Need some advise on how to recover files from a bad drive

Message

Marb · #1 Post by **Marb** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 10:32 am

Hi all,

Short Version:

P4 3.0
Foxconn MOBO
XP SP2
60g Samsung HD, partitioned
512mb ram
Windows, drivers, etc was all up to date at the time of failure...

First off, my primary PC fails to boot past the 2-tone blue XP screen. Won't even start in Safe-mode.

Using Windows:
I slaved the drive to my back-up PC and found that the "C:" partition is at least readable, with proper file structure and what not; the "D:" partition, where all my non-backed up files are (d'oh!

), is not readable through windows at all. Tells me it's not formatted...
Oh, just to clarify: when slaved, "C:" is listed as "F:" and "D:" is "G:." I assume this is normal?

Using recovery programs:
Most free-ware recovery programs would either not recognize the drive, crash, or report finding nothing but garbled stuff.
One commercial demo actually found most, if not all of my files! It even gave previews of my lost pictures! If I could afford it, I would have gladly paid the $49 for it.

So, aside from scanning it a few times, I've resisted the urge to pry further into the drive for fear of over-writing data or damaging it any more.

Can the UBCD help in this situation?
I've got my UBCD in hand, verified it boots properly with my backup PC.
How should I proceed from here to recover my lost files (approx 2-5gb)?

Oh, BTW, the suspect drive is still mounted in my back-up, it's not hooked up, though. Should I leave it there? Or should I mount it back in the original PC?

Thanks in advance,
-Marb
PS, I'm still kind of a newb with computers beyond the basics.

EDIT: sorry if this is in the wrong forum; could a Mod move this to the right one, if it is misposted?

#2 Post by **Victor Chew** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 10:53 pm

I would recommend that you try "TestDisk" under Filesystem Tools/ Partition Tools. It is an excellent data recovery tool.

Marb · #3 Post by **Marb** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:15 am

Thank you, Victor.

I ran TestDisk and one of the errors had something to do with hard drive size not matching actual size. Not knowing exactly what to do, I didn't change or write anything to the bad drive.
Instead, I ended up using PhotoRec, which is a pain to navigate through all the files it saved.
But still I'm missing ".wpd" files that I know are still there somewhere.
Any other thoughts?

Thanks again,
Marb

#4 Post by **Victor Chew** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 3:16 am

You best bet is really TestDisk, which can recover entire corrupted partitions if that is the problem.

PhotoRec is nice too, but it recovers deleted files, which is far from what TestDisk can do for you.

Take a little time to acquaint yourself with TestDisk by visiting its homepage, and try to figure out how to use it. It will be worth your while.

Marb · #5 Post by **Marb** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:04 am

Ok, I'll read up on it a little more.

I hope I'm not being a pain, but I have one more question:

Should I put the drive back into the original computer case, or leave it slaved to my backup computer?
I was able to access the BIOS with the original, so it shouldn't be a problem running TestDisk, right?

Also, my backup is a stock HP, so the BIOS looks quite a bit different from my other one.

Thanks again.

#6 Post by **Victor Chew** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:24 am

Don't see why you shouldn't put the drive back into the original machine, unless you suspect the original machine is faulty somehow eg. memory errors etc.

If you can afford the hardware and time, one typical advice for data recovery is to clone the problem HDD to another HDD and work on the clone HDD, not the original. But I guess most people can't be bothered with it. I myself have never followed this piece of professional advice.

yana224 · #7 Post by **yana224** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 7:38 pm

Hey, have you ever heard about http://www.diskemergency.com it’s also one of the best among the all data recovery service providers. It has many ways to recover our data from any disk. Hope this will work out for you.
All the best!