Partition in HD corrupted - testdisk fix does not work

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:24 am

I have two WD Hard drives one 500GB that came with my Dell computer and another 320 GB I had bought from Best Buy 18 months ago. The First drive had Vista 64 bit preinstalled by Dell. In the second HD I have Win2K which I use for running apps that are not runnable under Vista (GTA Vice City, Nero burning ROM etc.). I hit F12 during boot to choose the OS to boot.

My computer is an Intel Core2 Quad PC Q8200 @ 2.33GHz with 4GB RAM.

It is the 300GB HD that I had bought from BestBuy and has Win2K on it that has problems now. It has 3 Partitions: C, D & E. Two days ago, while booting the PC, CHKDSK reported errors in partitions D & E and performed some checks with messages like "orphaned files found" etc. When the OS started, I noticed that D & E were no longer accessible. C was still working well. Windows explorer said that the drives were corrupted. I have Testdisk 6.10 that I had downloaded a few months ago and I used it to check the drive. It complained that the cylinder geometry should be 240 and not 255. I corrected it, and it was able to list all 3 partitions, but was able to list files only from C & D but not from E. I saved this configuration and rebooted as directed, but chkdsk came up again while booting and said E drive needs checking. Then it said that "Master File Table corrupt. CHKDSK aborted" and booted. Once I logged in, I saw that the D drive has now been restored but the E drive is completely inaccessible. No amount of repeating the testdisk write is able to restore this and chkdsk everytime complains that the MFT is corrupt, even though testdsk is supposed to have fixed the MFT.

If anyone can please help me, I would appreciate it.

PS: I know Photorec that comes with testdisk can probably restore all the files, but it will rename the files to something generic, which it will be impossible for me to rename as I have lots of files in there. I tried recuva, but it was not able to find anything on the drive. "Properties" dialog box for the partition displays 0 bytes free space, 0 bytes used.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:15 am

Are you able to slave this drive to another PC (or boot up with XP on another drive on this same rig)...and browse the partitions?

Sometimes running checkdisk from another OS can fix tanked partitions....a few times, if the drive is ready to jump off a cliff..it'll push it over the edge.

Sometimes putting the drive in a freezer overnight can help, it's allowed me to snag data from a few failed drives over the years.

With partition problems like these, esp when you get orphaned files 'n those .chk0001 directories 'n such...consider the drive tanked, get your data off if you can, and toss the drive.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:22 am

Hi YOSC!

Yes, I already have this drive slaved in my PC. The main drive that came with my PC has Vista, and the corrupted drive has Win2K, and I am able to choose which drive to boot by hitting F12 when booting. I have run testdisk6.10 while booted into Vista as well, but got no luck.

Edited to add:

I just booted into Win2K again and clicked on "My Computer" -> "Manage" -> "Disk Management" , which shows a graphic map of the file partitions, and it shows the correct size of the partition and displays "Healthy". All partitions on the drive show the correct sizes and show "Healthy:" status. There is an option when I right click to make partition "Active". I am going to try that now.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:50 am

May want to hold on that "active"..it's a different "active" then you're thinking about.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:05 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:May want to hold on that "active"..it's a different "active" then you're thinking about.

Unfortunately it is too late. I have already done that and there is no way to undo this....

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:12 pm

You might also try HDD Regenerator, I have had it repair drives that would not boot. If you google search for Hirens BootCD and find a download site (the disk is invaluable for testing) it has HDD Regenerator on it and you can boot to the cd and run the program, it takes a while but it's worth it if you need the data.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:21 pm

mnosteele52 wrote:You might also try HDD Regenerator, I have had it repair drives that would not boot. If you google search for Hirens BootCD and find a download site (the disk is invaluable for testing) it has HDD Regenerator on it and you can boot to the cd and run the program, it takes a while but it's worth it if you need the data.

Hi mnosteele. This drive boots and works normally except that I am not able to access the last partition on the drive. Initially when this problem occurred, only C: was accessible, but with TestDisk, I was able to get back D:, but E: (the largest partition is still not accessible). It shows up in explorer, and in computer management -> Disk Management screen, but it has lost the label, and the filesystem is not marked as NTFS, and shows that the entire 170GB partition is free, even though I have several files on it.

