Reading from a 'dying' hard drive

[Justin]

I have a 3TB hard drive, it started to keel over with a SMART error and slowed down. I can still plug it in but it takes a very long while to appear onscreen.

I need to get some data off it before it dies completely. Problem is, because it's running so sol, if I try to image the partitions or backup files it will take weeks! I could put up with that to get the data back but it slows my PC to a crawl. It will only work in one of my PC's or I'd happily leave it running elsewhere!

Yes, I appreciate I should have a backup and I did but still ned some more info off here....long story.

Thought I'd ask on here if anyone knew any way to access the drive or speed this process up? Shot in the dark I know!

[webtrekker]

Is it an internal or external drive Justin?

[Justin]

At the moment it's external! lol. It's an internal drive.

[webtrekker]

Wonder if it will run in a disc caddy attached by usb to another pc? Ibought this SATA USB dock from Maplin when I was having trouble with mine. Unfortunately, it turned out that the heads had crashed so no go. https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/25-inch-35-i ... lsrc=aw.ds

[Justin]

I did wonder about that. I have a hot swap caddy in the PC but that connects in the same way as an internal really and was much slower.

Sure I have one of those somewhere but I'll maybe get one to have a go with, thank you.

[ginap]

I'm not tech savvy in the slightest but I had a failing drive in a Toshiba laptop that I had to get the data off and I was recommended one of these: https://www.videk.co.uk/section.php/106 ... o-adaptor-

I've got one and it worked a dream. Literally plug the drive in it to the adaptor, plug the adaptor into another computer and I could read the faulty drive and get the data off with no problem at all.

Not guaranteeing it will work for you but it's worth a go!

[Justin]

Funnily enough I just remembered I had something very similar to this, all be it a little simpler...just trying now.

[logobear]

depends on how important your data is .... and how recently you backed up.

Specialist data recovery company?

Or setup task on another pc and just be patient.
Probably advisable to do outside windows - Linux etc ?

[Justin]

Oh no, no need to pay £1000's out. I have a backup on an external drive but this has been cleared, I can probably recover the image from there, just checking.

I did wonder about using Linux etc. instead of Windows.

Plugged the drive into a USB with a little adaptor I have, first time it asked to confirm if MBR/GBR but no longer seeing it I don't think.

[webtrekker]

What kind of noises is it making Justin? It may be the swing arm sticking. I had nothing to lose, so I opened up my drive and the arm was seized solid, but sometimes you can gently rotate the disc while moving the arm back to its resting position, away from the platter. Of course, the drives are sealed, so may not be useable after opening for any length of time, but may be good enough to retrieve your data if its just a stuck arm.