Data Recovery...Is there any inexpensive way?

[BlitzKrieg]

I have an 8GB Hard Drive that a cubemate crashed by running partition magic on the boot drive of a Windows NT workstation machine. Apparantly it crashed about 5% of the way through the process. I was able to get the machine booted to the point of being able to access data through DOS so I know that the data is still there. However since that one instance I have been unable to do this. I have tried placing a different hard drive on the primary IDE set up as a Master and taken the bad drive to the secondary IDE as Primary Slave and I cannot boot past a certain point. I end up getting a blinking cursor in the upper left hand of the screen and nothing else. I am unable to get past this in order to get to a DOS prompt. When I remove the bad drive I can boot to the new drive so I know that the master configuration is fine. The Primary slave jumper is set correctly and is being recognized as the PS because it is listed as such during the beginning of boot up. Now all I have on this drive that I would like to retain are some SQL scripts and cursors that I have written, but I would not lose my job or anything if I cannot recover them. So I am looking at this purely as a learning experience, as well as for convenience. I have talked to some businesses that say the cost to have this done professionally could range anywhere from $400 - $1500. There is no way Im doing that so do I have any options on what I can try personally to recover this data or should I just go ahead and start rewriting my procedures?

Thanks

 

[CitrixEngineer]

It sounds like the Operating system has become corrupted when Partition Magic crashed. I would suspect that the data is intact.

The key word in the following advice is *TEST*.


My approach would be to get another hard disk (a small one, around 1 - 2Gb will do). Remove the 8Gb disk from the machine.

Install Windows on the small disk, configure the old disk to be a slave, put it back into the computer, and you should be able to get at the data from here, if the file system is still intact.

I would advise running tests, such as installing some of the software and making sure that it can access the data.

Once you have proven that you can access the important data, BACK IT UP!!!

Better still, find a backup package that allows selective restores (the Windows one will do this), and back up the entire disk.

Next, test that the data can be restored to the locations you need it to be in. This stage may take some time, depending on the application.

Then rebuild the 8Gb disk by re-installing Windows and all the software you use.

You should then be able to selectively restore the data (NOT the software or operating system) and the machine will work as before. Test incrementally and thoroughly, especially if there is any doubt whether an application is processing its data files correctly.

Lastly, implement a regular backup schedule ;-)

 

[LIVETechZone]

Its possible that your MBR has been corrupt. Have you tried to restore a backup of the Master Boot Record (FDISK /MBR)? This will not destory any data.

Let us know your results.

 

[BlitzKrieg]

The problem is that I cannot get any PC to boot with this hard drive present. Without being able to boot with the hard drive prevents me from getting to DOS even if I boot with a startup disk in the drive. It hangs at "Verifying DMI Pool Data". Any ideas on how to get around that?

 

[LIVETechZone]

Go into the BIOS and clear the DMI eventlog.
Set the DMI event logging to DISABLED, save the BIOS settings and exit. Once the system has passed the glitch and booted into Windows, restart the system and re-enable the DMI event logging, save & exit

If that does not work, make sure your do not have your CMOS 'Setup Defaults' enabled versus 'BIOS defaults'.

I have also read in some technical posts where removing a modem. restarting computer installing software for modem and replacing modem in the last slot in computer fixed this problem.

If all this does not work, try pulling all cards out of your system and to rule out any system conflicts with the hard drive in question.

Let us know your results.

J.A. Clark
LIVETechZone.com

 

[BlitzKrieg]

Ok, I have gotten to the point that during boot the bad Maxtor drive is seen as a secondary master. I also have a second hard drive set as master which has only the essentials on it which I want to copy my files from the bad drive to.

The problem that I am having is this:

After the system begins to boot I end up with a flashing cursor in the top left of the screen. I do not want to go into windows (i dont have an OS loaded on either drive anyway), I simply want to be able to access both drives from a DOS prompt so that I may copy those files I wish to recover and then format the bad drive. However even with a DOS boot disk I can not get to a DOS prompt while the bad drive is connected. If I remove the bad drive I can get to the DOS prompt no problem. What is it that is causing this to hang? Does anyone know?

 

[james33]

It does sound like a Bad connection on the drive just check that none of the pins are broken or bent also try another cable as with all the to-ing and fro-ing there may be a bad connection in the lead.

