Help! How to recover data from corrupted HDD?

[FulciLives]

Hello !!!

Well I royally screwed up somehow ...

I've been playing around with LINUX and decided to install SAM 2007 (a flavor of PCLinuxOS) and when it installed to my main C: drive (with a Windows XP installation) something went wrong and now the HDD is "unreadable".

I had about 30 GB free and was going to use 10 GB for the SAM 2007 LINUX install and I used GParted/SAM 2007 to partition etc. but apparently something went wrong ... I think ... with the partitioning.

In short the HDD is not readable. Although detected by my computer's BIOS it is not listed in MY COMPUTER etc. because ... you guessed it ... I had to buy a new HDD and did a clean INSTALL of Windows XP Pro to it with hopes of recovering the data on the HDD I "ruined".

At this point I've been busy downloading all the Microsoft updates (which took forever but finally got that done). It is nice to have a "new" clean system. Computer seems to boot very fast and is responsive etc. unlike the way it was which was a bit sluggish at times.

Anyways here is where I need help ...

What program (or programs) can I try to use to "rescue" the data from the old HDD and copy it over to the new HDD? I have a lot of graphic images and text files etc. I want to salvage ... if possible! After which I intend to reformat the old HDD and make it a 2nd HDD for video work etc. and perhaps install Linux there (but never again will I try to install Linux on the same HDD as Windows).

I have no idea what is a good program or programs to try. Also if possible I would like programs that are either freeware OR programs that have a full featured trail period which will be "long enough" for me to save my stuff. I suppose if a trail period program works I will go ahead and register it.

If anyone needs more information here is a quick rundown of what I did:

1.) I used the LiveCD version of GParted to shrink my NTFC partition by about 11 GB which left about 19 GB or 20 GB free on the NTFS partition. This left about 11 GB of "unused" space. I then re-booted the computer and it worked as normal so I don't think anything went wrong with this step.

2.) When I ran the LiveCD of SAM 2007 (which uses the PCLinuxOS installer as it is a subset of that flavor of Linux) I then had it create three partitions within that 11 GB of free space. That is what it wanted to do. One was the LINUX SWAP and one was "/" or "root" I guess and the other was for user data I think. My Linux experience is very limited. I basically let it do it's "thing" and made sure it left the Windows partition alone. It didn't use GParted but something similar and it appeared as though all looked OK to me. Again though I have limited knowledge of this stuff.

3.) Part of the install was to create some sort of "bootloader" where one picks ... upon turning on the computer ... to use Linux or Windows. I've seen this before when I played around with installing other flavors of Linux (Ubuntu and eLive) in the past as experiments (both of which never caused any problems).

4.) The Install "seemed" to go correctly and asked me to re-boot.

5.) After re-booting the computer I never (tried several times to re-boot) got anything like GRUB etc. allowing me to select Linux or Windows. Instead the Windows XP "splash screen" would come up followed by a "flash" of a blue screen with text (sorta like the dreaded blue screen of death when Windows crashes) and then that would be it. Nothing further would happen. Although this just happened a day or so ago I am already fuzzy now what happened next but as I recall either the computer would hang at this point or just re-boot and repeat all of this.

I suppose it's good that the Windows XP "splash" came up ... I'm hoping that means my data is still there somewhere but it seems odd to me that my new Windows install on a new HDD does not "see" this other HDD that I did the damage to even though it does show up in the BIOS.

So ... in short ... HELP !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[nic2k4]

If you haven't messed around with the drive after the incident you might be able to get most of your data back. First thing to try, boot your PC to the recovery console (F8 when windows first starts). From there use the FIXMBR command, the idea is to restore the original MBR.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

If that doesn't work, you'll have to resort to standard data recovery technics, there your mileage might vary. Try RECUVA, it's free and does a good job.

[Nelson37]

Can you use the pause key to try and read the blue screen text?

Is the new drive Master/Slave with the old one, or on a seperate cable? If not seperate, do so even if this requires disabling CD drive. Your symptom indicates this might be a solution.

