Data Recovery Help. HELP!

[theMan]

I have been having bootup problems recently, and I have to press the restart button on my computer at least a couple times before it actually starts up. it usually just goes to a black screen. A couple weeks ago, I started up, walked away, and when I came back it was running Chkdsk. It booted back up fine, and I didn't notice anything. Today, I got this balloon message that said "The folder C:\My Documents is corrupt or unreadable." So I went to My documents and it seemed fine. I opened a few docs and everything was good. Then, I plugged in my usb flash drive and tried to copy everything in case something bad happened. It said "Cannot copy because the file [some name].doc is corrupted". So I went and tried to delete it but it said it couldn't delete. I have the files arranged in alphabetical order, and i scrolled down to find that there were no files past G left in the My Docs folder! OH NO!!! 3/4 of my files are gone!!! This folder contains 30 years worth of financial, personal, my kid's school work, my work, and other incredibly important timeless and priceless information! I am panicking now. I think Chkdsk may have deleted them. Why did it have to pick this folder??? At least I keep my pictures and music in separate folders, otherwise it would have really been bad...

Anyway, that's my story. I have looked into professional data recover, and it looks like it is going to cost over $700. I do not have that much money. I really don't want to make it worse by running some utility I know nothing about. What should I do?

I found THIS PAGE which is a review of the software. I am using Windows XP btw.

However, I was wondering just how this software could find my files? I have 1000s of doc files and I can't just search for each by name, and if I just search for *.doc files, how would I know which ones were originally in My Documents? Will any of these programs be able to restore the files back into My Documents?

Oh yeah, and do you think the files were only deleted when I go the balloon message, or when chkdsk a week ago? I hope I haven't been overwriting the disk with data and saving over my files!

As you can tell, I am deeply distressed, and I need help desperately.

I thank anyone who can offer my some advice!

 

[RadiclDreamer]

If you are very serious about recovery stop what you are doing and send it off, the more you try to fix it the worse the problem becomes as far as getting it recovered. If that isnt an option on track provides some decent tools for recovery but they are really hit or miss. Have you ran a manuf diag tool to make sure the drive in question is good?

 

[theMan]

I ran the manufacturer diagnostic when i started having boot problems. there were no physical errors. However, since I noticed the missing data, i just have the computer sitting here unplugged. I don't want to run the diagnostic now. I got a few quotes from companies, and the cheapest quote was $700. I have just finished spending almost $3000 on a new computer (coming in the mail some day) and some equipment. There is no way I can spend $700, especially after the huge commitment I just made (i finally bit the bullet and bought it all last weekend). However, there is also no way I can lose that data.... I have a really tough situation right now. What on earth can I do? If I run this software, just to search to see if my data is there, will it somehow overwrite or corrupt the data to make recovery even harder?

 

[SilthDraeth]

Get a version of knoppix bootable CD image, boot from cd, and explore the windows disk.

I would try that before you pay $700.

Knoppix

 

[Laputa]

PMU later....

 

[MadAmos]

Professional help isn't cheap but I have had good luck Here and was quite a bit less that the "big" names.

Luck,
Amos

 

[theMan]

Can anyone recommend me a good program for my situation? I found one on the internet that was supposed to be good called "Recover My Files" by Stompsoft. But, I went to stompsoft.com and apparently they were bought by this company called Migo Software. They ruined the program because the most recent version only has a button that says "search". and it doesn't find anything. anybody know of a good one?

Also, I am testing these programs by deleting a file and seeing if it can recover it. None of the programs I've tried could find the recently deleted file. Why is this???

 

[theMan]

Ok, I have a MUCH more serious problem now.


I have a USB hard drive enclosure. I stuck my drive into it, and attached it to my drive running windows 2000. However, it only detected 1 partition! I have 2 on here, and the one it detected only has OS files on it! So, I just restarted the computer, and when it came back up, both partitions were detected. I opened up the partition I wanted and went to My Documents. I went through it, and EVERYTHING is there! I was so excited. I started copying things and everything was working out great. But why did it not detect the partition at first?


Disaster Strikes:

But then, I started getting this popup message that says "Delayed Write Failed" then it has the path \device\harddiskvolume5\$mft

It keeps coming up every time I access the drive. Then, after a while, folder after folder was becoming inaccessible. Now, nothing can be read and I keep coming up with this Delayed Write error. I shut down the computer and unplugged the drive. I do not know what to do. I think the drive might be failing.


