dead hard drive?

[TarmacMeat]

Looking for help with my laptop, hoping the hard drive isn't fried and I can at the very least recover the photos of my baby

 

[TarmacMeat]

Ok, I guess my original post didn't publish so here goes nothing!
I have an Acer Aspire 5250-0691 and am receiving an error (0xc00000e9), my laptop won't boot far enough to get to the BIOS and it won't boot from am external hard drive. Is there any way I can tell if its the hard drive or motherboard? Is there anything I can do at this point to recover the pictures? I am about to lose thousands of pictures of my son, including 1000+ from his 2nd birthday party in September

 

[2x4b]

If you can't get to the BIOS, the Hard Drive "might" still be ok.
Your best bet would be to take it to a local repair shop.

 

[TarmacMeat]

I'm trying to avoid that if I can, they want to charge $50 for diagnostics, $65/hour for labour + parts (if they need to replace the hard drive it'll be roughly $100 for a new one + the rest of the fees). I was just hoping I was missing something that could help me get in to the hard drive and get my pictures. I can get it to boot with a recovery disk, but it says there is no system image backup. There definitely is(was?), maybe I'm just not looking in the right place? Thank you for the response

 

[2x4b]

If you can boot with a recovery disk, then the Laptop is OK. That suggests that the old Hard Drive is no longer viable. That means a new drive is needed to make the laptop functional.

A local shop may be able to recover the pictures on the old drive, or they may not. But you need to put a price tag on how much those pictures are worth to you.

You may be able to boot to an OS residing on a USB or Optical Disk Drive and attempt to access the data on the drive. (A recovery disk is not enough) This is not a simple thing.
But if the drive really is dead, there will be nothing that you can do with it at home.

Here is a Tom's article that falls under the category of "worst case scenario." It could cost between $3,000 to $20,000 (US Dollars) to forensicly retrieve the data. (http/www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/642-data-recovery-hard-drive-failure.html)

If you do recover the pictures, make sure you store copies in at least two separate places.

 

[2x4b]

If you can boot with a recovery disk, then the Laptop is OK. That suggests that the old Hard Drive is no longer viable. That means a new drive is needed to make the laptop functional.

A local shop may be able to recover the pictures on the old drive, or they may not. But you need to put a price tag on how much those pictures are worth to you.

You may be able to boot to an OS residing on a USB or Optical Disk Drive and attempt to access the data on the drive. (A recovery disk is not enough) This is not a simple thing.
But if the drive really is dead, there will be nothing that you can do with it at home.

Here is a Tom's article that falls under the category of "worst case scenario." It could cost between $3,000 to $20,000 (US Dollars) to forensicly retrieve the data. (http/www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/642-data-recovery-hard-drive-failure.html)

If you do recover the pictures, make sure you store copies in at least two separate places.

 

[TarmacMeat]

Thank you for your advice. With the help of the recovery disk I was able to run a diagnostic tool and it tells me the hard drive is not communicating. I am going today to pick up a new one and a SATA enclosure to connect the old drive via USB and try and recover the files. If I can't, then I will take the drive to the repair shop and hope they can recover something. Just trying to do this with the least amount of expenses possible. With it being the end of the month and Christmas coming up, money is tight (I'm sure for everyone!). It is already going to be really hard as it is as this will be our first holiday without my husband, we might go to his grave site, we're not sure yet. WOW ramble much? Sorry.. Thank you for your help!
Oh, and I was unable to boot from the external drive, I probably only did a backup instead of a clone.

 

[2x4b]

If it was a complete backup on your external drive, then your data (pictures) should be on it.
Replacing the dead drive, and re-installing the OS, will allow you to access files in the backup. (recover your pics.)

Based on what you have said, I believe the drive will not work in an external enclosure. Save the money and use it towards a replacement drive. Then concentrate on recovering your data from the backup.

 

[TarmacMeat]

I hadn't done a backup since March I have put in the new hard drive, reloaded windows and am currently waiting for the backup to load on the the laptop from the external drive. I did get an enclosure for the old drive, but you're right, it doesn't work. I guess all I can do now is send it to the store and cross my fingers they can retrieve the data?

 

[2x4b]

Good luck. I have lost pictures too, so I know what it feels like.

If the pics are really precious, here is something a bit more robust than the local shop. (http/www.seagate.com/services-software/data-recovery-services/) But they are extremely expensive! (try to shop around first)