Hard drive died - now what after Disk Utility didn't find it?

PSDR requires a newer OS - that won't help. Computer did just what I wrote - question mark at start up and then nothing. Disk Utilities doesn't show the drive - only the original disk that I put in to use DU.

Here's a link to the older version which was at the bottom of the URL I gave you: Data Rescue 3. You'll need to create a bootable USB thumb drive to install it onto, then you'll reboot your system with the USB drive to then run Data Rescue 3. Again this is to try to recover your important files. If you can't get it to come up you may need a new drive. The last option here is to ship out the drive to a data recovery service but that will be expensive! In any case you'll need a new drive to get this system working again. You may want to think if its worth it, it maybe time for a new system.

This program has worked great for me in the command line. The way I use this program is with a Windows 10 PE bootable USB. The second link is to DL the ISO and then copy the Test disk program to the usb drive. An easier way is to install the test disk program on a second computer slave the hard and search that way. Either way its not a easy way to search for files. I like test disk because it keep all folder and file names intact not dir10001 with a ton of files with no names. TestDisk is open source :)

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

http://windowsmatters.com/2016/05/13/gan...

I have used Ontrack, Disk Doctor, Disk Digger i have used several different programs but test disk is my most reliable to recover the most data. I can take hours but its worth it. It's at least an option before you send it to a clean room.

Jim is this TestDisk being used on a Mac or a PC?