Hard drive Recovery

[username 2012]

Hello,
I spilled water on my Dell laptop; thus, it no longer will turn on. How could I recover my data from this laptop please? Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Have a good day,
Username 2012

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH

1. You could tear the laptop apart and use a hair dryer to dry it out.

2. You would need to remove the hard drive, dry it out then you should be able to recover the data, however, you would need a external enclosure to mount the drive in, a USB would work and they are generally under $20.

I would first remove the keyboard, then use a hair dryer (low setting to try and dry it out.

If you post the model of the DELL we can show you how to remove the keyboard, would also need to know model to determine which USB enclosure would work. Laptops have a 2.5 inch hard drive so an enclosure similar to this is what I am referring to;

HERE

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-pla-_-NA-_-NA

But you will need to determine if the hard drive is IDE or SATA as they take different enclosures.

[username 2012]

Thank you so much Mr. Murf! I will do as you advised. It's an old Dell Inspiron E1505 purchased at 2006. Have a good rest of the day =)

[Murf]

Here is the service manual. If you don't have.

[username 2012]

Awesome! Thank you for the service manual Mr. Murf Have a wonderful week.

[msninja]

Mr Murf, might I hijack this post and ask you about enclosures?

I purchased a KingWin backup cable. It does nothing. I'm thinking of taking it back and exchanging it for a different model, but I'm wondering if it makes sense to do so. Does it matter whether I am using an actual enclosure or the adapter only? Can you suggest a better model of adapter if the adapter is ok to use?

Forgot to mention, I am trying to recover data from a 2.5" drive. The adapter works for both SATA and IDE, for all 3 sizes. All I really need is a good one that can access the drive I have!

Thanks in advance.

[msninja]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that there are actually 2 drives. They're both the same size. Both 2.5 IDE drives. I'm thinking there is some kind of diagnostic thing I could do to them, so it would help for you to know that one is a Fujitsu and the other is a Toshiba. Both happen to be 30GB drives.

Is there also a recovery program I should run? Years ago I used Lost and Found quite a bit. Not sure LandF handles drives of this size. I was using it back when "big" was maybe 2 GB. I still have the original disks and can use it unless there is a newer and better program.

[Murf]

If you plan on keeping an enclosure and using it, then that would be the way to go. However, if this is just a one time deal then an adapter would work. The adapter if its similar to THIS ONE will work for what you want to do. As it uses USB.

Enclosures come in various price ranges, from Cheap to Better. Both will do the job.

Many good programs out there, most you have to buy. I use HDD Rejuvenated, which I have had for many years. Just used it last week on a 80gB drive, found 9000 bad sectors and repaired 8951 of them, enough so I could get the files off of it. Google around you may be able to find it for free somewhere.

Although I have not used it This Program is free and claims to recover sectors. Each manufacture make their own tools that may help.

Although in This One is free (link removed by Murf - Bad One)

Most of the "Buy Me" software allow up to 1GB recovery in their trial; version. Google around there are some free ones out there.

The biggest problem is getting the drive recognized so you can run a repair or get files off of it. In the Windows environment sometimes that is difficult.

Ultimate Boot CD I have used, has many tools on it and worth (FREE) getting

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

[jtdoom]

I could get my security too high, but the german site now loops to non-usable or pay-ware (was, far as I know, valid when murf posted link)

° now, if that drive has a knocked out PCB, then you'd need exactly same PCB (and that includes all firmware, and MOST important, id handler firmware (the universal unique, what not only indentifies mask of IDE and head controller, but has unique ID of the processor and read write handler on that drive..)

having said that, if the PCB and drive motor are not bust, there is a chance that testdisk (what murf pointed to) can get you somewhere..

[jtdoom]

I think it can get cryptic.

an enclosure, the best one, won't be able to correctly get any usable thing /or not be able to connect to a malfunctioning drive..

USB enclosure of 6 years ago, the interface it had, will not work with 'out of spec"
Par example, an iomega 1Tb USB of that era will see single drives up to 750 Mb, but not a 1Tb drive (so, while the box had two 500 MB drives, it maxed out with 2x 640 GB.. it could not handle two 750, yet it handled 2x 640, while sold as a one tera..)
I know, I tried this because I had to.
(I keep all kinds of USB interface to IDE and SATA, neatly marked as to what they originally had)

as a matter of fact, some IDE to IDE and (extended to, aka, IDE to laptop sata or IDE) do not perform as thought they will.

The chip on the PCB has to have a BIOS (basic in out) that can do at least basic IDE, and any aberant error (burnt chip on the very INSIDE of the hard drive.. there is a tiny PCB in there as well) will make many efforts look as if data is NOT recovarable.

that's where the very specialised companies make money.
They quite literally take it apart, and emulate all metal-ID and interface it with its known (emulated) PCB, and get data off at couple dollar per megabyte.

[jtdoom]

OK.. I am weird.

I just, just for curiosity, voided warranty of an USB 3 enclosure.
(a 2TB USB3 drive)

to my dissapointment, it was not a SATA3 drive in there..
it was a 64Mb cached .. and to my pleasure.. a cool silent spinner from seagate.

plugged it to a USB interface of medion 1.5 Tb (single drive encosure (usb2) ) That worked.

plugged it to a WD 1 Tb book (one disk encolsure) and it went unseen.

I guess there is not just one question in this problem.
I liked the hi jack °-)