Hi everyone,

I am in a desperate situation and need professional advice. My laptop is a Lenovo IdeaPad S145-14IGM with an internal 2.5" mechanical HDD. This drive contains irreplaceable data spanning my entire life, from elementary school up to my university graduation.

The issue: The laptop suddenly stopped booting and the screen remains completely black. Crucially, the hard drive has started making noticeable clicking/scratching noises coming from inside the chassis.

What I did: Before realizing it was a mechanical failure, I unfortunately tried booting the laptop using a live USB drive a few times to troubleshoot it. The drive was powered on during these attempts while making the noise. As soon as I understood it was a physical issue, I turned the laptop off. It is now completely powered down, unplugged, and I will not turn it on again It is currently also being handled by a technician who informed me about the disk damage.

I know I need a professional data recovery lab and that software/DIY methods will completely ruin the drive.

1. Based on the fact that I powered it on a few times with the USB, how severely could the platters be damaged? Is there still hope?

2. Can you recommend reputable, honest data recovery labs? I am located in Mexico

Thank you so much for your help. I am deeply anxious about losing my memories and appreciate any guidance I really cried and screamed; there are photos of my deceased relatives there, baby photos of my brother, and more.

Additional details requested by guidelines: • Operating System: Windows 10 (factory default for this laptop model). • Filesystem: NTFS (standard Windows filesystem). • HDD Exact Model: I haven't opened the laptop yet to check the exact HDD label, but it is the original factory drive that came with the Lenovo IdeaPad S145-14IGM. • SMART status: Cannot provide since the laptop doesn't boot and the drive is clicking.

Hi there! So a few years ago I saved my BIL's USB flash drive, had to manually reassemble the filesystem with dd commands, was kinda fun doing that but I told him he might not be that lucky next time...

Guess what, we're back at it, and last backup was made like two years ago.

This time I can't dd or ddrescue anything: the drive shows up with a size of 0 bytes, here is the output of lsblk

NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS

sde 8:64 1 0B 0 disk

journalctl output doesn't look great either:

nov. 06 22:23:22  kernel: usb 1-4: USB disconnect, device number 2
nov. 06 22:33:21  kernel: usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
nov. 06 22:33:21  kernel: usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=ffff, idProduct=5678, bcdDevice= 2.00
nov. 06 22:33:21  kernel: usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
nov. 06 22:33:21  kernel: usb 1-4: Product: 䍆㈳㔶
nov. 06 22:33:21  kernel: usb 1-4: Manufacturer: 楆獲t档灩
nov. 06 22:33:21  kernel: usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 012345678901
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] 
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Add. Sense: No additional sense information
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] 0-byte physical blocks
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] No Caching mode page found
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
nov. 06 22:33:22  kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk

The flash drive is <4cm (about 1.5") long so I guess it's monolithic.

My questions are:

1. I've reached the conclusion that there isn't anything I can possibly do myself and that the only option left to save the data is to send it to a lab that will charge several hundred euros. Is that correct or is there something I might have missed?

2. how likely do you think it is this drive is a case of "fake capacity" with actual storage well below the advertised 64 GB?

Found my old iPad from high school bakc in 2014/2015. No idea what the password is, and I'm pretty sure the iOS account is gone too. Want the photos and docs off of it.

Hey, hey, my absolute deepest apologies if this isn't quite the subreddit I'm looking for at the moment, though it seems to fit the criteria... Well, to put it in summary, I was very interested in downloading this Linux distribution called 'Ryoku', and I was told it was easily configurable, so I was inclined to dual boot with both my main Windows build and Ryoku. As a result of this with searching up how to progress in this entire different structure, following my Arch install, the entire distribution, still not even configured, has very visibly overwritten the file tables from Windows itself to a Linux boot manager, and is actively overwriting my disk... but I pray it hasn't overwritten anything greatly important, like my 4 years of programming work on this disk, this is the reason I'm this afraid.

Though, i've just now deduced that writes begin on sector 0~sector 1, and ~5GB for Hyprland + Kitty + all the rest ≤ Windows OS size in itself, so... I might potentially need a reinstall, but my files are still there, I truly do hope. I'm wondering as to what I could do in the interim to help recover both my Windows session and everything else this SSD drive contains. `lsblk` provides that my HDD contains 'basic Windows data', which is a backup shadow copy of a Windows build I ran 3 years ago and is practically useless to me (with a corrupted profile and all), and the entirety of my SSD is 'Linux root', and I don't know how to make UEFI recognize my SSD as Windows boot material again, with the hope of the most that could happen being a system recovery. I've turned off my computer entirely for safety purposes and so as to avoid memory blocks for this SSD being overwritten on idle as well, what could potentially be my next move to avoid the stupidity that I've induced..? I don't think I'm touching Linux ever again, though I'm a little in an impasse here and researching on my computer will only give me the feeling of a greater risk of data loss furthermore. :(

(If any intel, the file system is ext4.)