So, what do I do now?? I have the drive unplugged and it's sitting here, and I don't want to turn it on because everything might be lost. What is going on?



Oh yeah, and this is a Maxtor drive. But yeah, it's Seagate now. So I went to seagate.com and went to their warranty checker. I looked up my serial number, and the warranty expired 3 weeks ago!!! Is this some sort of scam, where my HD breaks right after the warranty expires???? Have you ever heard of that before? Also, the warranty expired 2.5 years after I bought it. Is how long the warranty is? I thought it was 3 years?

 

[Cutthroat]

Put the drive in the freezer for a few hours, it might work long enough to retreive you data before it goes.

Thing always break just after the warranty is up, Murphy's law.

 

[RebateMonger]

Hard drive warranties are meaningless. Drives are dirt cheap, and the warranties don't cover data loss.

The only drive "warranty" is a backup on a different hard drive.

"Delayed write failures" are disk subsystem hardware failures. They are a warning that the drive could soon be totally unreadable. When that happens, no software will be able to help. Stop using the drive. If you have no money for data recovery, then put the drive away until you CAN afford it.

 

[theMan]

I managed to get most of the stuff off of it. I will try again to get the rest. I called Seagate about a warranty. It has been 2.5 years since I bought it, and it has a 3 year warranty. However, they said my warranty was expired because it was MANUFACTURED 3 years ago. The warranty explicitly states it is from time of purchase. After argument, he said he would "make an exception." That is ridiculous. So, finally, I managed to get my RMA number without "an exception". But, of course, they are just sending me a refurbished drive that was probably in use for about 3 years already. And, it is warranted for 5 months (when mine is supposed to expire), not 90 days like the "one-time exception" warranty. What a load of junk warranties are. they aren't worth anything. I would like to say I would never buy anything from Maxtor (or seagate, whatever) but the other companies aren't any better! Are there ANY computer/technology companies that send you a NEW product when yours fails because they did not build it correctly? If there isn't, and you are going to start a company, it would be a great way to make a lot of money. As the only company that actually has warranties. Not just BS that isn't good for anything.

</rant>

 

[Laputa]

Rule #1, back it up. That's the first thing you will get in the computing world because things will go bad. Even for us, we don't come with a lifetime warranty. The same principle applies to everything and so as the hard drive we use today. If you can afford a $3000 system and can't spare a $100 for a hard drive to back up the data, there's no point to complain when the drive fails. The new drives today are nothing comparing to the value of your data. I recommend save up the money and pay the price for not backing up if you really can't afford to loose the data. Otherwise, you can take the risk and keep trying and guys here does have some very good recommendations. The only risk you are dealing with is when the drive might fail totally.

 

[Archman]

Originally posted by: Laputa
Rule #1, back it up.

What he said!

How long have we had computers around for now? Actually, how many important paper documents have copies just in case!

It really boils down to laziness with most people I have run into who "didn't have the time to backup" or "should have when they had the opportunity" but kept "putting it off".

Hopefully you've recovered everything and learned a valuable lesson.

 

[theMan]