Since you get the Windows screen, this would indicate a repair install might fix your problem, but then it might overwrite the data you need.

I have had very good success with GetDataBack for NTFS, I think the trial would show what files it could get but would not get any unless you paid. $99.00 IIRC and it paid for itself on the first use. It does NOT write to the suspect drive, only to another drive in the system. Have used it three or four times now and it has never failed to completely recover data, even on totally unrecognized drives. Fantastic prog. Slow, large drive took 10 hours or so to scan, roughly same time to recover, only user action required was after scan to select what files you wish to recover.

I should note it was not completely perfect, one or two of thousands of JPG files were partly corrupted, I believe from the actual head crash.

I have moved drives around several times since last use, not sure if it is still functional. I may be able to help with installation issues, PM me if any problems.

[the_man_one]

personally i would try to reload grub... i have the same os's working on the same hdd (sam & xp) dont try to do nothing fancy just let it default install ie: let sam be the first choice... or get hirens boot cd & reload the windows mbr while resizing the windows to cover the other partitions

[the_man_one]

btw if it wants to do 3 partitions set 1 as swap file (no more than a gb)... 1 for mbr (grub) 500 mb should be a gracious plenty for this partition... & the last for the os (use reiserfs or ext3 for the file system [these are linux versions of ntfs... more than 3 gig file size support])

[dcsos]

If you can take out the new drive put the sick one back in and get as far as the prompt "Leave the current file system intact" in a fresh install or repair, why wouldn't all your files be there?

If a WINDOWS XP BOOTABLE DISC can be placed in the cd drive and booted to
if when you get to the install screen that says
"Leave the current file system intact"
You can choose this option, and follow thru without errors,
then XP will be reinstalled. You must create a new USER NAME and either CHOOSE REPAIR (deletes all files in WINDOWS FOLDER) or fresh install.
If you decide to do a fresh install on the same partition it will warn you this is a bad idea, not KNOWING that you will never try the older second option on the boot menu created : ie previous version of XP it'll say.
The new USER NAME insures that none of your MY DOCUMENTS will be erased.
The program files will not be erased, those programs that are part of the OS
will be reinstalled over themselves , killing any personal settings.
Most already installed programs will not run under the fresh install, tho'
But all yer files will be there!
If you don't do a repair -FRESH INSTALL on the same partition---
Make sure you call the folder you install into WINNT (the only legal alternative to WINDOWS)

I've succesfully "leapfrogged" windoes on at least 20 machines this way
Good Luck

[FulciLives]

Well the first thing I did was download and attempt ... yes attempt ... to use RECUVA ... but since Windows doesn't "see" the HDD ... well ... neither does RECUVA.

So I don't think that program will work.

As for the HDD ... it was the only SATA drive in the computer (I do have a second USB HDD). The new HDD is also SATA and was plugged into the motherboard using the connector plug that the original HDD was using ... the original is now using the 2nd SATA plug. Both are recognized in the BIOS but the old SATA (the one that got all corrupted) does not list in the MY COMPUTER section of my new Windows XP Pro installation. In other words the BIOS sees it but Windows does not.

I did visit the website of GetDataBack but the price is $79 and right now I want to try to avoid that as money is tight especially after blowing $97.00 USD on the new HDD (I was lucky that Best Buy had a 320 GB Seagate SATA HDD on sale for $89.99 + sales tax).

As for GRUB ... well not sure how to do all that. I've played around before with Ubuntu and eLive (both are versions of LINUX) and they used GRUB but everything was done by the install so ... I don't know if SAM 2007 uses GRUB and if so I have no idea how to do anything with it on my own, i.e., manually.

As for the FIXMBR thing ... sorry but I should have said that I tried to do that but it didn't seem to work. I've done this before and in the past when I used the "R" option by booting the Windows XP Pro CD-ROM I am asked to select the WINDOWS "install" I want to work with ... when I tried it this time I was given no option ... as if it didn't "see" that there was a Windows XP install on the HDD.

