My hard drive at work has crashed. Any chance I can recover anything from it? I was a dumb arse and didn't back anything up. Lesson learned. Thanks for your help!
If the computer will boot, and get to the point where an operating system starts but then fails; Your odds of capturing data from the drive are high. If you get to the bios screen and it fails to find the hard drive your odds are moderate to low. If there is physical damage to the drive (the platters) .. recovery is minimal at best. If no damage; there are recovery facilities in Raleigh that can disassemble your drive, remove the platters, and capture the data. Not cheap though ... it requires a clean room so it's $350 & up local. About $285 & up on the web. Hope this helped
Thank you! I think it's a slim to none chance that my files are safe. When I went to boot the computer on Monday, I had the blue screen of death telling me that the boot server had been disabled. My only hope is that some of my stuff automatically saved to the network. By "crashed", I mean I think it got struck by lightning. The mouse no longer works either.
You might actually be able to pull your files off the drive. Best thing to do is put it in an external enclosure and connect it to a working PC (normally done through a USB port). Even though it isn't booting properly for you, you may find you can access the files and copy them off.
Make sure that working PC isn't important. Shorted drives sometimes have a tendency to become shorts to any connection. Check the USB plug with a meter before you plug it in.
One of the best AND most inexpensive apps I have found to recover deleted or "lost" files is Handi-recovery . Another great 'sick hard Disc' app is Spinrite
