Recovering data from a broken HDD

[Shamim Shahriar]

On 17/09/2017 23:51, Adam Vande More wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 17, 2017 at 5:39 PM, Shamim Shahriar 
> <shamim.shahriar at gmail.com <mailto:shamim.shahriar at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Good evening all, hope everyone is well.
>
>     a little background:
>     I have a couple of portable HDD. One of them was dropped a few
>     weeks back, and then the computer stopped recognising it and asked
>     it to be formatted. Once formatted, it appeared to start working
>     again -- even though all previous data had been lost, and no, I am
>     not trusting that device to hold any important data.
>
>     Last week, another HDD slipped through the hands (literally). This
>     one too is showing the same/similar symptoms as the previous one.
>     I believe that the data is still there, but somehow the alignment
>     has shifted and hence the HDD controller is unable to provide the
>     data. I am wondering, can anyone please suggest a data recovery
>     programme that I can try on the drive? The HDD being not in the
>     western/relatively-more-techy region cannot be sent to a data
>     recovery company (and I have been told they cost you a fortune),
>     but have access to m$ or Mac or Linux or BSD systems. So if anyone
>     could please suggest something to try on (Yes, I had been on
>     google, and found a huge amount of tools -- but I would much
>     rather try out something that someone has already tried and can
>     give some insight on).
>
>
> recoverdisk(1)
>
> -- 
> Adam
thanks Adam, that looks really interesting. I will try that as soon as I 
get a large enough drive to put the data on (once the shops open).

In the meanwhile, if anyone has any other suggestion, please do feel 
free to chime in.

Best regards