Member Avatar for logan_657

Well, my hard drive died on me... and XP won't boot. Interestingly, when I pop the drive into an external enclosure, and turn it on inside of XP, it causes the computer to crash, and restart. I spent some time searching these forums for some help, but figured after about 15 minutes, that I should start my own post.

I would love to do this recovery myself, as the data is not worth what most companies are charging to do the service for me.

Can anyone offer me some pointers as to where I might begin, given the strange crashing symptom?

Any and all help appreciated.:sad:

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by DimaYasny

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— for a DIY recovery with unstable hardware, the single most important principle is: avoid any operation that writes to the failed disk. That includes filesystem repairs and most "fix it" utilities. Create a forensic, read-only image of the disk first and do all recovery work on that image.

A reliable, commonly used workflow is to image the drive with GNU ddrescue (it retries read errors intelligently and keeps a map you can resume). Example two-step approach on a Linux system:

ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /path/to/drive.img /path/to/drive.map
ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /path/to/drive.img /path/to/drive.map

First pass copies all good sectors quickly (-n skips slow retries). Second pass (-d -r3) attempts deeper reads on bad areas. Replace /dev/sdX and paths as appropriate. Keep the map file — it lets you resume and prevents re-reading successful sectors.

Collect SMART data before heavy work (read-only) to see if there are reallocated or pending sectors. On Linux: smartctl -a /dev/sdX and save the output. Look for large values for Reallocated_Sector_Ct, Current_Pending_Sector, or Offline_Uncorrectable — these indicate physical degradation. If the drive makes pronounced mechanical noises, stop: that usually needs a lab.

After you have an image, run file-recovery tools against the image (not the original). Tools such as TestDisk/PhotoRec and other forensic utilities can often recover partitions and files from the image. If the host crashes when attaching the drive, try different data/power cables or a powered adapter on another machine; avoid repeatedly powering a failing unit.

References: GNU ddrescue manual (), smartmontools (smartmontools), TestDisk/PhotoRec (cgsecurity.org). This preserves what and suggested but emphasizes a non‑destructive, image‑first approach.

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Member Avatar for kevin_476

It could be bad sectors / damage to partition table or file system structure in such away that it will hang the system. I suggest downloading manufacture disk drive test or you can try the partition repair/data recovery software by “Salvage Data Recovery Lab Inc”. You can find it easily if you just run a search in google its name… Instructions are clear while installing. Connect your drive as secondary drive on the system (not external) / or even primary and let that software run. That at least will let you know if drive is ok.

Member Avatar for DimaYasny

have you tried connecting the damaged disk as a second HDD on an operational XP machine (or just boot with a live cd like WinPE/BartPE/Winternals/Knoppix/Ubuntu/etc)? if it can boot and see your partitions on the damaged drive, you can try to use R-Studio to recover whatever is recoverable.

Another question - does the drive make clicking noises? If it does it really should go to either trashcan or a special (and very expensive) lab.

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