The system was unable to read the drive, believing that there is nothing on the disk. Oh, ho, ho, ho. Now what? Are those files officially gone? Not quite. Let me run through how recovered my files.
I started by searching for hard drive recovery tools and came across a nifty little program called the Minitool Partition Wizard Home Edition. This software package includes a simple interface that can be helpful for even the most casual users.
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And...what's this? It will only recover 2GB of data, unless you pay for the software?! Yeah, this happens. Lesson number one: always watch out for software that says its "free", but once installed, limits what you can do with the software, unless you purchase the "full" version. It'll happen more than you think, so just do some thorough research and look for the hidden fees and limitations.
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Once complete, open the installer to begin software installation process. Once the installation is complete, allow the application to open. A recovery wizard is the first to appear. If your hard drive is completely unresponsive, then the wizard will be of little use. Go ahead and click 'Cancel' to navigate to the main recovery screen. Select your faulty hard drive from the drop-down menu and scan the drive for the missing files.
Once the software has finished scanning the hard drive and assessing the damage, a list of files should appear below the drop-down menu. They should be the files that you currently cannot access on your hard drive. Click the check box next to 'Filename' to select all the files and click the 'Recover' button. You will then need to select a destination on your computer to copy the files. The copying process will begin and may take a while, depending how much data is being recovered.
It's also worth noting that this procedure is done for a hard drive that has irreversible damage to it and cannot be accessed in its current state (with the data on it). There may be a quicker fix for a hard drive that suddenly decides to behave badly but can easily be adjusted to do its job. Google is your best friend. In any case, always consult the Google gods for the best solutions and don't always believe that the first result is the best solutions. Research a couple of methods before deciding on the best solution. This goes for any hardware/software recovery.
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If it seems like a problem beyond repair (such as in my case), then you can shell out the money to have a professional recover the drive, attempt to fix the physical components yourself (not recommended), or try the initial recovery method mentioned above (or use similar recovery software to Recuva). Hopefully, this will help for any future scenarios. Hard drive/flash failure happens, so it's important to know what to do in that situation. Most importantly, always backup your necessities onto another hard drive, so you don't have to go through the recovery process in the first place!
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