[Magna Carta]

All right. Around a few months ago, I had encountered a problem with my hard disk drive, and it was a terrible one. First, it started with Windows hanging at the login screen when I installed grub on the same drive and resized one of the Compaq partitions (the "SYSTEM_SAV" [yes all in capitals] partition), which was a fault of mine. Then, the hard drive's fate was sealed when I thought I would be able to "fix" the problem by running fixmbr from a Windows disk. Because of this, the partition table has been incinerated, and access to all partitions have been closed off. Fortunately, I had made a backup of the data on another hard disk drive, but unfortunately that fell from a desk and I am unsure as to whether the backup hard disk is usable or not (probably not).

So, I decided to just abandon all hope, and have the computer with the faulty hard drive lay there dormant. Until now...

At Office Depot, I was quick enough to pick up a copy of Partition Commander 10 Pro, which could be operated both from Windows and via booting from the CD. So, I pop the CD in the computer, wishing for the best of luck. Yet when accessing the partition software with GUI, I encountered a problem; the drive had appeared all one partition, with an "invalid" file system, and could not be copied. I tried searching through the entire CD for programs that might have the ability to restore the partition table, but to no luck (as the program that did did not recognize the drive or partitions as "correct"). Fortunately, the hex of all of the drive's contents was accessible, and I saved that on an external hard drive (all sectors).

However, after looking at the file size, I am beginning to have doubts. The drive is 31.5 GB in size, but the sector.bin file generated from the partition program is 1.99 GB. Here are my questions:

1. Is the sector.bin file a bona fide copy of the disk? It is readable and I have it currently opened with a hex code editor, but I'm unsure as to whether all of the data is in that puny 1.99 GB.
2. Is there another possible way (by software) to salvage the data from the hard disk?
3. If absolutely not possible by software, is there another method to restore all hard disk data (by perhaps sending it to a business that may specialize in hard disk repair)?
4. In the unlikely event that the drive is restored to its former condition, what might help the particular ailment Windows is having?

Here are some of the follies I have commited before the fixmbr disaster that should be noteworthy:

• Before shrinking SYSTEM_SAV (D and installing GRUB on a separate partition (/boot), I had been stupid enough not to have defragmented, even though I only had the computer for less than a month.
• The data was accessible in Linux (of which I installed in another disk drive), but I was stupid enough not to get a backup of the data (the backup aforementioned was from before the Linux installation).

I would also like to apologise for my utter ignorance in this issue, as I have little to no knowledge about hardware, especially with the hard drive. I thank anyone who is able to help me out in an issue like this.

 

[Scorpion]

Wow...lots of stuff you've tried there.....

Try THIS program to pull the data off the drive. I've used it a few times with no failures. Install it to a master, with the old drive as slave. As long as the drive is recognized in BIOS, it will work. There is a tutorial included, just press F1, then English, then select the right choice for you. Onnce finished, it'll give you 4 'folders' on the left......open them, and move the contents to a new drive.

Scorp.

 

[crjdriver]

You might give this a shot. PC inspector

 

[Magna Carta]

All right, thank you both for the help. I shall try the program both of you suggested, and I am confident that this shall work as expected.

 

[Scorpion]

You might give this a shot. PC inspector

Lol...Almost same program - same company...Great minds eh?

S.

 

[Magna Carta]

All right. I have some neutral news:

• In order for me to salvage the data, I need Windows
• The largest operating hard drive I have is 4.2 GB; if I installed Windows on that, it would be almost full.
• The damaged drive is 31.5 GB, and the partition I want to rescue is circa 20 GB. Not going to fit.
• I can't do a network rescue, because that would require for the computer to be running an operating system connected to the internet.
• Other computers in our household do not have the capability to run another hard drive, due to chasis design.

I certainly don't want to go back to a computer store and purchase a 60 GB hard drive. Don't get me wrong; I want to use this program, seeing how Scorp said it worked for data salvaging without problem. I just don't have the ability to yet.

I post (or rather edit) more updates as this goes along.

 

[crjdriver]

You do not have to physically install a hd into the system. I connect them all the time with just a cable and molex [power] connector. I usually let the drive rest on a book or something. As long as one of the other computers in the house has an extra [unused] ide channel, you can connect a drive temporarily to the system. This is just for the purpose of salvaging the data.

 

[Magna Carta]

The problem is, however, that I don't have another system that can have an extra drive added, not only due to chassis design (I should have mentioned the other problem, my fault), but the fact that the channel used for the hard drive is not a standard IDE channel. The others are Mac Mini's, actually, and because of this I can't add an extra hard disk.

However, I have sparked an idea: using one of the small hard disk drives I have, I'll install both Linux and ReactOS. The reason is:

• To try and use ReactOS to run PC Inspector
• If PC Inspector on ReactOS fails, to try and run PC Inspector from over-the-network and rescue the hard drive

I'm unsure though as to whether PC Inspector works via local ethernet, but I will give it a try.

Wish me the best of luck as I try sifting through a damaged hard drive.

 

[JohnWill]

Truthfully, I'd forget trying to run a low level drive diagnostic on an emulator, that's almost certain to fail.

Do you have ANY system that has two IDE channels? If so, remove everything from the secondary IDE channel and install the damaged drive to that, and boot from a disk on the primary IDE channel.

If not, perhaps you need to start looking for someone with a system that will allow this operation.

 

[Magna Carta]

I will have to, anyways; the computer which has the hard drive that no longer operates does not recognise any peripherals connected to it, and I believe that something wrong has gone with the motherboard. I will have to send it to someone who can retrieve the data themselves.

 

[Magna Carta]

All right... good news and bad news.

Good News: I've been able to find a hard drive that I can use for the recovery. I've installed Windows on it (which is running terribly under this fast a system), and I have PC Inspector installed.

Bad News: Using the "find lost data" tool, I selected for all of the sectors to be "found." However, this error pops up after I click on the green checkmark:

Access violation at address 0048F782 in module 'filerecovery.exe'. Write of address 20F961D.

Any suggestions as to rectify this predicament?