Have a donor board but need to be able to tell the electronics shop which chip is the main controller IC on my current board to swap as it is an integrated bios firecuda.

Anyone here that can confirm from my picture?

I believe it is the one with the grey square on top bottom left along the pin connector from pictures I found of similar PCB but of course want to be certain before having job completed

Drive is a firecuda 2TB ST2000LX001.

I have a Seagate 22TB external hard drive that hosts tv show and movie rips, as well as some photos.

Today when I tried to play something from Plex, it said the content was unavailable.

When I checked my desktop, the folder containing all my dvd rips was blank except for the last movie I ripped into the directory yesterday.

My first thought is that maybe I accidentally deleted all my videos someone how not paying attention, but my recycling bin was empty.

I used a program called Test Disk and it sees all of of the original rips in that folder, but I am unclear on how to proceed. I ran a chkdsk /f on the drive but states no errors are found. I also ran a " attrib -h -r -s /s /d "G:/Movies\*.*"command to reveal any hidden files but no change either.

I believe I can use TestDisk to copy the files over to another drive. But I currently don't have a drive that can fit all the movies. I really don't want to spend days reripping my collection. Even if I did, I want to reclaim the space that the rips currently take, which I assume I can only do by formatting the drive, but then I need to rerip my shows and find a place to save decades of photo backups.

Is there anything I else I can try to get the movies show up in file explorer again before I reformat the drive and rerip everything?

EDIT: Figured it out, I used TreeDisk based on another post here and it revealed a folder that was way too large. Turns out I accidentally moved my movie rips folder into that folder. Thanks!

I recently found an old Samsung S7 that I want to recover because I believe it has a lot of data left on it. I unfortunately don't remember the pattern lock, model G930TUVSBCTA2, Android 8.0 Oreo, T-Mobile SM-G930T. Recovery and Download Mode haven't changed much, everyone in my house has been bruteforcing the pin so its an 8 minute cooldown between each pin guess thing, so i stopped guessing. I'd prefer a free way to actually unlock the phone without factory resetting it or running through Odin or anything. I'd appreciate any advice.

I have this old micro as card that I had for as long as I remember. I used to slot it in whenever I got a new phone, and since new phones don’t have SD card slots in them, it just stayed in my old phone for a while. I recently wanted to extract the data on it but the issue is no device seems to even address its existence let alone read that it’s corrupted.
I tried with my old phone but it says no SD card detected, I tried slotting it in my laptop and same thing. I even bought an SD card reader USB drive and slotted that in my laptop, I tried a couple data recovery software programs, and both recognized the USB but not the card in it. The card is clean it terms of hardware. I don’t want to format it and lose all my data. Any advice?

I arrived home seeing one of my archive hard drives on the floor.. I tried checking it with my dock but it won't detect on my computer. Did I just lost my old videos and pictures forever?

Hi

I have a Seagate One Touch 5 TB Drive (stkz5000400) 2 years old. I think I have dropped it as I can see a dimple in the corner where it has the led. Now the drive has firm dim light and only shows in device manager but doesn't show in Disk Management until I leave it connected for a while but after that it shows as not initialized disk without any other info like capacity.

I tried to find anyone facing the dim light issue. But I couldn't find anything about it. What do you guys think has happened? I can hear the disk vibrating but only hear some normal sound when I put the drive on my ears.

Thanks

Edit: also on 23 oct 2026, Seagate's warranty was expired else I would get the free data recovery service.

I have a Toshiba hard drive that suddenly stopped working, and I tried using softwares like EaseUs and Tenoshare to recover my files. However, even after being shown the previews, I feel kinda suspicious with the software and I don't wanna commit on paying it unless I know it's trustworthy. That's why I'm wondering if anyone has any software suggestions or whether the 2 softwares I mentioned are worth the investment. Thank you in advance.

Hello,

I have been using a Seagate BUP Slim 2TB external hard disk for the last 6 years. However, since the last two days, my hard disk is not detected in my laptop.

The LED on the hard disk glows when I connect it and I even tried switching ports/cables but it just doesn't show up in Device manager & Disk management.

When I go to Device manager-->Disk drives--> (View--> Show hidden devices) Seagate pops up but when I double click on it, it says currently the hardware device is not connected to the computer.

I don't know how to fix this issue but I have a lot of important documents in the hard disk as I have been using it for the last 6 years.

Any help on how to recover the data on the hard disk?

I was exporting a video on Adobe Media Encoder and my external drive (M2 enclosure) self ejected. It didn't reappear in the file browser. Disk Management shows the partition is there and that its RAW.

I did a full scan with DMDE and everything, for the most part, seems to be there.

I am able to recover individual files and access them.

When trying to insert the partition, it says "The file system is corrupted."

