Fixing a bad or corrupted hard disk?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pvest
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Pvest

I have a 160Gb troublesome WesterbDigital hard disk, which I used as a
backup during a clean reinstall of XP.

I backed up all users documents, plus some other files for each user.



When I tried to copy it back after a new installed XP, the problems started
and I couldn't read from some of the sectors in the harddrive.

In fact, when trying to read from some of the sectors, the PC slowed down
and came up with a "blue-screen" saying error reading NTFS.sys.



I searched for recovery software from WD and others. Tried both WD-"Data
Lifeguard Tools" and "Recover My Files", with the same negative result.

100% document recovering of user "1" (a very happy user),

between 50-70% of recovering of user "2" (me, not a happy user L ) and

70% recovering of "all user" documents.



Some of the documents (doc., pdf, jpg) could not be recovered at all, and
some seemed to have been recovered, but can't be open or just gives me a lot
of rubbish!



I ran diskcheck in XP, it didn't report anything. I ran chkdsk /f from
prompt and it found some file error which it reported to have fixed.

Ran chkdsk /r from prompt, it was running up to 7%, and then stopped for 12
hours.

Had to exit, for to get out of it.



I have a very bad feeling that my hard drive has a physical damage?? But
since I'm not a specialist on this, I cannot be 100% sure and still hoping
to find a miracle cure, read software, which can retrieve my corrupted
documents and files!!



During a new search to day I came across 2 sites, which claim to have the
magical or tools I'm looking for!!??

But need some good advises from some of you, whether the documents, files
can be recovered?, the disk can be "fixed"?, before I start throwing money
out of the window!



Links for these HD tools:

http://www.pcbeginner.com/tools/tools.htm

Pcbeginner Utilities suite 2006

http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/

Hard Drive Mechanic



Anyone having any experience with there utilities?

Can my hard drive been fixed or is it destroyed?



Kindly regard,



Pvest
 
Western Digital technical support has the expertise to help you...or to
offer advice in case your drive is damaged.
 
Pvest said:
I have a 160Gb troublesome WesterbDigital hard disk, which I used as a
backup during a clean reinstall of XP.

I backed up all users documents, plus some other files for each user.



When I tried to copy it back after a new installed XP, the problems started
and I couldn't read from some of the sectors in the harddrive.

In fact, when trying to read from some of the sectors, the PC slowed down
and came up with a "blue-screen" saying error reading NTFS.sys.



I searched for recovery software from WD and others. Tried both WD-"Data
Lifeguard Tools" and "Recover My Files", with the same negative result.

100% document recovering of user "1" (a very happy user),

between 50-70% of recovering of user "2" (me, not a happy user L ) and

70% recovering of "all user" documents.



Some of the documents (doc., pdf, jpg) could not be recovered at all, and
some seemed to have been recovered, but can't be open or just gives me a lot
of rubbish!



I ran diskcheck in XP, it didn't report anything. I ran chkdsk /f from
prompt and it found some file error which it reported to have fixed.

Ran chkdsk /r from prompt, it was running up to 7%, and then stopped for 12
hours.

Had to exit, for to get out of it.



I have a very bad feeling that my hard drive has a physical damage?? But
since I'm not a specialist on this, I cannot be 100% sure and still hoping
to find a miracle cure, read software, which can retrieve my corrupted
documents and files!!



During a new search to day I came across 2 sites, which claim to have the
magical or tools I'm looking for!!??

But need some good advises from some of you, whether the documents, files
can be recovered?, the disk can be "fixed"?, before I start throwing money
out of the window!



Links for these HD tools:

http://www.pcbeginner.com/tools/tools.htm

Pcbeginner Utilities suite 2006

http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/

Hard Drive Mechanic



Anyone having any experience with there utilities?

Can my hard drive been fixed or is it destroyed?



Kindly regard,



Pvest
Click to expand...
I have had good luck using Gibson Research's Spinrite since the early
DOS days. The last time I used it was to fix a XP Pro boot drive long
enough to use Ghost on the drive and replace it. It fixed the problems
that were stopping Ghost and I recovered 100% of the disk's contents.
 
I use a bit of software Disk Commander from Winternals however it is
expensive software and if the files are damaged due to being copied to a
damaged hard drive then there really is not much hope of them being
restored. Perhaps a recovery service can have some results but they are very
expensive.
 
Pvest said:
I have a 160Gb troublesome WesterbDigital hard disk, which I used as a
backup during a clean reinstall of XP.
Click to expand...

If you didn't update Windows so it would use 48bit addressing, data on
that drive could appear corrupted. Hopefully you have not tried running
chkdsk. http://www.48bitlba.com/
 
Just a silly thought, since he did a clean [new] install of
XP, does he need to take ownership of the files/folders?