So I guess I am still in need of some help here!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I think I am going to see what GParted says it can see ... if anything ... on the corrupted HDD.

[FulciLives]

If a WINDOWS XP BOOTABLE DISC can be placed in the cd drive and booted to
if when you get to the install screen that says
"Leave the current file system intact"
You can choose this option, and follow thru without errors,
then XP will be reinstalled. You must create a new USER NAME and either CHOOSE REPAIR (deletes all files in WINDOWS FOLDER) or fresh install.
If you decide to do a fresh install on the same partition it will warn you this is a bad idea, not KNOWING that you will never try the older second option on the boot menu created : ie previous version of XP it'll say.
The new USER NAME insures that none of your MY DOCUMENTS will be erased.
The program files will not be erased, those programs that are part of the OS
will be reinstalled over themselves , killing any personal settings.
Most already installed programs will not run under the fresh install, tho'
But all yer files will be there!
If you don't do a repair -FRESH INSTALL on the same partition---
Make sure you call the folder you install into WINNT (the only legal alternative to WINDOWS)

I've succesfully "leapfrogged" windoes on at least 20 machines this way
Good Luck

Interesting.

I guess you posted this while I made the post I did above so I didn't see this until I was done but I don't think this is what I want to do. If you followed what I said I just bought a new HDD and did a fresh Windows XP Pro install. All I want now is to get my files off of the old HDD which is now in 2nd place ... but apparently "unreadable" ... at least by "standard" Windows "means".

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[AlanHK]

Testdisk is a freeware that analyses a disk and tries to work out a partition structure.
It then offers to write this new (hopefully the same as the old) partition table.
I found it able to bring back a hard disk Windows had trashed that nothing else could see.

It'll take a few hours to do the analysis, let it run overnight.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html

It doesn't write anything unless you confirm, and it only writes the partition table and MBR, which is useless now anyway, so it's pretty low risk.

[dcsos]

if'n RECUVA doesn't do it, I've done the following 8 times succesfully now --only 2 times it didn't find anything John.

iRecover only works after you reformat the drve and can see it in the EXPLORER WINDOW with a drive letter. Never tried it with a disc havin LINUX or HFS installed over FAT32 or NTFS but for drives that windows scrambles, this works!

After formatting the program takes 10 to 50 hours depending on drive size to compile a list of recoverable files. They must be recoved to a disc larger than the one that failed.


its 79.00 also, but you can download non-working but shows you what it can recover demo
http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm

[Bjs]

Seen in bios , yes , but not in windows ?

Did you right click on my computer , sellect manage , and check for it here under storage > disk management ?
If it shows the drive here , then it may need to be reinitialized before any program can recover data .

Sometimes uninstalling the controllers in the hardware management for ide / ata / sata and reboot , can wake up the system to the fact its connected .

If the drive shows up , then drive rescue can help find logical drives and partitions , in which you can recover data , green is good .

The good thing about drive rescue is it dont give a stuff about partitions , it'll find them on its own even if they are gone , caused by whatever reason .

The bad ... it hasnt been updated in a long time , but still works fine .

Windows dose have its headaches , but have you tried mounting the faulty drive using ubuntu linux which has sata support ... you may need to install the tools required for recovery .

----

On rare occassions , setting the drives to cs only , may be all thats required to get windows to actually see it .

I have had a few western digitals do this before , and put it down to faulty control cards on the drives ... windows would not see them in master or slave modes , but bios did .

[overloaded_ide]

iRecover only works after you reformat the drve and can see it in the EXPLORER WINDOW with a drive letter. Never tried it with a disc havin LINUX or HFS installed over FAT32 or NTFS but for drives that windows scrambles, this works!

After formatting the program takes 10 to 50 hours depending on drive size to compile a list of recoverable files. They must be recoved to a disc larger than the one that failed.

its 79.00 also, but you can download non-working but shows you what it can recover demo

I just bought Irecover last week myself and also Disk Patch!