Right now I am booted into this drive and working off of the OS installed in this drive's boot sector, which appears to be unaffected.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:25 pm

mnosteele52 wrote:If you google search for Hirens BootCD and find a download site (the disk is invaluable for testing)

THis is great. Is the HDD regenerator on the CD a demo version, or is it the full version (or is this a question I am not supposed to ask

)?

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:38 pm

I downloaded the HirenBootCD and kicked off the HDD Regenerator and let it run overnight. It was still running in the morning having completed 50%. I needed to use the PC to check email (I have the defective SATA drive as a second HD in my Dell PC) and so I hit escape to get out of the program intending to restart it once I was done with using the PC. But when I restarted the HDD regenerator, it worked or a while and suddenly stopped after an hour saying "HD turned off", "Switch off and on the PC to reset and restart the program". I rebooted and tried again but still the same problem. I guess I shot myself in the foot. I am now trying "Get data back for NTFS" on the same CD.

Also, the HD was bootable before I subjected it to HDD regenerator, but now it has become non-bootable.

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 9:19 pm

You should have let it finish then retrieved your data from the drive and replaced it.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:48 pm

mnosteele52 wrote:You should have let it finish then retrieved your data from the drive and replaced it.

I restarted the process again yesterday and got lucky. It has been running for 18 hours now and will take another 4 days to finish. I will let it run and see what happens.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:55 pm

Keep us posted.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:48 pm

Does hiren's boot CD still have pirated software on it?

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:07 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:Does hiren's boot CD still have pirated software on it?

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:28 pm

neo960 wrote:I rebooted and tried again but still the same problem. I guess I shot myself in the foot. I am now trying "Get data back for NTFS" on the same CD.

rule of thumb when it comes to data recovery (without getting too deep in forensics) is, every time the drive is accessed following whatever "disasterous event" including defragging, disk compression, encryption, (un)installs, formatting... even booting up, the %'age of data you may be able to recover goes down. hopefully you were able to recover most of your data.

GetDataBack for FAT/NTFS is a golden app, BTW. has saved my arse many times over the years.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:47 pm

Thanks Faust.

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:35 pm

CableDude wrote:Thanks Faust.

ah, no worries! not like i did anything. ;p

is that you in your avatar>? wanna cyber?

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:41 pm

Faust wrote: GetDataBack for FAT/NTFS is a golden app, BTW. has saved my arse many times over the years.

Actually I had to kill GetDataBack midway because it was choking on the bad sectors. I made a prayer and started HDD regenerator again and this time it started working and it has been running for the past two days. Keeping my fingers crossed and patiently waiting for it to finish. Another 67 hours to go.

Twice I bought Hard Drives from BestBuy and both drives went bad. The OEM drives that came with my PC never had any problems. So I am in a quandary as to where to buy my new HD from to replace the defective one that I am now trying to recover.

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:00 pm

neo960 wrote:Actually I had to kill GetDataBack midway because it was choking on the bad sectors. I made a prayer and started HDD regenerator again and this time it started working and it has been running for the past two days. Keeping my fingers crossed and patiently waiting for it to finish. Another 67 hours to go.

Twice I bought Hard Drives from BestBuy and both drives went bad. The OEM drives that came with my PC never had any problems. So I am in a quandary as to where to buy my new HD from to replace the defective one that I am now trying to recover.

/nods

GetDataBack essentially just reads a drive in raw, as compared to doing any kind of repair. i havent used HDD Regenerator myself, and am not implying anything towards it by my comments. data recovery can be tricky, but in essence you just wanna avoid any writes to the hdd until your data recovery attempt.

in regards to where to buy drives from? the fact they were from BB is, in my opinion, of little concern outside of the price/warrantee. they dont make 'em, they just sell 'em. however, you can greatly expand your list of options by buying from a sizeable/reputable online retailer. my personal fave is newegg. if you shop and compare you can sometimes beat their prices at a different reputable store/site. but on average i trust their pricing and speed of order processing/shipping.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:52 pm

Still some 150 hours more for HDD regenerator to finish. It apppears that the entire 320 GB HD has bad sectors.

