Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

[PlanB]

My Sony Vaio gave up last week. I manage to transfer most folders to an external hard drive just before it went dead but sadly some got left behind It won't even switch on (power light but no Windows start-up) so is it still possible for these files to be recovered somehow somewhere?

I got a man from Geeks on Wheels to transfer the successful ones but the Outlook Express stuff seems to be on a programme called an IAF File which my new computer doesn't recognise and neither does Plan B Will I be able to open this one day or is it lost forever with over 100 email addresses in it

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

You asked about this weeks ago and I suggested you transfer everything then

[PlanB]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

No need to rub my nose in it

Shall I take that as a 'No' then, and it's all lost forever?

Does anyone know what the IAF file/folder/programme is and whether I can convert it into something that talks to my new Sony Vaio please?

[PlanB]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

I certainly do live in North London, and only 2 stops on the tube from Golders Green which is free with my old person's Oyster card too. Any chance you could get info on the genius who fixed your mate's problem? I'm nervous to leave it with PC World becuase they were fined last year for reading data on people's computers which came in for a service Mine has got seriously secret stuff on it too.

That would be amazing and it would save on my funeral costs too

[Riz]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

Depends on why exactly it's knackered.

If the hard drive is trashed, then not really much hope.

If the hard drive is OK, but it's just something else wrong, then the files may still be intact. Then you could take the hard drive out of the laptop and put it in a "caddy" that basically turns it into another external drive, and you recover from that.

[PlanB]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

Depends on why exactly it's knackered.

If the hard drive is trashed, then not really much hope.

If the hard drive is OK, but it's just something else wrong, then the files may still be intact. Then you could take the hard drive out of the laptop and put it in a "caddy" that basically turns it into another external drive, and you recover from that.

I'm not sure what the final blow was, but I can ask the man who transferred the data. It had been shutting down at random times for a week but always came back to life when switched back on. But minutes after the man transferred everything on to the external hard drive it stopped working. Before that he'd looked at some history of activity and said the hard drive had a malfunction in just one area but not all (I think he said 2 pockets weren't working ?) - so there may be hope.

Can the fault still be diagnosed even though it's stopped working?

[oscar]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

I would give up the other computer / hard drive as a lost cause - its knackered.

As rizzle says above, you can remove the hard drive and connect to your new computer - this may allow you to access your old files and copy them across to the new computer.

[PlanB]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

Thank you Oscar. I'm happy to kiss goodbye to the old laptop, but I just want it to give me back my files before it gets junked or claimed on my insurance after it experiences a terrible unforeseen accident

[PlanB]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

Here's hoping

Tonight I'll get by on Green & Blacks

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

If you were to sit it on a table with the cable trailing to the socket and caught your leg in the cable and jerked the laptop to the hard surface floor, that'd actually cause the same damage as you have plus some cosmetics.

Most insurers pay out in such cases

Well that's what happened to my mate. I'm not suggesting you do it of course

[PlanB]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

Funny you should say that, my dalmation once knocked over a 32" flatscreen TV in a similar *accident* so sadly the insurance company couldn't subrogate their loss

[SXGuy]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

there is all sorts of reasons for why a hard drive does what it does, sometimes it isnt knackered in the sense that its unreadable, it could be an issue with a corrupt sector that happens to be in use when the start up process runs.

Or as you say the light comes on but nothing happens, this is sometimes to do with the power unit failing not the hard drive.

take the laptop hard drive out and buy an external case for about 5 quid max, i think maplins do them, connect it via usb to your new laptop and you may be able to read the hard drive since it will be read as a slave, not a primary start up drive.

If you cant get it to read the drive, there are companies out there that use low level recovery of files, all depends on what is wrong with it.

My work hard drive packed up some years ago, they were able to safely copy everything to a few dvd's when i couldnt even get the drive to read.

[PlanB]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

Thanks for that note of optimism. It does seem to be something to do with the start-up of my Windows XP because I could still play my Amy Winehouse CD even though I couldn't get anything else

So from what you say it's definitely worth getting it checked out before it has the unfortunate accident

[Riz]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

If the CD/DVD drive is working OK, then another option is downloading a Linux live CD/DVD image, burn that to a disc, and use that to boot the laptop. The lappy will them run linux from the CD drive rather than using the hard disc to run from.

When running from the live CD you can then access the hard drive files and copy them to your external drive.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Can I recover files from a defunct hard drive or should I just kill myself now?

Riz can you have a windows and Linux os run on the same partition or would you not do that?

Just wondered cos I may try it but would want to run from a partition - ideally c then select boot order at start-up but wonder how it works etc? Cheers