It is fast, should not be anywhere near 10-50 hours hopefully! I think it took about 20 minutes or so for a 20gig partion of files and maybe 30minutes for a 60gig partion, was a total of 80gig drive. It scanned and found the files fast, then the copy to a new drive was fairly fast also considering all the data being moved. I had another 80gig drive also I did and it went super fast. I did all data on both drives in 3 scans in a few hours.

I don't remember exactly how long it took to scan the drives and find the files cause I was doing tons of stuff at once on several drives, I don't think it ever took a full hour for me.

Both drives windows could see but one drive showed both partitions as not formatted, the other drive windows kept wanting to run a disk fix on when I booted and was telling me corrupted MBR or MFT, DON"T DO THAT, abort the scan before it starts if one tries to start at some point.
Windows saw the drive but would not copy any data from it, at least at one point. I did so many things on 2 systems now I got confused on which drives did what and when.

Backups are always your best bet, but when two systems go down at the same time and they have each others backups your still screwed!

Download the Irecover software demo from DIY and run it, free and it will save 1 folder each time you run it. You can see if it finds your files with the demo, if it does find your files save a large folder of files to another drive with the demo, then go open the files and see if they are correct and work.
I must have ran the demo 10 times and saved 10 folders at least before I bought the program for the $80. Each time you run the demo to save 1 folder it must do a full scan, but the registered version only has to scan once.
With over 4,000 folders on one drive just saving one at a time running the demo each time was not an option though it works! If you have only a couple folders holding all your data you could just run the demo 10 times and get back 1 folder each time and not have to buy it. I think they said no limit on the folder size with the demo, but it only does 1 per run.

I do now have what appears to be ALL my data and files back and correct as far as I can tell. Those were the boot drives from 2 seperate systems. Daughters and wifes computers broke, mine I take better care of and was still great

I used Irecover to save both hard drives to a drive I wiped in my own system, then in this system I put another drive with a fresh install then ran Irecover to save both drives to this system also.
In doing it that way I figure if I got a bad file anywhere I discover later I have a chance of it being recovered correct in the other backup. So instead of just saving the drive once then tranfering a second copy to the other system I recovered the sames files seperate times on eachs ystem now

If you buy Irecover from DIY they also have a program called Disk Patch that may work for you. It should find the NTFS MBR MFT reset or replace or rebuild them, partitions also etc.. and the program I think was about $50
I bought both Irecover and Disk Patch as a combo pack for 20% discount, I think total was like $104.

Download and run the demos!
If Irecover finds your files and saves them correctly to another drive and they work that probably all you need. If not, then run the DiskPatch demo. They say to save the log file and send to them with a brief discription of the problem your having and they will give and HONEST opinion if Disk Patch can fix your drive. Also offer help on how to do it I think they said. So you should know before buying either program if you can use them to get back your data. Only thing your out of is your time to try them if they don't work.


You can look at SPIN RITE by GRC and see if it sounds like that would fix your drive to be readable in windows, I forget what it does now for bad drives for repairs, might also fix or undo format problems your having. I do know it's about $80 with a promise to refund your money if your not happy and THEY DID send back a refund faster than I ever thought they could!
I bought it before Irecover to try to fix the one bad drive, it did not work for me on that problem or I just did not use it correctly??
I asked for refund and money was in my bank next day! So nothing to lose spending money with them, if it don't work for you they do honner the refund policy extremely well and fast!!!

[edw]

SPINRITE from www.grc.com

[dcsos]

but the registered version only has to scan once.

and if you have the registered one, you can "SAVE STATE" which allows you to recover files
without going thru a scan for their presence again (you've saved the list of recoveable file in this "STATE" file)

[Nelson37]

If the Repair option on Windows setup does not see a partition, you have a problem.

Drive not recognized by Windows, and Fdisk/MBR no fix, problem gets bigger.

ANYTHING which writes to that drive, in ANY way, is quite likely to blow away all of your data.

If files were saved as Administrator, a new installation of Windows may not be able to read them at all, due to security, even if you setup the same password.

Recreating the partition table would be an absolute last resort. You may very well get a working, but empty, drive with no further recovery possible.

