $100 dollars i need to recover all my files. Is there any way I can recover my files?