[MisterCorn]

Ok, in my mind, I have already written off any hope of true recovery... But out of morbid curiousity, here goes.

In the beginning, a laptop existed. Vista Ultimate, security programs, and other programs were installed. Bitlocker was then turned on, key saved, and the computer went to work. Months later, after a bunch of crucial information was stored on the laptop (and not backed up) the computer was brought back, with boot issues. After running some diagnostics, I find it has a failing hard drive, and my meager recovery abilities can do nothing for it. It was then sent to a data recovery center, and after 3.5 months, it has come back. However, now, I have a hard drive with 3 partitions, no OS, no partitions accessible without formatting, and time spent with google has turned up nothing.

Ideas? Suggestions? Is this a good one, or what? Ask if more information is needed for idea generation. Thanks in advance!

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the recovery company sent you back an unusable drive? did they recover the data off of it and transfer it to another type of media? did they send any info as to what was done and what you should now do with the drive?

[dsenette]

the recovery company sent you back an unusable drive? did they recover the data off of it and transfer it to another type of media? did they send any info as to what was done and what you should now do with the drive?

[MisterCorn]

the recovery company sent you back an unusable drive? did they recover the data off of it and transfer it to another type of media? did they send any info as to what was done and what you should now do with the drive?

Yep, as far as I can tell, they were paid $1850 (not by me) to return to us a refurbished drive with 3 partitions that are supposed to be what they recovered from the drive, and that it is in 3 partitions due to Bitlocker being on it. However, as given to them, prior to crashing, and with Bitlocker on it, it had 1 main partition, and a 1Gb recovery partition. The 3 partitions it has do not appear to have any data, recoverable via the Bitlocker key or otherwise.

[MisterCorn]

the recovery company sent you back an unusable drive? did they recover the data off of it and transfer it to another type of media? did they send any info as to what was done and what you should now do with the drive?

Yep, as far as I can tell, they were paid $1850 (not by me) to return to us a refurbished drive with 3 partitions that are supposed to be what they recovered from the drive, and that it is in 3 partitions due to Bitlocker being on it. However, as given to them, prior to crashing, and with Bitlocker on it, it had 1 main partition, and a 1Gb recovery partition. The 3 partitions it has do not appear to have any data, recoverable via the Bitlocker key or otherwise.

Oh, the "recovered information was sent back on a different hard drive, I am currently trying to get back the original drive as well, to see what more I can do with it.

[dsenette]

have you contacted the recovery company to ask them about this? without know what they've actually done, we can't really help you figure too much out about this. especially if this is REALLY important data (which if you're willing to spend $2k to get it back, it must be).....we can suggest a few things. but anything we suggest could run the risk of losing anything that IS on the drive

[dsenette]

ok, so you GOT all of the pertinant information off of the old drive...you're just trying to get to where you can reuse the old drive? not trying to get any more info off of it.


To completely erase all data on the drive(s) using Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN)

Download

Readme.txt

Bootable CD version (ISO)
OR
Bootable Floppy/USB Version (EXE - self extracting setup)

Use

Bootable CD

• Burn the DBAN ISO file to a CD.
  NOTE: Keep in mind that this is different than burning a file to a CD. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download CDBurnerXP Pro and install it. Then go Here for instructions for burning the ISO image
• Reboot your PC with the DBAN CD in the CD-ROM drive.
  NOTE:Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device. You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• Once you have successfully booted to the DBAN disk, type
  

  Autonuke

• Once the process is completed you may run it again as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable, but my experience shows that twice is plenty (unless you usually walk around your house in a tinfoil hat so that the government's spies cannot intrude into your thoughts and steal all of your secrets)

Bootable Floppy/USB

• Double click the DBAN EXE file that you just downloaded to execute it
• Choose the drive that you would like to install DBAN on (A: for a Floppy or whatever letter is assigned to your chosen USB device)
• Press Install
• Reboot your PC with the DBAN Floppy in the Floppy drive or your USB device attached to an open USB port.
  NOTE:Make sure the PC is set to run from the Floppy or USB device as the primary boot device. You do this by setting your PC to boot to the Floppy or USB device in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the Floppy or USB device as the first boot device)
• Once you have successfully booted to the DBAN disk, type
  

  Autonuke

• Once the process is completed you may run it again as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable, but my experience shows that twice is plenty (unless you usually walk around your house in a tinfoil hat so that the government's spies cannot intrude into your thoughts and steal all of your secrets)

IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE TO LABEL YOUR DBAN DISK CLEARLY AS ACCIDENTAL USE WILL BE CATASTROPHIC!

.

[MisterCorn]

We got jibberish back, though, which is the problem. I will be talking with the data recovery tech soon, and find out what he says, see if that helps me access any data off of it. I am hoping that it just magically works, and asks me for the recovery password...

[dsenette]

ok, DO NOT DO THE DARIK"S BOOT AND NUKE! if you haven't actually gotten your data recovered correctly.

you need to get with the recovery company and see what's going on

[MisterCorn]

Recovery place says it needs to be decrypted... Not too helpful.

Starting the standard Microsoft Bitlocker Recovery program, as instructed by the read-a-long from Microsoft on the download page. Not too hopeful, but will post results tomorrow.