Defrag crash corrupted my disk, any recovery possible?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John7
  • Start date Start date
J

John7

Hi,

Lately, while defragging a 100GB hard disk
defrag.msc crashed. After reboot this disk had
disappeared. Disk Management reports a
7.87GB 'healthy' disk, but unformated and empty.
I lost 43GB of data "!@#$%&".

Any chance of recovery and how ?

I'm afraid to defrag other disks now.
How can I prevent defrag from crashing ?
The system had no problems so far.

John
 
John7 said:
Hi,

Lately, while defragging a 100GB hard disk
defrag.msc crashed. After reboot this disk had
disappeared. Disk Management reports a
7.87GB 'healthy' disk, but unformated and empty.
I lost 43GB of data "!@#$%&".

Any chance of recovery and how ?

I'm afraid to defrag other disks now.
How can I prevent defrag from crashing ?
The system had no problems so far.

John
Click to expand...

Here are some tools that might help:

http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm (to restore NTFS partitions - seems to
work well)
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz (has NTFS undelete tools too)
http://www.runtime.org/ (GetDataBack)
www.acronis.com (RecoveryExpert)

In general I think that defragging is unnecessary and potentially
harmful (as you found out). In most cases you would need a
stopwatch in a tightly controlled test to detect a measurable
benefit in performance before and after defragging.
 
In said:
Hi,

Lately, while defragging a 100GB hard disk
defrag.msc crashed. After reboot this disk had
disappeared. Disk Management reports a
7.87GB 'healthy' disk, but unformated and empty.
I lost 43GB of data "!@#$%&".

Any chance of recovery and how ?

I'm afraid to defrag other disks now.
How can I prevent defrag from crashing ?
The system had no problems so far.
Click to expand...

All I can suggest for the future is that defragmentation should only
be done after first confirming the integrity of the volume. eg
CHKDSK. And that as few processes as possible should be running.
Especially real-time file monitors. Not to mention keeping data and
registry backups current of course, or even better a fresh "image" of
the system.

I can only guess at the actual problem, but suggest that it may well
be recoverable using utilities such as mentioned by Pegasus or
others.

Reply posted only to microsoft.public.win2000.registry
even though I don't see this as a registry issue initially. The
..hardware group or other disk group is the most likely best bet IMO.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Here are some tools that might help:

http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm (to restore NTFS partitions - seems to
work well)
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz (has NTFS undelete tools too)
http://www.runtime.org/ (GetDataBack)
www.acronis.com (RecoveryExpert)

In general I think that defragging is unnecessary and potentially
harmful (as you found out). In most cases you would need a
stopwatch in a tightly controlled test to detect a measurable
benefit in performance before and after defragging.
Click to expand...
Thx,

How to distinguish the good from the bad?
Any experiences / preferences?

John7
 
John7 said:
Thx,

How to distinguish the good from the bad?
Any experiences / preferences?

John7
Click to expand...

Sorry, I do not understand your question. Please elaborate.
 
John7 said:
Sorry, re-phrasing ...

How to distinguish the good from the bad - Tools above?
Any experiences / preferences - Regarding these tools?

John7
Click to expand...

I'm pragmatic: I weigh up the benefits against the costs. Defragging
is equivalent to open heart surgery: If the power fails in the middle
of the operation then it's just bad luck for the patient. I used to get
a warm feeling each time I defragged my disk but then I noticed
that it did not appear to improve performance, so I stopped doing it.
Why risk my machine if the benefit is marginal?
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
I'm pragmatic: I weigh up the benefits against the costs. Defragging
is equivalent to open heart surgery: If the power fails in the middle
of the operation then it's just bad luck for the patient. I used to get
a warm feeling each time I defragged my disk but then I noticed
that it did not appear to improve performance, so I stopped doing it.
Why risk my machine if the benefit is marginal?
Click to expand...

True, but unfortunately I'm stuck with my sick patient now.
Any suggestions to my re-phrased 2 questions above ?
 
John7 said:
True, but unfortunately I'm stuck with my sick patient now.
Any suggestions to my re-phrased 2 questions above ?
Click to expand...

OK, I now see what you mean. Of these tools -

http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm (to restore NTFS partitions - seems to
work well)
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz (has NTFS undelete tools too)
http://www.runtime.org/ (GetDataBack)
www.acronis.com (RecoveryExpert)

I have used the Recovery Expert from Acronis to recover
lost partitions. It worked fine. I have also had good newsgroup
feedback for restorer2000.

Many tools let you install a free trial version. It shows you what
it discovers but it won't let you retrieve anything until you pay up.
 
In said:
True, but unfortunately I'm stuck with my sick patient now.
Any suggestions to my re-phrased 2 questions above ?
Click to expand...

Although I have never personally used these tools, I have heard from
others that they work well and are reasonably priced for the typical
results.

http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/

Not knowing what actually was damaged is a problem of course. It's
difficult to recommend much when the problem is not well defined. A
partition table error might be one possibility that should be fairly
straightforward. MFT (NTFS) trashed is likely at the other end of
the spectrum IMO.

Are you checking with the .hardware group guys or other disk recovery
groups/fora where the answers (and questions) might be more on topic
for the readership? This is not actually a "registry" issue.


Reply posted only to: microsoft.public.win2000.registry
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
OK, I now see what you mean. Of these tools -

http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm (to restore NTFS partitions - seems to
work well)
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz (has NTFS undelete tools too)
http://www.runtime.org/ (GetDataBack)
www.acronis.com (RecoveryExpert)

I have used the Recovery Expert from Acronis to recover
lost partitions. It worked fine. I have also had good newsgroup
feedback for restorer2000.

Many tools let you install a free trial version. It shows you what
it discovers but it won't let you retrieve anything until you pay up.
Click to expand...
Thx for the advise.

John7
 
Hi,

after reading some of the posts I would like to add that I have tried
several tools to recover data in a partition without recognizable file
system and what worked best for me was "Get Data
Back":
http://www.runtime.org/
They have a trial version to download and test what you would recover if you
paid, you can even look at the files.

Regards
Armin
 
Thx, I'll check it out.
John7


Armin Freiberg said:
Hi,

after reading some of the posts I would like to add that I have tried
several tools to recover data in a partition without recognizable file
system and what worked best for me was "Get Data
Back":
http://www.runtime.org/
They have a trial version to download and test what you would recover if you
paid, you can even look at the files.

Regards
Armin
Click to expand...
 
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