Also does this next bit in quotes mean what it says in your first post?
"I have tried placing a different hard drive on the primary IDE set up as a Master and taken the bad drive to the secondary IDE as Primary Slave"
Have you not got 2 connections on your primary IDE?
Why did you not put both on the same cable or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

I have another idea Just an idea, have you set the Primary Slave drive type to auto in the BIOS only a mad idea but make sure you write down any drive configuration details first so you can return to them.
You don't seem to have much trouble swapping around so maybe you've tried that already
Good Luck
Jim

 

[james33]

As an addendum,
did your friend do the 'bit' where Partition magic asks if you want to do a Rescue disc, If he did have you tried that?
jim

 

[dydavid]

You might be able to use PowerQuest - Lost & Found File recovery software. Contact

http://www.ugr.com,

Attn: Gene Barlow for more info. Another site:

http://www.gcn.com/vol18_no23/reviews/268-1.html

Tell them what your problem is.

Dave Y.
dydavid@ix.netcom.com

 

[ShaithisDanoveur]

I concur - Lost&Found is probably your best bet. However, before it'll work you need to be able to get the computer booted to a dos prompt with that drive installed.

Remove everything else on the IDE system from the computer except your destination drive and the bad drive.

Make the bad drive the primary drive on the secondary adapter (Drive 1).

Make the good drive the primary on the primary adapter (drive 0).

Now boot from a rescue disk to the command prompt (no cd support necessary)

Test to see if you can get on the drive (D

If you can, part of the master fat table is still kinda there. Might see if you can get to the files in question.
If not, use Lost&Found, or you can *try* Norton Disk Doctor. I've recovered numerous drives oopsed like this with NDD. Not 100%, but certainly better than $1 per 1 mb for recovery in a clean room (plus time, etc).

If you can rewrite your stuff easily though, might want to save the time and hassle and just rewrite. Then kick your friend and make him buy the beer.

 

[jspargo]

I found that Lost&Found was quite effective with a similar "soft" disk crash (look for it now, though, PowerQuest no longer markets or supports it). It managed to recover every bit of data off of a hard disk that Norton Disk Doctor couldn't massage back into shape (though I strongly suspect that the Norton defrag program I was running when the crash occurred was involved).

One problem that remains is that Lost&Found is a DOS based program, so guess what happened to those nice long filenames everything in Windows has? Yup, the filen~es were all trunc~ed and shorte~ed. Does anyone know of data recovery software similar to Lost&Found that retains long filenames?

 

[dydavid]

Gibson Research Corp -

http://www.grc.com,

Steve Gibson, just made guest appearance on

http://www.techtv.com

(Tech TV channel 354 on DirecTV satellite).

Gibson has many useful utilities - Spinrite being the most famous and early product. One of my tech buddies recovered a hard drive using a later ver. of Spinrite as I recall.

Dave Y
dydavid@ix.netcom.com

 

[Guest_imported]

I have an 20 GB Hard Drive with two partitions C and D on a windows 2000 box, with my OS on C drive. I had some backup files on my D drive. I had formatted C drive and reinstalled Win'2000 but now I am unable to access the D drive. Please help me out in the case.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[evildoughboi]

hello everyone! i sorta have a pretty bad problem wit my hard drive. i have a 3.37 *i dink* fujitsu hard drive and it sorta messed up. it wont read on any distinction *primary slave, master, secondary slave, master* on 3 different computers. i have alot of information on that hard drive and i would reallie like to have it bak. i also tried puttin it on cable select and also tried to auto and user detect it. any1 got any suggestions? thank you so much

 

[evildoughboi]

oh yea in addition to that, i do not want to spend 300 some odd dollars on recovering the data. is there another way? any suggestions plz. thank you!

 

[edfair]

If not spinning you might be able to break it free. Rotate entire drive in same plane as platters and stop rotation with heel of hand.
If spinning already, you may not have any choice but pay what a recovery company charges.
Suspect that it is other than stuck platters/motor. Think fujitsu returns drive ID without spinning up.
Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[evildoughboi]

well it gets warm so i dink its spinning, and da ladie at da data recovery place said dat it mite be moving and do not use it even moderately because of the fact that it mite blow up. i dont dink that i sud be opening it up and im fairly sure its still spinning... in addition, my main concern is da info on da drive, i can always send it in and get a new 1, no sweat, buh i need da info tho... any other course of action?? thanks for the reply.

 

[edfair]

You should feel it vibrating if it is spinning. No, you shouldn't open it up.
Good luck with the data recovery. Give some serious thought to data backup. This will happen again. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.