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I was copying a couple of folders onto my external hard drive when my laptop crashed.
Now the whole drive needs formatting...

I have years and years of photos and files on it. I have some stuff backed up but I don't want to lose over a tb of data if there's any way to recover it, I can't refilm my baby brother's first steps.

Google's answers so far have been unhelpful or risky, can anyone give me any advice?(please don't say make more backups)

Comments
  • 1
    there are programs meant for just that. document/file recovery. I havent personally done this but have seen it done. maybe someone else will have a name of a program and some more experience.
  • 0
    fins the nerdiest guy in your school/neighborhood, ask him if he knows how to recover files from a dead laptop (alternatively you can goto the nearest laptop service center)
  • 0
    @Watt any idea what the success rate is? Something similar happened to a friend of mine, he got back a few files on the first attempt and they ended up being partially corrupted. Second attempt returned nothing

    Made for some very weird distorted pictures with streaks through them
  • 0
    @liveCoder I don't trust other people with my hardware, really hoping to do it myself
  • 0
    well if its your first rime then you shouldnt be trusting yourself to do it right rather get the help of a fellow experienced, that way if you fail you dont have to carry the guilt lol xD. Exactly the reason why companies use java and. NET for enterprise projects, coz then the architect is safe hes chosen languages backed by microsoft/oracle for xyz website for some enterprise clientq
  • 1
    Recovermyfiles has worked for me quite a few times. Lose all file names, but you get them back.
  • 0
    If it's accessible then try rebuild met etc as well
  • 1
  • 2
    Boot up a Linux distro, it's NTFS driver is much more tolerant of errors.
  • 1
    What OS are you running, can you see the disk in the OS?
  • 0
    @philcr windows 7 and yes I can see it as a nameless block that only asks for formatting
  • 1
    OP. as long as you don't have bitlocker enabled try and boot to a live nix disk (maybe mint) and browse.
  • 1
    I've had success in the past using a program called Recuva. Not sure what OSes it supports, I've only ever used it on Windows laptops.
  • 1
    @FlashlhsalF you could try min partition tool to the best of my knowledge it's free. If you google mini partition tool and restore partition
  • 1
    I used minitool partition recovery and Easeus data recovery at different times. if you partition is corrupted try minitool as it recovers whole partition. else go with Easeus.
  • 0
    Often the files can be recovered. I have seen drives that were in a fire and the data was accessible. Please provide more details and maybe we can provide more in.
  • 1
    Thank you guys for the suggestions, I'll update once I have WiFi and can try them
  • 0
    Whenever this happens I proceed with the format so that the drive is accessible from the OS and then I use Easeus Data Recovery and so far I have been able to find everything I needed 100% of the time. have done this 3 times so far. With filenames and stuff. But as other have mentioned check the drive through a linux distro first.
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