need help choosing data recovery tool
Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:28 am
I need help choosing the “right” tool for a specific task.
I have a WD HDD, WD1600AAJS, SATAII 3GB.
WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostic for DOS reports “sector relocation error”.
This error means that the HDD is not suitable for use anymore, but I want to recover the data in it before I discard it.
Additional info:
The disk is recognized by the BIOS and, for now, is still spinning up.
The disk is not stable (for reading) under Windows. I disconnected it from the system, until I have the “right” tool to recover data from it.
I have unallocated space in another (bigger, system) hard disk, so I can try to recover the data by copying it to a new partition in this other hard disk. Since I already have a partition on it, I can't do an entire disk-to-disk cloning.
So the options I have available are:
a) partition to partition recovery, with errors tolerance;
b) file/folder recovery, with errors tolerance.
Since I don't know how much time/opportunities I have until the disk won't be readable at all, I don't want to “try/test” several tools to find out which one is the most suitable for the task of data-recovering.
I don't know which tool is better suited for this situation. I've been reading about the following tools:
1_ MHDD has a backup command, but it seems to me it is better suited for small amounts of data, where the user already knows which specific sectors he wants to recover.
2_ WD Data LifeGuard Tools for DOS has a tool to copy from one disk to another, but I don't know if it is “fault-tolerant”. Also, the name of the command confuses me. It “sounds” like disk-cloning, but according to what I read about it in the manual, it is a file/folder copy.
3_ RoadKill's Unstoppable Copier for Linux. I have no idea if it is suitable for this situation, and I don't know much about Linux commands.
4_ Easeus Disk Copy “sounds” suitable according to what I read about it. Is it “fault-tolerant”? Is it suitable for this situation? I would use the “partition copy” function, if it is fault-tolerant and NTFS compatible.
5_ Photorec/TestDisk/Partimage or other tools included in PartedMagic?
There are probably other tools available. Any suggestions?
I would like to use a floppy-based tool if this is possible, and I am inclined to use a sector-to-sector copy, rather than a “file system” copy. This is not a “must”, of course, and any advice on this matter is very welcome.
I don't really know which tool is the most suitable for this problem. And if there is a better suited tool that I didn't list above, I'll be happy to know about it.
If anyone could give me some tips, comparison or “pros and cons” I'll really appreciate it.
TIA.
I have a WD HDD, WD1600AAJS, SATAII 3GB.
WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostic for DOS reports “sector relocation error”.
This error means that the HDD is not suitable for use anymore, but I want to recover the data in it before I discard it.
Additional info:
The disk is recognized by the BIOS and, for now, is still spinning up.
The disk is not stable (for reading) under Windows. I disconnected it from the system, until I have the “right” tool to recover data from it.
I have unallocated space in another (bigger, system) hard disk, so I can try to recover the data by copying it to a new partition in this other hard disk. Since I already have a partition on it, I can't do an entire disk-to-disk cloning.
So the options I have available are:
a) partition to partition recovery, with errors tolerance;
b) file/folder recovery, with errors tolerance.
Since I don't know how much time/opportunities I have until the disk won't be readable at all, I don't want to “try/test” several tools to find out which one is the most suitable for the task of data-recovering.
I don't know which tool is better suited for this situation. I've been reading about the following tools:
1_ MHDD has a backup command, but it seems to me it is better suited for small amounts of data, where the user already knows which specific sectors he wants to recover.
2_ WD Data LifeGuard Tools for DOS has a tool to copy from one disk to another, but I don't know if it is “fault-tolerant”. Also, the name of the command confuses me. It “sounds” like disk-cloning, but according to what I read about it in the manual, it is a file/folder copy.
3_ RoadKill's Unstoppable Copier for Linux. I have no idea if it is suitable for this situation, and I don't know much about Linux commands.
4_ Easeus Disk Copy “sounds” suitable according to what I read about it. Is it “fault-tolerant”? Is it suitable for this situation? I would use the “partition copy” function, if it is fault-tolerant and NTFS compatible.
5_ Photorec/TestDisk/Partimage or other tools included in PartedMagic?
There are probably other tools available. Any suggestions?
I would like to use a floppy-based tool if this is possible, and I am inclined to use a sector-to-sector copy, rather than a “file system” copy. This is not a “must”, of course, and any advice on this matter is very welcome.
I don't really know which tool is the most suitable for this problem. And if there is a better suited tool that I didn't list above, I'll be happy to know about it.
If anyone could give me some tips, comparison or “pros and cons” I'll really appreciate it.
TIA.