From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sun Sep 17 22:39:25 2017 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6BF79E0A683 for ; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 22:39:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from shamim.shahriar@gmail.com) Received: from mail-wm0-x234.google.com (mail-wm0-x234.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:400c:c09::234]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F34E470E80 for ; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 22:39:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from shamim.shahriar@gmail.com) Received: by mail-wm0-x234.google.com with SMTP id v142so18047921wmv.5 for ; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:39:24 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=to:from:subject:message-id:date:user-agent:mime-version :content-transfer-encoding; bh=MjsiOiS/RaBPNkUC2efaGRNipNZo1lYCFAOBmvfsmYw=; b=q71XwOVgTmxbUEXKtP4ds6wRwfD3l3zg9AOXW7LeFegWzVuibolHEDduCJcnKGbWEv nJIgBgfoFPDaEj9cbR5m11NbSEicutvqudYAIhQ/OvZU6o4cJ7qOX6HrqhwptUe8isNS RdEpqiT8zFOKrfp7xxRTRLCt5g00DnPg+g4Qjv3crTX8oQfA3DO3+gaybGseRhN2yjo+ 8n2p6bRlRlmWj5wKqhLbH7ldZ2zJXOJdChY0BCaodxQlDb7K4lC8IO1luVJKnDsxZpZC XqxIhJt64U7g7LgrqwrzHsbz77J2zjPNQzTa28U6DBN4m7w8Db70uWzR51q+tbjC6Btz BgwA== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:to:from:subject:message-id:date:user-agent :mime-version:content-transfer-encoding; bh=MjsiOiS/RaBPNkUC2efaGRNipNZo1lYCFAOBmvfsmYw=; b=CC282zuyminjPMIFBqz0QqZf6xPKAZcpxdOlDUuO3WS/WOf/+Pe5nxhp8wJBnSoe8B ruryhpvigLKUJ7dAnnGjuwgCWYTHt7R54Stdm0LyR+stoUtv0+34QyQEeLa6g5BV6x8d Db3l/WhNc57sMcWphyFpFYU1jML4ahULmmz+JMeSjQp2GKbSyAWn1T988fYoPL8M0Wu+ 9sgPHMJgPN5Bit7tr1SEYMkHmGIEkh3jRBLczHomRvzXeuV0X3FkxrhpZQJfZLFtoSjz Zzkd8n1Lerh8omTQG9DnEjjnS8Ory9n7qzdim0yHEX13LbXjlmpaCB4TX/Nx/RIKtkm9 jBlQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AHPjjUgtn14H/xqiKKM0KNoIs5R+/lynm764ESZF/Qd9wmn2d/QoBYYZ 1N2qxXpZjd0TLfpE5BtSEnq0 X-Google-Smtp-Source: AOwi7QALyomfOdk02XlQYJTwnyKKut0PtASbKRLjVSiZXPTMblvRR2FQeEQbLHRmXLYdGsMw/Iv28Q== X-Received: by 10.28.71.88 with SMTP id u85mr6992585wma.22.1505687961858; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:39:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from osk.homenet ([2001:470:196e:17:f2de:f1ff:fed1:783c]) by smtp.googlemail.com with ESMTPSA id f19sm6920494wrf.85.2017.09.17.15.39.20 for (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128); Sun, 17 Sep 2017 15:39:21 -0700 (PDT) To: Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions From: Shamim Shahriar Subject: Recovering data from a broken HDD Message-ID: Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2017 23:39:20 +0100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.5.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2017 22:39:25 -0000 Good evening all, hope everyone is well. a little background: I have a couple of portable HDD. One of them was dropped a few weeks back, and then the computer stopped recognising it and asked it to be formatted. Once formatted, it appeared to start working again -- even though all previous data had been lost, and no, I am not trusting that device to hold any important data. Last week, another HDD slipped through the hands (literally). This one too is showing the same/similar symptoms as the previous one. I believe that the data is still there, but somehow the alignment has shifted and hence the HDD controller is unable to provide the data. I am wondering, can anyone please suggest a data recovery programme that I can try on the drive? The HDD being not in the western/relatively-more-techy region cannot be sent to a data recovery company (and I have been told they cost you a fortune), but have access to m$ or Mac or Linux or BSD systems. So if anyone could please suggest something to try on (Yes, I had been on google, and found a huge amount of tools -- but I would much rather try out something that someone has already tried and can give some insight on). Thanks and regards