recovering data from a dying hard drive

[Bender1968]

My hard drive is dying and I bought a new one.  Norton Ghost isn't working and the stuff that came with my new hard drive is demo stuff that Seagate wants $129 for the key.  Does anyone one know a cheap or free program I can use?

[Tacolicious]

Why not just plug in the old hard drive as a slave drive and manually copy the files over?

[Bender1968]

Because when you plug it in it recognizes my drive, but doesn't see any of the files and causes windows explorer to have the error "Not Responding".  I've run CHKDSK and no information comes back.  I need some sort of recovery program.  Those are the only ones seeing my old files. 

[Tacolicious]

Can you go into the command prompt and navigate through there? Sometimes DOS is still the best solution... if you don't know DOS here's the commands you'll need:

dir - see the directory you are currently in
cd [drive]:\[directory]- change directory
cd.. go up one directory
md [drive]:\[directory] - make directory of name [directory]
copy [drive]:\[directory]\[filename].[extention] [drive]:\[directory]
                          ^from                                  ^to

so to copy everything from the old drive (let's call it d:\) you'd start in c:\ when you first load command prompt

md backup
[this makes a folder called "backup" on c:\
d:
[this sends you to D:]
dir
[this lets you see the files on D:]
cd [directory you want to copy]
copy d:\[directory]\*.* c:\backup
[this copies everything in that directory into c:\backup]

If you're copying a lot of different directories you can remake the directory structure of d: in c: to keep everything separate, just remember to keep directory and file names under 8 characters when working in dos.
If it's crashing explorer the drive may have gone from dying to dead in which cases the files are gone. This is why backups are key.

Hope this helps.

[Bender1968]

I know you're trying to be helpful and I do appreciate that, just so you know, I'm a Computer Operator for an power company.  The way to think of this situation is, only the boot sector got corrupted.  Windows and DOS know there's something there but can not access the information.  The drive is practically dead, but for some reason recovery programs are able to see the information minus a couple of corrupted files.  Like I said I just don't want to pay $130 for a program that will recover my programs that given enough time I'm going to do anyway onto the new hard drive.

[Union]

I say you put it out of it's misery, like what horse owners do to injured steeds.

[Bender1968]

I'm just going to do a low level format and keep it as a back up drive.

[Anniane]

Shout at it. If that doesn't work, put it in a microwave and threaten to turn it on. That'll scare the bugger straight.

[Templarios]

Remember, computers are female because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.


Hope that helps...

[Union]

Shout at it. If that doesn't work, put it in a microwave and threaten to turn it on. That'll scare the bugger straight.

Genius