[bmshanley]

Actually, this was somewhat successful. This shows the hard drive as /dev/sda, with nearly all of it as sda1 and then 8mb or so of unallocated space, as previously discussed.

So, I'm curious as to why it shows up here, but not in fdisk (which only shows my data stick, sdb1).

Oh, I'm also curious as to what you suggest next :-)

Thanks again for your continued help.

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Try the following commands

sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

There is a space between the "sda" and the "/mnt"
Also with the 2nd command

There might be error messages.

[edge2022]

Try the following commands

sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

There is a space between the "sda" and the "/mnt"
Also with the 2nd command

There might be error messages.

[bmshanley]

I should also note that when I click on information for sda1, it has a huge error message.

$MFT has invalid magic.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed
Failed to load $MFT: Input/Output error
Failed to startup volume: Input/Output error
Failed to mount /dev/sda1: input/output error

It then goes on to preach the warnings of NTFS' inconsistancies, and to run CHKDSK /f twice (which I can't, as far as I know).

[bmshanley]

The only error messages were that I had to specify the filesystem type.

Try the following commands

sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

There is a space between the "sda" and the "/mnt"
Also with the 2nd command

There might be error messages.

[edge2022]

Ok...
Try

sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt -t ntfs -r
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt -t ntfs -r

I have to log off now, see u tomorrow at around 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Edited by edge2022, 01 April 2009 - 12:15 AM.

[bmshanley]

Gave those a crack and got the following error messages. Thanks for your help, very, very much.

[email protected]:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt -t ntfs -r
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda' doesn't have a valid NTFS.
Maybe you selected the wrong device? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/hda, not /dev/hda1)? Or the other way around?


[email protected]:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt -t ntfs -r
$MFT has invalid magic.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or you have hardware faults, or you have a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows TWICE. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If you have SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first you must activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for the details.

[edge2022]

http://www.sysresccd...-start-guide_EN

Check this guide and download the boot disc. It has tools to help fix the MBR and the MFT on ntfs partitions. I don't know the specifics and I don't have time to research them. Try doing this yourself, I know u can.

[bmshanley]

It took me a few days to get back to working on this problem, then a few days of playing with it on and off, but I've had some success using the system restore CD that you mentioned with Photorec. I've been able to mount a flash drive and have Photorec search for files of specific types. It's worked well for pictures, but I've had some difficulty getting .doc files and the like to recover. Something gets recovered, but it doesn't open correctly. It may just be saving all office files as .doc as opposed to .xls and the like. I'll have to play with that.

But it looks like this was at least mostly successful. While I'll take any more advice you can offer, thank you for all your help. It looks like I may walk away with at least a lot of my data.

Brendan

[anzenketh]

bmshanley,

I would recommend testing your hard drive. It looks like you may have a hard drive issue.

Run Hard drive diagnostics

• Turn off your computer
• Turn it back on.
• Press F12 until you get a one time boot menu.
• Select IDE or Hard drive diagnostics.
• Post back if you get any errors.

[edge2022]

From the errors that you gave, I think the issue here is a corrupted MFT (Master File Table).

[email protected]:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt -t ntfs -r
$MFT has invalid magic.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Input/output error

Run the hd diagnostics that tux suggested. I don't know of any free software that can recover MFT. I know there are some, it's just that I don't know of any.

EDIT: Also run check disk off your Windows CD.
Use the command chkdsk /r

Read this:http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-397447.php

Edited by edge2022, 07 April 2009 - 04:40 PM.

[bmshanley]

Got the following message:
No diagnostic utility partition found. To run diagnostics, insert your Dell "Drivers and Utilities" CD, then select OK to restart the system and boot off the CD.

I'll have to try the CHKDSK again when I get home. It threw and error, but I can't recall what it was. I'll have to try the tips from PC Review too.

Thanks,
Brendan

[anzenketh]

bmshanley

Did it run any diagnostics without a blueish screen before you got that error message?

[bmshanley]

It ran for about 8 minutes before I got any error messages.

[anzenketh]

It ran for about 8 minutes before I got any error messages.

What were the error messages?