heckler55 Posted September 16, 2011 Posted September 16, 2011 Hi Guys, My ext. 1gb HD has crashed and Windows wants me to format it. I dont want to do this as i will lose all my videos etc. I am trying to "recover" the drive by using "TestDisk" which tells me "file system maybe damaged" (duh!). So i run through the program step by step and nothing has changed. Am i missing something, or is there another way around this problem or free program that can do the job? Thanks for your time......... Quote
heckler55 Posted September 16, 2011 Author Posted September 16, 2011 ****Additional info. for anyone who is familar with the "TestDisk" program****.............At stage 9 of the proceedure, the program does a deeper search to locate a missing partition. After this is completed i should have this message.."NTFS found using backup sector!" But i don't. The are only two sectors, showing (D)-for delete. And so i can go no further. Quote
heckler55 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Posted October 3, 2011 HELP!!! Can anybody assist with above problem or i will have to reformat today! Quote
KenB Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 Hi, I am not familiar with testdisk. I suggest that you try to get the files and data off your drive if you can - at least you will have salvaged something - then you can attempt to repair the drive. You don't say if this is a laptop or desktop. Do you know if this is SATA or IDE ? I would suggest a caddy / adapter to connect it up to another system to see if you can access files / videos. Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
heckler55 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Posted October 3, 2011 Hi KenB, It is a desktop and it is SATA(via usb). i have also run "recova" in an attempt to get data from it but it only shows a few files listed and most of them are not recoverable. How would i go about trying to salvge some files/data? Quote
heckler55 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Posted October 3, 2011 I was just reading in FPCH "tips and tricks" about "easeus" program. would that be suitable? I will wait for a reply as i dont want to download such a large program for nothing. Quote
Mag476 Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 Hi, Heckler is the drive in question your primary boot device? is windows installed on this device? i'd recommend trying to run the HDD as a secondary boot device, and using another drive for primary boot (similar to slave). That's if you have another spare HDD drive just to temporarily run windows from. The information on the drive should be accessible that way. If you try this please make sure that you don't accidentaly format your external drive while creating a new partition on a new temporary boot device. (it happens :)) Quote
heckler55 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Posted October 3, 2011 Hi Mag476, The drive (f:/) is used to store my videos, games etc, so i'm assuming the primary boot device would be c:/. The f:/ drive is formatted for windows and did work perfectly until a power outage. i am unclear about how to set up as per your advice, are there step by step instructions? Quote
KenB Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 Hi again Was this an internal drive with your Operating System on and partitioned to store files videos on the same drive? EDIT: Ignore this - I re-read your first post ...."EXT 1gb HD" Just confirm for me ....... This is a seperate drive from the one that you boot the machine from - correct ?? Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
Mag476 Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) The drive (f:/) is used to store my videos' date=' games etc, so i'm assuming the primary boot device would be c:/. The f:/ drive is formatted for windows and did work perfectly until a power outage. i am unclear about how to set up as per your advice, are there step by step instructions?[/quote'] Gotcha, I assumed you were booting from the external drive, nevermind. This may be a strange request, but try logging into your computer using a different user account and see if it shows up there then report back if you can view it that way. Is the external drive viewable in disk management? Click start > type in compmgmt.msc > Storage > Disk Management Does it show up here? And have you simply tried using another usb socket? Edited October 3, 2011 by Mag476 Quote
4ndy Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) Here's another interesting free file recovery program (more complicated / less obvious but works well once you suss it out ) http://www.pcinspector.de/Default.htm?language=1 Is this a Maxtor external 1tb ? Oops it's WD missed the title!! :blush: Edited October 3, 2011 by 4ndy Quote
heckler55 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Posted October 3, 2011 Thanks guys, yep, tried other usb (no change) and the disc manager recognises the drive and says its working properly.it may be worth restating that the "testdisk" program could not locate a boot sector on the drive. Hope this helps. Quote
KenB Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 When you ran TestDisk - did it give you an option to repair ? Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
Mag476 Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 Just a couple more things, did you try logging into a different account and seeing if it was visible that way? Guest account will work if you don't want to create a new one. There have been strange instances where this will work. Have you tried the external drive on another computer? and did you have the same results on the other machine? It could be that its trying to share a drive letter of an already in use drive, go back into disk management and see if changing the drive letter to something not currently registered. You can do this by right clicking on the volume in the top window (not the bottom), and changing it to something else. Quote