I can confirm that GetDataBack has worked perfectly on a drive that was not recognized by Windows. Got the data, then wiped out partitions, recreated, re-formated, and re-install. Drive considered suspect and replaced for customer, I get a lot of my scratch drives this way.

[the_man_one]

Put the redhat boot disk you created on the installation on the floppy drive, boot the system and run grub command

Remember that for grub (hd0,1) means hda (primary controller master), second partition.

Now we need to tell grub where are the grub files:

If you know where they are, type something like:
root (hd0,1)

else if you have no idea, type:
find /boot/grub/stage1
and then the root command with the correct parameters:

setup (hd0)
to install it on hd0, that is MBR of the first HD.

type quit and reboot.
The menu will appear again.
If you want to make some changes to the boot menu, you must edit the file: /boot/grub/menu.lst

A sample menu.lst file is this:



default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-openmosix3)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-openmosix3 ro root=/dev/hda2 hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-openmosix3.img
title WindowsME
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1




this is to reinstall grub with RHL with win98 or ME... but should do it with sam also... if that is a bit too much command line for u just stick the sam in & reinstall with the gui provided

[Nelson37]

This is the second post in just a few days where an attempted Linux install using Grub has completely fubar'd a Hard Drive.

IMO, this software is demonstrated to be unreliable. Using it a second time to repair the drive would seem to be a bad idea. Getting rid of it completely would appear to be a better idea.

Once some idiot hits me on the head with a hammer, I want the idiot gone and the hammer in MY hand. Some prefer to give the idiot another swing, this is something I fail to understand.

[FulciLives]

I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to all who have chimed in on this BUT at the moment I am trying various things (some of which have been suggested here) yet I have not had success ... yet!

Still got a lot of stuff to try but I will update soon with hopefully good news

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[dcsos]

title WindowsME
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1




this is to reinstall grub with RHL with win98 or ME.

Windows ME
oh no! anything but that!


seriously I understand it'll take days and weeks not hours to rebuild a computer virtual workspace
and its never reaally the same is it?
Good Luck
meanwhile just installed Safari under VISTA ULIMATTE ADITION...surfs like a speed demon!

[zoobie]

Perhaps Linux Knoppix which runs in your cd/dvd tray will see your HD and you can copy from there. It works with mine when XP doesn't "see" my second HDD...

[Nelson37]

Sorry. Duplicate post

[Steve Stepoway]

Windows has (or at least used to have) restrictions on partition tables; specifically that partitions had to be in the partition table in the same order as they appeared on the disk. A partition table in which the partitions jumped back and forth was considered illegal by Microsoft. Unfortunately, it was possible to create such a partition table by deleting/resizing/creating/etc. I know somebody who did this on a pure Windows machine (nothing to do with Linux/GRUB/etc). It wasn't me; I'm the one who had to fix it. IIRC (this was several years ago) I did manage to get at the data from a live Linux CD (probably Knoppix).

Steve

[fatbloke88]

If you have access to Acronis True Image and another pc you can create a bootable rescue disk ,boot your computer from the disk,and recover your files to another drive.works every time i screw up when playing with suse10 and is easy to use
I've also had some success with r studio but the acronis method works every time apart from when the read heads fell off one of my drives

[TBoneit]

I've used Easy Rcovery pro form here. It works on drives with no drive letter too.
http://www.ontrack.com/software/
This is the link to the trial version that won't recover but will show what can be recovered.
http://www.ontrack.com/include/document.asp?file=http://download.ontrack.com/freedownl...ERPROT_610.exe
or the lite version trial at http://www.ontrack.com/include/document.asp?file=http://download.ontrack.com/freedownl.../erdrt_610.exe

Myself on something like this I tend to go with the Pro software and Ontrack has been around a while and has recovery facilities all over too.

I myself would not write anything to that drive as it could and most likely will reduce recovery likelyhood.