I actually did have a lot of backups. It was mostly very recent work related stuff that was missing. However, I did have a folder that was not backed up, because it was sort of forgotten when I was doing backups. I think I made this sound worse that it was. It is just that I really don't WANT to have to use my backups. And besides, it is almost impossible to do backups in windows because Explorer always crashes with large transfers or terminates completely if some error occurs. I am incredibly close to just installing DOS on my computer (can you even do that?). I have found a good command line backup program though, called XXCOPY. It is sad that DOS typically works better than Windows XP. Like, if you want the computer to do something in DOS, you just type the command and it does it. But if you try to do something in Windows, it gives you some BS excuse about why it is unable to do this, or "do you really want to do that" or the infamous Windows Vista "are you sure you want to proceed?" Yes I want to proceed! A computer is supposed to do what I tell it to do. That's the whole point of computers! I feel like computer companies today don't worry as much about actual functionality as they used to. It is all about extraneous features, eye candy, and extremely high performance. But when you come down to it, Windows has way more errors, crashes, problems, things that just don't work right, and annoyances than DOS ever did. Where is the improvement there? Also, I have a computer stored in my basement that I bought in 1982 and used continuously for almost 8 years. I can still plug that thing in, and it starts up perfectly, and I can even play some vintage games on there. But now, I buy a computer in 2005. I have already had to RMA the memory, video card, and motherboard. Now, the HD. Not only that, but I have had to reinstall windows probably about 7 times. It is just ridiculous. I would really like computer companies to stop the performance race, for just 1 year, and work out some of the issues they have. In the meantime, I think they should actually live up to their mistakes and give people a warranty that is actually worth something, not some refurbished part that has been running for 3 years straight in a server at some company before it failed. Oh yeah, and that bit about them not being responsible for your data loss.... that is crazy. If you are driving to work and all the sudden, the wheels of your car fall off and you crash into a wall, is the auto company not responsible for your lost work time? Especially if this same event happens to thousands of other people, as it does with hard drives. If cars had disastrous failures as often as computers do, do you think the companies would still be in business? The purpose of a HD is to store data, and if it fails to do so, and costs you, it is the company's fault. it seems like the technology industry has some sort of exemption from responsibility that many other companies do. is it just because most people have no understanding of technology? are they taking advantage of these people? Why don't they sell computers based on how long they are going to function for. Like, BSD 90 Day Computer Company, or Seagate 3 Year Hard Drive Manufacturer. Or, Dell 90 Day Computers, etc. You could get a sweet deal on a 250GB 18 month Hard Drive for $70! Maybe if they were just honest about it, I wouldn't mind so much.


Ok, tear me apart now. I don't mind.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: theman
... However, I did have a folder that was not backed up, because it was sort of forgotten when I was doing backups.

Make FULL system backups. Back up EVERYTHING. I see folks lose valuable information because they try to only back up "their important files".

And besides, it is almost impossible to do backups in windows because Explorer always crashes with large transfers or terminates completely if some error occurs.

Something's wrong with your PC. I have a couple of dozen Windows servers doing daily backups with the built-in NTBackup program and have never seen this problem. Some of my clients are backing up 300GB of data each night.

As far as warranties, the hard drive warranties are as good as any other electronics warranty. Nobody gives you brand-new product when something breaks.

 

[Laputa]

Why backup you data by manually when you can have the machine to do it, isn't that what the computer was invented for:B I would recommend use automatic scheduled backup utilities; just because we are always busy and will forget to back it up. There are tons of them out there. Free or fee ones; or even the ones within your OS.

WinRAR actually does very good backups if you prefer to do it manually, vs DOS, and will skip around errors and continue with the backup if you guys would like to know. Maybe this will save you guys lots of trouble sometimes down the road. Just select the STORE option from the drop down list and it will put everything in 1 file. You can use the default if you need the compression.

Back to theman's issue, I believe his drive has a firmware module(s) corruption issue(s), which by no mean be an easy nor an inexpensive fix. As far as hard drive warranty goes, you'll be amaze on how the warranty is spelled out in ink. Or maybe it's worth for reading it before you even consider filing a complain with BBB if you feel that you must do it:B

 

[SerpentRoyal]

KISS. The majority of boot/data corruption is caused by the OS! That's why you should keep the OS partition separate from the other applications. With this strategy, you can QUICKLY create/restore an image file of the OS in about one minute. Make a habit of doing this once a week or before any change to the hardware/software.

You should use a 2nd HDD to store this image file.

All the applications and data should be moved to another extended logical partition. This extended logical partition will remain intact when you restore the image file of the OS.

I recommend imaging the OS outside of windows. Why? Because a windows-based imaging program must take a snapshot of the OS prior to imaging. When you run the imaging program outside of windows, the OS is 100% dormant. Bootit NG works well and fits on a floppy disc or boot CD. No need to install any software.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: theman
I managed to get most of the stuff off of it. I will try again to get the rest. I called Seagate about a warranty. It has been 2.5 years since I bought it, and it has a 3 year warranty. However, they said my warranty was expired because it was MANUFACTURED 3 years ago. The warranty explicitly states it is from time of purchase. After argument, he said he would "make an exception." That is ridiculous. So, finally, I managed to get my RMA number without "an exception". But, of course, they are just sending me a refurbished drive that was probably in use for about 3 years already. And, it is warranted for 5 months (when mine is supposed to expire), not 90 days like the "one-time exception" warranty. What a load of junk warranties are. they aren't worth anything. I would like to say I would never buy anything from Maxtor (or seagate, whatever) but the other companies aren't any better! Are there ANY computer/technology companies that send you a NEW product when yours fails because they did not build it correctly? If there isn't, and you are going to start a company, it would be a great way to make a lot of money. As the only company that actually has warranties. Not just BS that isn't good for anything.

</rant>

They almost ALWAYS send refurbs, however i have not noticed the refurb units last any less time that a new one. So i assume they do a good job of fixing them.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: theman
I actually did have a lot of backups. It was mostly very recent work related stuff that was missing. However, I did have a folder that was not backed up, because it was sort of forgotten when I was doing backups. I think I made this sound worse that it was. It is just that I really don't WANT to have to use my backups. And besides, it is almost impossible to do backups in windows because Explorer always crashes with large transfers or terminates completely if some error occurs. I am incredibly close to just installing DOS on my computer (can you even do that?). I have found a good command line backup program though, called XXCOPY. It is sad that DOS typically works better than Windows XP. Like, if you want the computer to do something in DOS, you just type the command and it does it. But if you try to do something in Windows, it gives you some BS excuse about why it is unable to do this, or "do you really want to do that" or the infamous Windows Vista "are you sure you want to proceed?" Yes I want to proceed! A computer is supposed to do what I tell it to do. That's the whole point of computers! I feel like computer companies today don't worry as much about actual functionality as they used to. It is all about extraneous features, eye candy, and extremely high performance. But when you come down to it, Windows has way more errors, crashes, problems, things that just don't work right, and annoyances than DOS ever did. Where is the improvement there? Also, I have a computer stored in my basement that I bought in 1982 and used continuously for almost 8 years. I can still plug that thing in, and it starts up perfectly, and I can even play some vintage games on there. But now, I buy a computer in 2005. I have already had to RMA the memory, video card, and motherboard. Now, the HD. Not only that, but I have had to reinstall windows probably about 7 times. It is just ridiculous. I would really like computer companies to stop the performance race, for just 1 year, and work out some of the issues they have. In the meantime, I think they should actually live up to their mistakes and give people a warranty that is actually worth something, not some refurbished part that has been running for 3 years straight in a server at some company before it failed. Oh yeah, and that bit about them not being responsible for your data loss.... that is crazy. If you are driving to work and all the sudden, the wheels of your car fall off and you crash into a wall, is the auto company not responsible for your lost work time? Especially if this same event happens to thousands of other people, as it does with hard drives. If cars had disastrous failures as often as computers do, do you think the companies would still be in business? The purpose of a HD is to store data, and if it fails to do so, and costs you, it is the company's fault. it seems like the technology industry has some sort of exemption from responsibility that many other companies do. is it just because most people have no understanding of technology? are they taking advantage of these people? Why don't they sell computers based on how long they are going to function for. Like, BSD 90 Day Computer Company, or Seagate 3 Year Hard Drive Manufacturer. Or, Dell 90 Day Computers, etc. You could get a sweet deal on a 250GB 18 month Hard Drive for $70! Maybe if they were just honest about it, I wouldn't mind so much.


Ok, tear me apart now. I don't mind.

Yes, but you dont get the functionality that you get with windows. You also dont have a user friendly interface. Yes dos worked much better but thats because there was less to go wrong.

As far as your argument goes with hard drives. You show me ANY device that can spin at 7200RPM for YEARS with a read/write head hovering literally microns away from the platter and subject to extreme heat and vibration and cost $70 and last 3 years.

Remember you are buying a CONSUMER GRADE DEVICE!!! You want reliability? Well pony up the $400 for a 136GB SCSI. It isnt immune to failure but it is made with much higher quality parts and will last much longer and typically have a 5 year warranty.

Look how old the auto industry is, they still have issues and I'd venture yo say even more often than your PC however you accept that this is just the way things are.

In short, i dont mean to tear your argument apart, yes its frustrating when a drive goes bad, but you are getting TONS of storage for a very cheap price.

 

[RebateMonger]

In the end, ALL HARD DRIVES FAIL EVENTUALLY.

Some last three days. A few last ten years. But they all fail. It's best to just accept it and keep backups elsewhere.