heckler55 Posted October 4, 2011 Author Posted October 4, 2011 This is the log generated by Testdisk. Maybe someone (starbuck possilbly) can make some sense of it? Tue Oct 4 16:37:45 2011 Command line: TestDisk TestDisk 6.12, Data Recovery Utility, May 2011 email address removed by KenB Christophe GRENIER <**********> http://www.********* OS: Windows XP SP3 Compiler: GCC 4.3, Cygwin 1007.7 Compilation date: 2011-05-11T20:57:43 ext2fs lib: 1.41.8, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: 0.3.1-rc8, ewf lib: 20100226 disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sda)=40020664320 disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sdb)=1000204886016 disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive0)=40020664320 disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive1)=1000204886016 disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\C:)=40007729664 filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\D:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function. filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\D:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function. Warning: can't get size for \\.\D: filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\E:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function. filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\E:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function. Warning: can't get size for \\.\E: disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\F:)=1000209449984 file_pread(4,1,buffer,78172289(4865/254/63)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,1,buffer,1953536129(121601/254/63)) lseek err Invalid argument Hard disk list Disk /dev/sda - 40 GB / 37 GiB - CHS 4865 255 63, sector size=512 - WDC WD400JB-00ENA0 Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63, sector size=512 - WD 10EADS External Partition table type (auto): Intel Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - WD 10EADS External Partition table type: Intel file_pread(5,1,buffer,1953536129(121601/254/63)) lseek err Invalid argument Analyse Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63 Geometry from i386 MBR: head=255 sector=63 NTFS at 0/32/33 Info: size boot_sector 1953523120, partition 1953534082 file_pread(5,4096,buffer,6293504(391/191/57)) read err: Invalid argument file_pread(5,1,buffer,6297232(391/251/5)) read err: Invalid argument NTFS: Can't read MFT get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=8 nbr=1 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=16 nbr=1 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=32 nbr=1 Current partition structure: 1 E extended LBA 0 32 1 121601 254 63 1953534114 No partition is bootable 5 L HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 121601 254 63 1953534082 Ask the user for vista mode Computes LBA from CHS for Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121602 255 63 Allow partial last cylinder : Yes search_vista_part: 1 search_part() Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121602 255 63 NTFS at 0/1/1 filesystem size 1953525104 sectors_per_cluster 8 mft_lcn 786432 mftmirr_lcn 122095318 clusters_per_mft_record -10 clusters_per_index_record 1 HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 121601 80 62 1953525104 NTFS, 1000 GB / 931 GiB file_pread(5,8,buffer,1953525175(121601/81/8)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,3,buffer,1953525183(121601/81/16)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,3,buffer,1953525230(121601/81/63)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,8,buffer,1953525246(121601/82/16)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,11,buffer,1953525293(121601/82/63)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,7,buffer,1953525169(121601/81/2)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,1,buffer,1953525186(121601/81/19)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,1,buffer,1953525233(121601/82/3)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,1,buffer,1953525254(121601/82/24)) lseek err Invalid argument file_pread(5,1,buffer,1953525304(121601/83/11)) lseek err Invalid argument get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=1 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=8 nbr=2 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=16 nbr=2 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=32 nbr=1 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=64 nbr=1 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=128 nbr=1 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=240 nbr=1 get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=1 Warning: the current number of heads per cylinder is 255 but the correct value may be 16. Results * HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 121601 254 63 1953536067 NTFS, 1000 GB / 931 GiB interface_write() 1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 121601 254 63 1953536067 Quote
KenB Posted October 4, 2011 Posted October 4, 2011 Hi, I am no expert with TestDisk - I said before I have never used it, but looking at the log I see this: NTFS: Can't read MFT This implies that the Master File Table is damaged. And the MBR seems to be a problem too. Try this first: Connect the drive to the USB port. Start > Computer ......If the drive shows make a note of the drive letter ( lets say F:\ ) If the drive does not show in My Computer get the drive letter from Disk Management. Start > Run box .....type in ...diskmgmt.msc .....ENTER Start .....type in .....cmd .....DO not hit ENTER yet Right click on cmd that shows in the top left of screen > Run as Administrator If using XP simply type cmd > ENTER At the command prompt type chkdsk /f F: F: is the drive letter ( yours may be different ) There is a space before and after /f This will take some time to complete. It may fix the MFT problem. If it doesn't ..... TestDisk should allow you to repair the MFT and MBR. See here: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
heckler55 Posted October 4, 2011 Author Posted October 4, 2011 Thanks KenB, i will get right on it. Quote
heckler55 Posted October 4, 2011 Author Posted October 4, 2011 SOLVED........Thanks KenB, you were spot on! chkdsk did the bizzo on the F:/ MFT. i have now successfully recovered all that data and i'm backing it up. Couldn"t possibly be any happier!! And thankyou FPCH community! Quote
KenB Posted October 4, 2011 Posted October 4, 2011 Thanks KenB, you were spot on! You are very welcome. Happy to hear that you were able to get your files back. http://paddysday.net63.net/smiley/dancing%20irish%20smiley.gif Suggestion: If you have data that you don't want to lose - back it up in 2 different places that are not on the drive that contains the Operating System. Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
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