While I am waiting for this to finish I want to order my new HD from newegg. I have had Western Digital and Seagate hard drives repeatedly failing over the years and I do not trust these companies any more. Newegg has Hitachi 1TB drive available for $79.99. Is this a good brand? 79 reviewers complain that the drive arrived DOA or died within a few months ater purchase.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145233

Can anyone recommend any trustworthy brands that I can buy?

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:00 am

I've been doing what I'm doing for a long...long...long time. For me, Seagate and Western Digital are tops.

Hitachi bought out IBMs hard drive division. They're not bad. Earned a bad reputation back in the 20,40,60 gig "Deskstar" series of drives..but that was fixed. (hence the nickname deathstar).

Seagate Barracuda series
Western Digital Caviar and Raptor series.

Shinobi · Post by **Shinobi** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:39 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:I've been doing what I'm doing for a long...long...long time. For me, Seagate and Western Digital are tops.

Hitachi bought out IBMs hard drive division. They're not bad. Earned a bad reputation back in the 20,40,60 gig "Deskstar" series of drives..but that was fixed. (hence the nickname deathstar).

Seagate Barracuda series
Western Digital Caviar and Raptor series.

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:34 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:I've been doing what I'm doing for a long...long...long time.

YOSC > All

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:05 am

I have had trouble only with the retail units of WDC and seagate. The Western Digital drive that went bad on me currently is only one and a half years old and I bought it from BestBuy.

On the contrary, the Western Digital drives that came preinstalled in my Dell PCs never went bad. Could it be possible that the OEM units are of better quality that the retail versions? Newegg seems to be selliing the OEM versions and I think I will try them out this time rather than buying a retail version from BestBuy.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:15 am

neo960 wrote:I have had trouble only with the retail units of WDC and seagate. The Western Digital drive that went bad on me currently is only one and a half years old and I bought it from BestBuy.

On the contrary, the Western Digital drives that came preinstalled in my Dell PCs never went bad. Could it be possible that the OEM units are of better quality that the retail versions? Newegg seems to be selliing the OEM versions and I think I will try them out this time rather than buying a retail version from BestBuy.

It depends on the model....each brand typically makes 3x grades of hard drives.
*Entry level for lesser priced OEM and budget retail boxes...1 year warranty, probably under 600k hours MTBF.
*Mid-range, for better OEM and retail boxes, 3 year warranty, above 600k hours MTBF
*Enterprise grade, for high end models and top retail boxes, 5 year warranty, over 1.2 million hours MTBF.

When selecting models, look at the details.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:19 pm

Got most of my files back with a combo of HDD regen & GetDataBackFromNTFS. In the end it was GetDataBackFromNTFS that retrieved my files for me, but HDD had recovered a lot of bad sectors. Thanks to mnosteele for the Hiren CD recommendation and to Faust and YOSC for all the help and suggestions!

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 8:44 am

Thanks for the update.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 9:34 am

CableDude wrote:Thanks for the update.

You're most welcome

Shinobi · Post by **Shinobi** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:13 am

neo960 wrote:Got most of my files back with a combo of HDD regen & GetDataBackFromNTFS. In the end it was GetDataBackFromNTFS that retrieved my files for me, but HDD had recovered a lot of bad sectors. Thanks to mnosteele for the Hiren CD recommendation and to Faust and YOSC for all the help and suggestions!

Thanks for the update Man.. I remember that.. I'm surprised that test disk could not get the data back..I've used that one before will good results.

Have a good week.

neo960 · Post by **neo960** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:13 am

Shinobi wrote:Thanks for the update Man.. I remember that.. I'm surprised that test disk could not get the data back..I've used that one before will good results.

Have a good week.

Testdisk was helpful in restoring the MFT. The 3 partitions became visible after using testdisk, but only the first two were accessible. The last partition was totally inaccessible until I used HDD & GetDataBack. The PhotoRec program that comes with TestDisk can most certainly restore the lost files but will rename all the files some generic name and will be a big problem to rename and organize the restored files.

I download and seed torrent files once in a while (probably once or twice a month). I wonder if this is the reason why my HD got worn down and crashed.

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:22 pm

Glad to hear things worked out.