[piggyprobe]

Windows XP Home SP2

Over the last several days I've been working with some great folks here to resolve a blue screen of death (http://www.geekstogo...t-p1266752.html). I think we've determined that the HDD is fried, and now I'm trying to find a way to recover the data on the drive now that it's no longer booting. So far, I have taken the drive and connected it to an XP Pro computer as a slave drive, but unfortunately I'm not sure where to go next. I read in another post that I may be able to use windows explorer to view the data, but the only option I get when clicking on the drive is to format it.

From here, I'm guessing that I need to turn to some software in an effort to try to retrieve the data, and I would appreciate all the expert advice you can pass along in this process. I should have been backing up my data, and will be doing so in the future. Thanks in advance.

piggyprobe

Edited by piggyprobe, 22 June 2008 - 07:50 PM.

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Hello,

Have you tried to use a LiveCD from Linux like Ubuntu to see if you can access the drive and its contents? If so you could just use the LiveCD to move the Data to the new PC where you have the drive now or just burn it to a CD/DVD from there.

Cheers,
Mak

[Makaveli213]

Hello,

Have you tried to use a LiveCD from Linux like Ubuntu to see if you can access the drive and its contents? If so you could just use the LiveCD to move the Data to the new PC where you have the drive now or just burn it to a CD/DVD from there.

Cheers,
Mak

[The Skeptic]

If Makaveli213 advice doesn't help then try to use the other computer's OS (win pro) to run a chkdsk of the malfunctioning disk. Right click the disk in My Computer > properties > tools > error checking > check now. Check the two boxes and click Run. If asked to reboot - reboot. I know that you tried it from Recovery Console and it failed, but no harm trying again.

If not successful then you can run a data recovery program like Undelete Plus or ntfilerecovery (both free). Please note: If the disk is badly damaged and the programs has to go to slow mode, the recovery can take days, weeks or even months, depending on the size and level of corruption. If it does that, stop it after sometime (an hour or so) and check the results. Sometimes the recovery is not successful and you are just wasting your time.

If the data is very important you can call, for quotation, one of the labs who specialize in data recovery. They can recover almost anything that is brought to them but they charge accordingly. You can expect a quotation in the range of several hundred dollars. In extreme cases (which doesn't seem to be the case here) they may ask for thousands of dollars.

[piggyprobe]

Makaveli213 - after about 30 minutes of searching, I've settled on something called GParted (http://gparted.sourc...cumentation.php). I will give this a try, as I should be able to copy the NTFS partition from my shot HDD my other one.

Thanks, Skeptic - unfortunately, when I right click the disk the only option I have is to format it. I don't have any other options. It is a Maxtor drive, so I've removed the pins all together to put it into slave mode. I'm assuming since I can see the disk that it is installed correctly.

[piggyprobe]

Gparted is running into a problem viewing the data on my fried HDD.

Failed to read $MFTMirr: input/output error
could not mout device '\dev\hdbl' :input/output error
NTFSresize v1.13.1 (libntfs 9.0:0) Input/output error

Error (5)
NTFS is inconsistent. um chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot twice!

The usage of the /f parameter is very important! No modification was and will be made to NTFS by this software until it gets repaired.

Unable to read the contents of this file system. Because of this some operations may be unavailable.

Any thoughts on what chkdsk /f might do to the data that exists on the HDD?

[xxdanielxx]

I am sorry but if your Hard drive is fried how are you able to read the data the only way i know of getting the data off of a fried hard drive is to swap out the internal parts to the exact type of hard drive

[xxdanielxx]

you can download drive fitness test and run a full test on your hard drive. At the end it will give you a code post it here. Download link is below also you need to burn the image to a cd

http://www.hitachigs...s/ftool_210.iso

[The Skeptic]

1: chkdsk /f is a variant (or whatever you call it in English) of the chkdsk command. When you run chkdsk /r, as suggested before, it covers also chkdsk /f. Since you do not succeed with chkdsk /r and chkdsk /f cannot harm your data, you can try to run it.

2: Your hard disk is not fried. I have no doubt that physically it has no problem and a good format will bring it back to life. The problem is that you want to save your data first, and that's what we are trying to do.

3: Don't even contemplate touching the inner or outer parts of the disk. You will ruin it. This can only be done by a specialist in a positive pressure, ultra clean environment.

4: If you try to reach the data with Linux then I think that the simplest is to download and run Puppy Linux. Download Puppy Linux from my list of links below. Download "puppy 2.16.1 seamonkey fulldrivers.ISO". Burn the ISO file to create a bootable CD. For this purpose you can download BurnCDCC from the links below. It's a very simple tool, used exclusively to burn ISO files.

Insert the disk into the CD/DVD drive and boot the computer. If it doesn't boot, please set boot order in the BIOS so that the CD drive is first priority boot device. If you have any difficulties please let us know.

5: You still have the option of using recovery programs, like I suggested before.

[piggyprobe]

Thanks again. I'm just getting to this now, but I wanted to make sure this thread stays open. Obviously I've never done this before and I really appreciate the help!

[piggyprobe]

I've got puppy up and running and I've launched Pmount Puppy Drive monitor. I can see my bad hdd and I can open it to reveal folders stored on it (Documents & settings, Program files, etc). When I start to drill down into these folders, it doesn't look like there is any data available in them. One folder that is critical shows with no folder icon but a yellow warning sign. I also get the following NTFS Warning:


Failed to read $MFTMirr: input/output error
could not mout device '\dev\hdbl' :input/output error
NTFSresize v1.13.1 (libntfs 9.0:0) Input/output error

Error (5)
NTFS is inconsistent. um chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot twice!

The usage of the /f parameter is very important! No modification was and will be made to NTFS by this software

So Now I'm not sure what to do next.

Edited by piggyprobe, 24 June 2008 - 07:02 AM.

[The Skeptic]

Boot to Recovery Console after placing the drive to the original computer. In recovery console run the command
chkdsk /f

[piggyprobe]

CHKDSK /F

The parameter is not valid. Try /? for help.

[The Skeptic]

Try the following

Remove the hard disk back to the working computer (sorry about moving you back and forth). Boot the computer and click Start > Run. In the command line type cmd and press Enter. At the prompt please type chkdsk X:/f and press Enter. X should be replaced with the drive letter of the damaged drive.

[piggyprobe]

should take a few minutes - when I boot with both drives in, windows auto runs chkdsk on the bad hdd and reports damaged boot sectors.

[piggyprobe]

I'm getting a list from chkdsk - file record segment xxxx is unreadable. This is the same thing I see when I boot on this computer with both hdd connected.It's quite a list, so I will continue to let it run and see what it does after it finishes.