Recovering data from a corrupted disk

Question

I use an external harddisk to backup my data (it had 3 partitions). Last week when I plugged it in, the OS (Win 7) hung up and I had to force re-boot the machine.

When I turned it back on, the system just did not detect the hard-disk. It was last Sunday and I had to give up after sometime. Now I return back next Sunday (today) and when I plug it back-in to the machine, the OS detects the disk as well as all the 3 partitions on it. But it says all 3 are unformatted and I cant access any of them.

Is there any way to recover data from the 3 partitions (I tried PC File Recovery and Recuva from PiriForm but neither detected these partitions).

Answer 1

First of all try to use Windows Scandisk on the drive, to see if that fixes it.

If not, I found that GetDataBack-NTFS was good for a few drives people have given me.

Answer 2

At first please be very careful if you really need the data on the disk. It is very ease to produce more damage on the disk using recovery tools. Consider asking a professional if the disk contains importing data. Also consider generating a raw disk image before trying more data recovery tools. An easy way to generate a raw disk image is to use a Linux boot CD.

I've made good experiences with TestDisk, Partition Find and Mount, Smart Partition Recovery and DiskGenius for checking and recovering partitions. You might find all these tools and more on the Hiren's Boot CD.

Another way is to use Linux to try to revover your disk.