How to recover data from a hard drive?

[Flytrap]

On 10/20/2023 at 12:48 AM, Murdoch said:

 

The exact nature of the problem probably got lost in the melee of this thread, thrown off by the horrifying videos that other guy posted about opening the drives.

There's no direct evidence the drive is definitely compromised. The age of it, and that the system restore failed, does suggest it's possible. It's possible both issues are to blame. The registry hack caused the initial problem, but then the system restore failed because the restore points are in an area of the drive Windows cannot read.

@DannyMan, if you want, here's one last thing you can try. Again, only do this if you are experienced opening up computers, particularly all in ones. They can be a bit of a pain in the ass, and the wrong move in the wrong place can cause damage. It's possible to accidentally sever a cable if you're not careful. Some of the modern ones are really bad (woo having to put pressure on the LCD to open it, fun!) but 2016 era ones are usually not so dickish. Remove the drive, chuck in your new SSD, reinstall Windows. Order a suitable dock or enclosure, and connect the old drive to the computer.

Mechanical drives are very much like engines. They get worn out and inefficient as they age, and you can hear it if you listen closely. Connect the drive, and see how quickly it loads, and if the drive sounds laboured or the noise sounds rough. If it comes up in Windows reasonably promptly and without complaint, there's a good chance you can copy stuff without too much drama. It will ask you to override permissions when you go into your Users folder, just tell it to go ahead. This can take some time, even on a healthy drive, especially if you have a lot of files.

But yeah, if you have the slightest doubt of pulling this off, don't do it. Don't want you making things worse. Get a professional to help. They will be doing pretty much what I described so there's no harm in you trying if you think you can. They won't resort to more advanced methods unless the drive doesn't load cleanly at first.

Wait which computer requires touching LCD screens to get a drive out? Laptops dont have hard drives anymore, and the ones that did are probably old enough that they are easy to take apart

Is this some kinda expensive ROG motherboard thing my poor ass is not aware of?

[Murdoch]

1 minute ago, Flytrap said:

Wait which computer requires touching LCD screens to get a drive out? Laptops dont have hard drives anymore, and the ones that did are probably old enough that they are easy to take apart

Is this some kinda expensive ROG motherboard thing my poor ass is not aware of?

 

I am talking about some modern all in one desktops. I have seen Lenovo and HP examples. You literally have to apply pressure to the sides of the LCD panels and lever them out. I warn customers before i start work on them that I'll do my best but won't be held responsible if it cracks. 

[Flytrap]

3 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

 

I am talking about some modern all in one desktops. I have seen Lenovo and HP examples. You literally have to apply pressure to the sides of the LCD panels and lever them out. I warn customers before i start work on them that I'll do my best but won't be held responsible if it cracks. 

Geez. Functional design is a lost art nowadays

[Murdoch]

52 minutes ago, Flytrap said:

Geez. Functional design is a lost art nowadays

 

Not necessarily. I dislike working on all in ones in general but there is the occasional good one. A lot of Acers have a nice simple slide off rear panel.