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421




|I use a bit of software Disk Commander from Winternals
however it is
| expensive software and if the files are damaged due to
being copied to a
| damaged hard drive then there really is not much hope of
them being
| restored. Perhaps a recovery service can have some results
but they are very
| expensive.
|
| --
|
| Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell\User]
| www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
|
|
| | >I have a 160Gb troublesome WesterbDigital hard disk,
which I used as a
| >backup during a clean reinstall of XP.
| >
| > I backed up all users documents, plus some other files
for each user.
| >
| >
| >
| > When I tried to copy it back after a new installed XP,
the problems
| > started and I couldn't read from some of the sectors in
the harddrive.
| >
| > In fact, when trying to read from some of the sectors,
the PC slowed down
| > and came up with a "blue-screen" saying error reading
NTFS.sys.
| >
| >
| >
| > I searched for recovery software from WD and others.
Tried both WD-"Data
| > Lifeguard Tools" and "Recover My Files", with the same
negative result.
| >
| > 100% document recovering of user "1" (a very happy
user),
| >
| > between 50-70% of recovering of user "2" (me, not a
happy user L ) and
| >
| > 70% recovering of "all user" documents.
| >
| >
| >
| > Some of the documents (doc., pdf, jpg) could not be
recovered at all, and
| > some seemed to have been recovered, but can't be open or
just gives me a
| > lot of rubbish!
| >
| >
| >
| > I ran diskcheck in XP, it didn't report anything. I ran
chkdsk /f from
| > prompt and it found some file error which it reported to
have fixed.
| >
| > Ran chkdsk /r from prompt, it was running up to 7%, and
then stopped for
| > 12 hours.
| >
| > Had to exit, for to get out of it.
| >
| >
| >
| > I have a very bad feeling that my hard drive has a
physical damage?? But
| > since I'm not a specialist on this, I cannot be 100%
sure and still hoping
| > to find a miracle cure, read software, which can
retrieve my corrupted
| > documents and files!!
| >
| >
| >
| > During a new search to day I came across 2 sites, which
claim to have the
| > magical or tools I'm looking for!!??
| >
| > But need some good advises from some of you, whether the
documents, files
| > can be recovered?, the disk can be "fixed"?, before I
start throwing money
| > out of the window!
| >
| >
| >
| > Links for these HD tools:
| >
| > http://www.pcbeginner.com/tools/tools.htm
| >
| > Pcbeginner Utilities suite 2006
| >
| > http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/
| >
| > Hard Drive Mechanic
| >
| >
| >
| > Anyone having any experience with there utilities?
| >
| > Can my hard drive been fixed or is it destroyed?
| >
| >
| >
| > Kindly regard,
| >
| >
| >
| > Pvest
| >
| >
|
|
 
Jim Macklin said:
Just a silly thought, since he did a clean [new] install of
XP, does he need to take ownership of the files/folders?
Click to expand...
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421
Click to expand...

That shouldnt produce the blue screens and
should just produce an access denied instead.

Harry Ohrn said:
I use a bit of software Disk Commander from Winternals however it is
expensive software and if the files are damaged due to being copied
to a damaged hard drive then there really is not much hope of them
being restored. Perhaps a recovery service can have some results but
they are very expensive.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


Pvest said:
I have a 160Gb troublesome WesterbDigital hard disk, which I used
as a backup during a clean reinstall of XP.

I backed up all users documents, plus some other files for each
user.



When I tried to copy it back after a new installed XP, the problems
started and I couldn't read from some of the sectors in the
harddrive.

In fact, when trying to read from some of the sectors, the PC
slowed down and came up with a "blue-screen" saying error reading
NTFS.sys.



I searched for recovery software from WD and others. Tried both
WD-"Data Lifeguard Tools" and "Recover My Files", with the same
negative result.

100% document recovering of user "1" (a very happy user),

between 50-70% of recovering of user "2" (me, not a happy user L )
and

70% recovering of "all user" documents.



Some of the documents (doc., pdf, jpg) could not be recovered at
all, and some seemed to have been recovered, but can't be open or
just gives me a lot of rubbish!



I ran diskcheck in XP, it didn't report anything. I ran chkdsk /f
from prompt and it found some file error which it reported to have
fixed.

Ran chkdsk /r from prompt, it was running up to 7%, and then
stopped for 12 hours.

Had to exit, for to get out of it.



I have a very bad feeling that my hard drive has a physical
damage?? But since I'm not a specialist on this, I cannot be 100%
sure and still hoping to find a miracle cure, read software, which
can retrieve my corrupted documents and files!!



During a new search to day I came across 2 sites, which claim to
have the magical or tools I'm looking for!!??

But need some good advises from some of you, whether the documents,
files can be recovered?, the disk can be "fixed"?, before I start
throwing money out of the window!



Links for these HD tools:

http://www.pcbeginner.com/tools/tools.htm

Pcbeginner Utilities suite 2006

http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/

Hard Drive Mechanic



Anyone having any experience with there utilities?

Can my hard drive been fixed or is it destroyed?



Kindly regard,



Pvest
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I have an 80GB WD Caviar Hard Drive that failed to show up in windows.
I use it as a slave in my desktop. The BIOS could detect it, but
neither DOS nor Windows XP were able to see it. It only showed up in
the device manager as "being there" as a piece of hardware.

I have tried 3 different utilites:

- PC Inspector File Recovery 3.0 (free from download.com)
This utility scanned my drive and showed the whole directory of the
failed drive. It was only able to recover some of the files, though.
The files that were important to me were not found, i.e. the folder
where the reside showed up, but the actual files didn't. Whenever I
tried scanning the whole drive, the program would give me an error
message. So, the program is great if it works for you, it's free, give
it a try and see.

- Search and Recover 4 (free evaluation from www.iolo.com)
This program didn't even recognize the failed disk, so yeah, it didn't
work for me.

- R-Studio Data Recovery 3 (free evaluation from download.com)
After a full scan of my drive which took about an hour this program
showed all of my lost files, plus files that I previously deleted
myself which I didn't even care for. It then recovered 100 % of my
lost files (well, actually I didn't test every single file, but I did
test random files, and they all worked). The trial version can only
recover files smaller then 64KB in size, so I paid the $49.99. I
immediately got a license per e-mail and was able to use the product
right away.

So I'd say, give R-Studio a try, if your files show up and if small
files can be recovered, then the $49.99 are a small price to pay.

- Dennis
 
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