Hard drive dead/crash?

[Cami]

My computer finally died. I came home last week to a frozen screen. I purchased a new computer and it is up and running. I was wondering though....
I know that people have had success with retrieving old files, etc...from their dead hard drives. I would like to get at least one e-mail from my old system. Luckily after losing everything on another hard drive in 2010 I learned my lesson and backed things up.
The e-mail in question should have been a document file and it would have been saved as well but hindsight is 20/20.
I assume *if* things are capable of being retrieved that a computer person with far more experience than I have would be able to do it. I am not really trying to avoid that route (I have someone that potentially could do it) but I was just wondering if anyone like me & "clueless" could figure this out? I suppose it would take some sort of software to achieve this so maybe I am answering my own question. Perhaps I should admit defeat and hire someone while I am ahead!

 

[Sansal]

Just an idea - not sure if it's possible: can you retrieve the email from your email provider? Is there a possibility that it maybe still is in you (online) account deleted or trash folder?

 

[Boxerworld]

I would try what Santina wrote too. It should work if you have IMAP and do not delete emails automatically.

If the disk is still running, you might want to try http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
I managed to retrieve some photos using it. The disk was not recognised at all by windows explorer but GetDataBack saw it.

If the disk doesn't work at all (no noise), you have to send it to a data recovery company and it is quite expensive...

Good luck!

 

[Cami]

For some unknown reason my "save to server" settings were only allowing the e-mails to end up on my cell phone. Unfortunately I only have my business e-mail addy coming to my phone and not my personal e-mail which are the "missing e-mails" now (or on my old hard drive). I went to my e-mail provider immediately when this happened thinking all was well only to learn not so much.
I can't even get the computer to turn on so I doubt the hard drive is capable of running. Maybe if removed and hit a few times! LOL
When my first HD died I did check into sending it out to a facility with a clean room and prices then were 2 thousand and that was with no promises.
I guess I am out of luck.
Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Bathel]

For some unknown reason my "save to server" settings were only allowing the e-mails to end up on my cell phone. Unfortunately I only have my business e-mail addy coming to my phone and not my personal e-mail which are the "missing e-mails" now (or on my old hard drive). I went to my e-mail provider immediately when this happened thinking all was well only to learn not so much.
I can't even get the computer to turn on so I doubt the hard drive is capable of running. Maybe if removed and hit a few times! LOL
When my first HD died I did check into sending it out to a facility with a clean room and prices then were 2 thousand and that was with no promises.
I guess I am out of luck.
Thanks for your thoughts.

In the future... use hotmail or another online account. You can save your important emails local too if you want to make sure you're covered. Then it won't matter if your HDD fails, at least in terms of email.

 

[Cami]

In a perfect world that would work however my business and hubby's business have a cable company e-mail addy and it can't be changed inexpensively (marketing material, etc..). We would have to spend thousands to create new material with the new e-mail contacts.
I think there is some way to keep our current e-mail address yet have them forwarded to another host like gmail for example but I haven't taken the time to investigate.

 

[Caney Creek]

When my first HD died I did check into sending it out to a facility with a clean room and prices then were 2 thousand and that was with no promises.

:eek: Holy cow! I can't believe it is that expensive!!

I have had that happen to my laptop a few times... I am very lucky to have a dad who is a computer engineer so he fixes it for me every time with no problem. That's really the only reason that I haven't switched to a Mac -- I get free tech support on my PC. I could try asking him what exactly he does when my computer dies completely, but I can only assume it is not an easy process otherwise people wouldn't be charging $2,000 for it!

What brand is your computer?

 

[Cami]

It is a Dell (or was in a previous life when it was alive).
That being said the original Dell hard drive lasted 7 plus years and it died and was replaced with who knows what (some company replaced it).
The new one lasted less than 2 years. There was also a power surge that has to be considered as I lost the power source (replaced it) and the system just wasn't ever the same after that. I believe the power surge did some internal damage and it just finally gave out.

I figured out how to forward my cable company e-mails to my gmail account today. It was easy and now I have a back-up to my back-up. appicon

 

[Boxerworld]

I can't even get the computer to turn on so I doubt the hard drive is capable of running. Maybe if removed and hit a few times! LOL.

It can possibly still run. It is not necessary fully dead. What makes you think it is the hard drive and not the mother board?

1) Do you have a hard drive enclosure? If so, install it in it, it's very easy.
2) Then install the software from the link I posted above. It is free to try and you can see the data. You only have to pay it for retrieving the data, but at least you can check if it is there or not.
3) Plug the USB cable from the enclosure to your computer and start the software. If you are lucky, your hard disk will be recognised.

By enclosure, I mean something like http://www.amazon.com/eForCity-3-5-IDE-Enclosure-Black/dp/B0018NEQFI/

If you are seriously lucky, it was the mother board only and you can access directly to your data through windows explorer

 

[Boxerworld]

Normally your hard disk is a sata disk but it can be a IDE disk as it seems you had an old computer. I still believe it should be a sata disk. Please check before getting the enclosure