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Thread: Harddrive data recovery

  1. #21
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    Well i just tried Ubuntu
    I can't get Ubuntu loaded while i have the bad HDD installed.
    I wish i knew how i could do a print screen while it was trying to load. Since i dont know if that is possible i will try to type what i see when its trying to load.
    _____________________________________________________________________________

    XXX.XXXXXX ata.01: status {drdy err}
    XXX.XXXXXX ata.01: ERROR {UNC}
    XXX.XXXXXX ata.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
    XXX.XXXXXX ata.01: BMDMA stat 0x65
    XXX.XXXXXX ata.01:cmd 25/00:02:73:a6:d2/00:00:11:00:00/f0 tag 0 dma 1024 i
    ____________________________________________________________________________
    The xxx.xxxxxx represent #'s..It just keeps scrolling this then a long pause and finally a blank screen. If i hit Enter at the blank screen i go back to a cmd prompt type screen.

    I am guessing that these are sectors being checked and they are failing? just guessing :P
    Any suggestions?

    Quote Originally Posted by C:\Saw View Post
    Try burning puppy linux

    www.puppylinux.org


    It's only 94 mb

    Includes gparted and all you need to mount and view/copy from your disks
    Think i'll give this a try now

  2. #22
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    Thought i might also add that i have a good drive set as master and the bad drive as slave. Although very slow i Boot into windows with this set up.

  3. #23
    Dissident 4dm1n brokencrow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Drscratchnsniff View Post
    I can't get Ubuntu loaded while i have the bad HDD installed.
    That's not a good sign. Typically Ubuntu automounts a
    PC's harddrives. And Ubuntu won't even load with the
    bad drive installed? Run fdisk if you can get Linux booted
    to find out the status of the partition(s) on the bad drive.

    Sounds like it may be beyond repair. You might try it
    on a different PC and/or using a SATA/IDE-to-USB cable.
    That's a great piece of equipment to have and only runs
    $20-30.
    “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” — Will Rogers

  4. #24
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Well, if you can boot into Windows then that is a start.

    You will need a partition on your working master drive or an external drive at least the size of the defective one.

    Load roadkil's "unstoppable copier" onto your master drive (not the recovery partition of course) or some other media and try to run it against the defective drive.

    This software doesn't care about your partition tables MBRs or crap like that. It will even work (within limitations) on drives that are physically and/or electronically damaged. I am not aware of any other free data recovery product that will do this. It is available in both Linux and Windows versions BTW.


  5. #25
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    All righty ladies and gents,
    Thank you sooo much for all the advice. I never did get the drive mounted with a Linux OS,
    but after playing with Spinrite a bit i decided to try somemore recovery software. I am not sure if spinrite helped or not but after spinrite i ran "Active@ File Recovery" and the scan made it all the way through to 100%
    I have about 50% of the data a need recovered backed up now on an external drive..Its slow but its working
    Thanks again for everyones help! Nice active board here. I know my post count does not reflect it but i have been lurking around this site for years now (even before i joined)
    I can never really comment on threads here because soo much of it is over my head, but i have learned alot from the members here just from lurking.
    Peace
    Mike

  6. #26
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Thanks for the feedback Mike.

    Spinrite and active@ are both commercial products, I am afraid you did not say you were prepared to pay

    That explains why the suggested solutions were basically zero cost.


  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by nihil View Post
    Thanks for the feedback Mike.

    Spinrite and active@ are both commercial products, I am afraid you did not say you were prepared to pay

    That explains why the suggested solutions were basically zero cost.

    HEHE...i understand.

    I personally was not willing to pay, but my client (client, for lack of a better word)was.
    Spinrite seems like a nice little app. Courious what some of you more experinced guys think of it.

    Also still courious what the exact issue with the drive was/is. If it was infact the partition table, how does something like that get messed up like that. I know the family that owns this pc uses it mainly for general internet and email. They dont really do any downloading or anything like that. I have been the only person that has worked on thier computer for a few years and i have even noticed they dont pick up as much malware as other comps i have cleaned up.

  8. #28
    Dissident 4dm1n brokencrow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Drscratchnsniff View Post
    Spinrite seems like a nice little app. Courious what some of you more experinced guys think of it.
    I like Spinrite. I've had varying results using v6. The first drive I ever used it on was not only totally recovered, but even useable again. Freaked me out. Other times, Spinrite yields nothing after running for days. Results depend more on the condition of the drive than anything.

    In a sense, time is of essence when dealing with a failed hdd. Not necessarily in terms of hours and days, but a bad hdd only has so much life left in it before it TOTALLY fails. If a drive's going bad, trying to boot from it again and again can make recovery tougher. I always opt for a simple recovery to begin with, such as booting from a PE or Live CD. Then I resort to something like Spinrite or Active File Recovery (I need to give RoadKil a try soon).

    Also still courious what the exact issue with the drive was/is. If it was infact the partition table, how does something like that get messed up like that.
    Sadly, computer hardware has a short lifespan, typically 3 years. Some brands are junk (H*****i for one). Harddrives are probably more sensitive to power supply than commonly assumed. Data, including partition tables, are written to sectors on the drive, and if that sector that part of the partition table is written on goes bad, then the partition table becomes unrecognizeable. Apps like chkdsk (built into Windows) typically mark a sector bad and move the data to a different sector (I've had good success using chkdsk). There's a lot that can go wrong with a hdd as it typically has more moving parts than any other part of a computer. IMLU (in my limited understanding).
    “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.” — Will Rogers

  9. #29
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    I too normaly have good luck with chkdsk.. I think this is the first time i have ever had it completly fail. It just seemed every sector was bad. I found it funny that the 120 gig drive was showing 160 gig.
    I personaly have had great luck with HDD's in general although after reading your post and dealing with this drive, i am going to make for sure all my important data is backed up.
    I can't remember the last time i bought a new HDD.. I get so many junk computers to scrap out i have just been using old used drives...Might be time to go shopping!

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