Just when you least expect it, you go to boot your computer and…*BAM* the hard drive crashes! OH NO! What do you do?!  The first thought that typically crosses one’s mind during a hard drive crash besides the obvious bad language , is the scary thought that you might have just lost EVERYTHING on your computer! But baby Max’s baby pictures? The presentation files for the BIG meeting tomorrow? My massive collection of pirated movies? First off, the big question, were you geek enough to back up your data? If so, ^5 “High Five” for being a Pro Geek! If not, no worries, I’m here to help!

For those who are still learning the geek ways, you’re probably asking yourself, ‘How do I get my data off my hard drive once it’s no longer able to boot? Is it still possible?’ It is possible but it depends on what exactly went wrong with your drive.

Determine the Cause of Hard Drive Failure: Logical or Mechanical?

The hard drive has the shortest life expectancy of all components meaning they are bound to crash sooner or later! Hard drives can crash due to either a logical failure or a mechanical failure.  Mechanical failures are caused by damaged internal components.  A mechanical failure is usually accompanied by unusual sounds coming from your hard drive.  These could be clicking, screeching or grinding sounds caused by the damaged parts inside of the hard drive.  Mechanical failure of a hard drive is more serious than a logical failure due to the physicality of the problem. Many people who counter mechanical failures end up having to take it to a professional or start completely over with a new HD but there is still hope!

During a logical failure, the hard drives components are not physically damaged.  The drive could be unreadable due to accidental formatting or a corrupt file system.  As long as the data has not been overwritten, it should still be retrievable with one of the methods mentioned later.

Depending on the severity of the problem with your failed hard drive, it may be possible to retrieve some, if not all, of your files.  I’ve listed a variety of options you can use to try and retrieve your lost data.

Use an External Case
This solution is probably the simplest and will work for most occasions.  You will need to purchase an external hard drive cage that is compatible with your failed hard drive.  Remove the hard drive from your computer and mount it in the external cage and connect it to a second computer with the USB cable.  If the drive is able to be accessed, it will be recognized by the working computer and you should be able to navigate to your data.  You would need Windows 2k/XP or a Linux distribution to read an NTFS/FAT file system, whereas only a Linux distribution can read the EXT3 file system.  If you are able to retrieve your data, consider yourself lucky and buy that backup hard drive.

Use Recovery Software

There is a variety of software available to recover data from failed hard drives.  You can find good programs to do this ranging in price from $60-$100. Although, you may be able to get your data back, it may not be in a place that you are familiar with.  The files will more than likely be given generic names as they are renamed during the process.  The recovery software’s main function is to provide a data dump for the files from the bad hard drive.  You will have to sort through the recovered files and place them back in their original place.  This is time consuming but I believe you’ll see it as a tiny inconvenience if you are able to retrieve all of the data that you thought was lost.

Recover My Files v4
: Advanced Data Recovery Software

Data Rescue PC 3
: Data Recovery Software






Put It On Ice

As silly as it may sound, sometimes it is possible to freeze a hard drive to get it to work temporarily.  Freezing the hard drive could cause the internal problem components to function long enough for you to retrieve your data.  Place the hard drive in a Ziploc bag and place it in your freezer for about 3 hours.  When taking it out of the freezer, time is of most importance.  Leave the hard drive in the bag and take it immediately to your computer and connect it.  Limit the amount of air that gets into the bag to cut down any condensation that may form on the hard drive.  IF your computer boots up when you apply power to it, get your data backed up as soon as possible as this is only a temporary fix.  Use this as one of your last options.

Get a Pro Involved

There are companies that specialize in data retrieval from damaged hard drives.  Most have a very good success rate in recovering data, even with the most damaged of drives.  Remember that the data recovery is not guaranteed and you won’t be able to recover the cost, if this is the case.  This is a time consuming process and could take days or weeks for you to get any kind of useful data back.  This can end up costing you $1000+ after it’s all over.  This option is expensive and will make you evaluate the cost of the data that you are potentially losing.

Hard drive failures happen at the worst times but all is not lost.  You can see there are a range of options for you to look into if you are the victim of this unfortunate situation.  Most of the solutions are rather cheap compared to the cost of all of your potentially lost files and memories.  The most important thing to learn from this experience is that you need to have a backup solution in place in case this happens in the future.  Remember to backup your computer on a regular basis and you will have the peace of mind of knowing that you always have the backup of your data even if your hard drive crashes.