Good Luck to you John
Roger

[ranchhand]

I know I am late with this, but like Zoobie above, I use Knoppix5 all the time and it hasn't failed me yet. Unless you have a "wiped" drive or it is mechanically failed, Knoppix will work. To be honest I didn't deeply read the entire post here, a lot to read. If you want any pointers on Knoppix I am happy to help.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

stick it in another PC and use FileScavenger -- It can see drives that Windows won't recognize. I am saying this from first-hand experience.

[cd090580]

Did you try GetDataBack for NTFS. It habe the capacity to recover data from lost partitions, damaged mft,.... but you need a working xp for that (or a windows live cd: ie BartPE).

Fixboot and fixmbr not working ????

[the_man_one]

just a heads up.... linux is a very good os, super stable (unlike windows), better security, never needs defragging, its free (mostly) & if installed correctly will run on most anything (if u have the correct distro)... the problem with linux is that it takes just a lil bit of thought waves (windows requires hitting next, next, next) to get it going & some comand line support (windows automates most of these things)... dont let this little setback turn u away from linux... when u get a distro installed it just works... i have installed probably 30 or so distros in my time (currently run what u have on ur system with no problems) all with no problems... nelson try not to be so negative towards what u dont understand & just use windows (it suits u)

[Nelson37]

30 Linux installs, huh? Goodie. In several hundred Windows installs, I have never had the software screw up the partitions on a secondary drive. NOT ONE SINGLE TIME.

There are two seperate posts on this Website in the last week where a Linux install has done just exactly that.

To observe facts is not to be negative. To call this track record Super Stable is just ridiculous. If you like Linux, great, it has some neat features. But understand what it is, the whole kit and kaboodle, is Beta Software.

When the Linux fanatics will admit that Grub has quite simply screwed up, then they will gain some credibility with me. When they continue to insist that there is no problem, no error, no fault in their wondrous, chosen OS, I just lump them in with the KVCD crowd.

As usual, they will insult me personally, my intelligence, experience, and general knowledge. They have yet to address the real failings of the OS, never directly respond to specific remarks, when challenged, they simply find another insult. Not all, but most do not seem to have gotten out of high school yet.

Grub has clearly screwed up two different users. OK, Linux fanboys, is this an error or is this some figment of my imagination? No crap, no BS, simple yes or no. Any takers?

[FulciLives]

Well I have good news.

I installed a program called Active@ File Recovery and this has successfully scanned the corrupted HDD (running the program from a new HDD with a fresh WinXP Pro install) and I have been able to copy my data from the corrupted HDD to the new HDD (the new one is 320GB whereas the old one is only 200GB).

I am actually still in the process of copying what I want but so far everything seems to be A-OK so I am hoping that the rest of the files (still to be copied) are also A-OK.

I was in the process of copying over a big block when the power went out ... talk about luck LOL ... I thought I saved the scan but I saved the LOG FILE instead so I had to do the scan all over and waiting for it to complete. It's like someone has it in for me LOL

Anyways ... it will be another night until I can sift though it all but yes so far everything seems to have been "recoverable" and so far what I have copied over to the new HDD seems to be working just fine. The program hasn't "saved" the HDD as in make it usable (i.e., bootable etc.) BUT I can copy the data over to the new HDD and that is all I care about.

I did try some of the suggested programs but nothing really worked until someone tipped me off to Active@ File Recovery and I am so glad that it is working!

I am still willing to try Linux but in the future I think I will leave the main HDD (the new one with the fresh WinXP Pro install) alone and just install Linux to the 2nd HDD which I plan to reformat once I get all my data off of it.

Which begs another question ... and perhaps I should make a new thread ... but if I have WinXP Pro on one physical HDD and will be installing Linux to another physical HDD ... well can this be done without using GRUB at all?

I mean if I install Linux to the 2nd HDD then I assume I can decide if I want Linux or WinXP Pro by simply switching the BOOT ORDER of the drives in my BIOS (a feature my BIOS supports).

That seems to be a safer way to go about it but I am afraid when I do try to install Linux that it will try to install GRUB even though LINUX will be on one HDD and WinXP Pro on another.

Suggestions please?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman