Hard Drive Crash... is recovery possible?

[MP3Guy]

Hi all,
First post over here on AnandTech... I'm very active on other internet forums... I have a Maxtor 80 GB drive (Model #98196H8) which was on a Win 98 system as a secondary drive. On it I stored all my multimedia files... 7000 mp3s, 50000 pictures (Non-pron) and backups of my websites. It started giving access errors about 2 months ago, but when I retried, it would always work. Finally it stopped reading all together, and the next time I attempted to boot the computer, my BIOS (on the Asus P2B MB) told me that it had detected a boot sector virus on that drive.

I attempted to run various programs on it, including PartitionMagic 5, MagicRecovery and finally R-Studio FAT. MagicRecovery was able, after scanning the drive, to show my directory structure, however, it was a DEMO and would not save the files. R-Studio found multiple "Recognized" area, and showed individual files. I saved all the files to a new 200Gb HD and tried to open them... it recovered about 700 Megs of data, mostly pictures, but none would open because they were corrupted. R-Studio recovered about 20 mp3s, some of which still played but with interrupts.

So now I'm sitting here with a drive which appears to be completely corrupted. On it are pictures so important it's like lossing everything in a house fire and having to start from scratch. Does anyone know of any other programs or methods I should try to recover at least some of the data intact.

-Could PartitionMagic 7 restore the boot sectors and make the files readable?
-Would sending out the drive to a Recovery company be feasible, and how much costs are involved?
-Any other ideas...

Thanks in advance for your help... As a computer person this is one situation where I'm truly helpless.
Roger

 

[rfan622]

just wanted to bump the message. i tried helping him out but i'm all out of ideas. anyone else with fresh ideas?

 

[Zelmo3]

Seems like Norton had a good set of disk tools. I wouldn't know how to use them, but I've seen a bad drive recovered with Norton's tools.

 

[MP3Guy]

Thanks for the help so far... people have suggested also trying EnCase, OnTrack, GetDataBack and maybe contact Drivesavers.com... I'll try them all out... see if any work better... and keep this thread updated.
Roger

 

[EeyoreX]

-Would sending out the drive to a Recovery company be feasible, and how much costs are involved?

I would almost guarantee that a data recovery service would be able to get most or all of your data. They are able to retrieve data from drives that have been burned in building fires then subsequently soaked when the firefighters were doing their thing. Be prepared to pay a hefty price if you go this route.

My only suggestion other than the software you listed above would be to avoid writing to the drive. Any writing you do may further erase data already present. Good luck!

\Dan

 

[TTM77]

It seems like the drive is still letting you access it. I would suggest connect it to another computer that have a working OS. That other working hard drive should have Antivirus installed. And have that Antivirus scan this drive. This would be my first solution. But it sound like this hard drive have no physical damage.

 

[Dogma420]

make sure the virus check in bios is ALWAYS turned off. Don't need it.

I fail to see if you have done checkdisk with /r extension. That's what i'd do, and i'd do it at least once a month. Do it Esp. when you get access errors. I've been in IT for a long time, and checkdisk/scandisk should be done first

c:\chkdsk /r

 

[TTM77]

MP3Guy, since there are a lot of CDR on sale and some even free like the one in Officemax this coming weekend. Maybe you should buy a bunch and backup your "stuff". It will be a bunch of CDs but you will have it out and backup somewhere and cost you next to nothing.

 

[mrEvil]

GetDataBack worked well for me...used the NTFS version on my WD...and the refurb that died.

Remember to ask yourself this question after you resolve your problem: Can I live without the data on the drive? If not, you'd better have some sort of backup. CDR or DVD+-R are both relatively cheap solutions. This is preaching to the choir now, but I tell this to all my friends.