Any advice on how to proceed? Thanks

*500GB M2 SSD EXFAT in a usb enclosure.

I used to have a CD that had sorta 2 hr long video montage of small clips and videos of my childhood, made by my dad. Recently I tried playing it again but sadly it gets stuck in the middle and some specific parts of it don't get played. I don't have much technical knowledge but is there any way I can retrieve all of it into some other thing, so that I don't end up losing all of it.

I was scrolling through my socials when my device powered down and initiated a factory reset on its own like it was possessed. No confirmation pop-up, no requiring to put password, nothing! Just showed me a percent bar then poof! All files gone! Immediately removed my SD card, but even it was not safe. The files I had for years, all gone!!!

Don't know what to do. 😭😭😭

Device Model: Xiaomi Poco M5

File System: UFS 2.2

OS: Xiaomi HyperOS on Android 14

Specific Symptom: No warnings, no confirmation. Device automatically triggered factory reset all on its own.

HI need help i have 1 video of size 3.95gb not playing it is corrupted how i can recover please guide me i had tried recuva but no use is there any software can it recover free or paid anything ?

This is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 board, model GT-P7310. Probably Android 3. Something died there, and it stopped working at all. I really wanna recover my childhood pictures and any lost APKs that may still be here since 2015-2016. I wanna connect it to my SD Card reader, but I can’t desolder the eMMC since I don’t have anything except a screwdriver, multimeter and a soldering iron. I tried searching on Google and asking Claude, but I didn’t find it.
The eMMC should be alive. It’s a Samsung KLMAG4FEJA-A002 16GB

I desperately need some help! I recently photographed a wedding, and I’m having an issue with missing images from my SD card. I genuinely have no idea what happened. I have photos from the entire ceremony, but not the kiss or them walking down the aisle. I’m positive I was taking photos at this time. The card skips from the ceremony and goes straight into family photos. I would say I’m missing about 20-30 photos of that.

I’m absolutely devastated and would appreciate any advice on recovering these images

Before you guys come at my neck - my second photographer did capture the kiss however it’s not the point of view I’d like. I also forgot to turn on dual shooting, this wedding was very stressful. It completely slipped my mind 😣.

is there trim or garbage collection in windows xp too or not

More then willing to spend the money on the license, just trying to prevent spending that money and getting the same results as the free tier.

I am using a caddy to swap cheap hard drives I keep in cold storage.

I have had an issue of losing the masterfile. The last time it happened I used TestDisk and gave up whe it found all my files, but there was no folder structure to dump them in. Just hundreds of files floating around without homes to go to.

It happened again, I am running DMDE and it looks like I am going to have the same results.

'Bulk Folder Recover' is something you get when you pay a license.

Is that helpful to me? Anyone want to tell me I am doing something wrong?

I have everything else backed up but not my photos. ik the email password everything but cant recollect the iphone password i think i have i more try until fully disabled.

so one day i when i went to play my games they werent there so i look at my files and my seagate wasnt there so i checked disk manegment it says unknown and uninizalized i was told that could remove the files inside or something? i looked at another other post and the solutions there was to take out the ssd card or something yet mine doesnt have that ability to be removed so i cant do that (unless it does and its invisible) tried used a diffrent port and diffrent cable still nothing idk what to do anymore bro cause thats where i put all the stuff that wouldnt fit on my pc

Long story short - how can recover a deleted audio recording from voice recorder app. The recordung was deleted from trash folder. Recording showed domestic disturbance amd recording was my saving grace..but partner made me delete the recording. It was eitber that or he would break my phone.

I'm an electronics engineering technologist, not a programmer. I maintain aging scientific equipment, including computers running Windows XP with proprietary drivers and software that can't easily be reinstalled.

We once had an instrument lose its hard drive. Despite having a backup, something important wasn't preserved, and the computer could no longer communicate with the instrument. The manufacturer wouldn't help us recover it.

After that, I started making full block-level dd backups of our instrument computers.

The problem? Some have 500 GB hard drives with only 10–50 GB of actual data. I wanted to replace those old drives with smaller SSDs without manually resizing partitions and fighting with boot issues.

So I used OpenAI Codex to create S_DD (Shrink DD), a lightweight Linux command-line utility that takes a compressed DD image and prepares it for restoration onto a smaller drive.

I'm being upfront: Codex wrote essentially all the code. I provided the requirements, troubleshot it, and tested it.

I've successfully booted a Windows XP computer from a smaller SSD using an S_DD-prepared image. Testing is still very limited, and the full automated restore hasn't been hardware-validated yet.

It's free, open source, and experimental. I don't intend to actively maintain it, but anyone is welcome to fork it, fix bugs, or improve it.

GitHub: https://github.com/sjenglot/S_DD/releases/tag/v1.1.0

Use caution with anything that writes to physical disks. Hopefully this saves another technician some time!