Recovering a failed HDD
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Thread: Recovering a failed HDD

  1. #1
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    Recovering a failed HDD

    Hi..I'm just recently from Incentive Care Unit forum and Broni endorsed me here. It's because upon solving my thread "Folders with random names" under the same forum, my HDD failed for unknown reasons. My HDD was running on windows 7. Reformat won't do anything as I did. On that HDD, I have two partitions (c: and d. My question is, is there any effective way on at least recover most of my files on the 2nd partition?

  2. #2
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    Is the drive working at all?

    If so then Ultimate Boot CD might allow you to recover some files using one of the programs designed to do that, eg- Photorec ..

    http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/index.html

    How to download and burn UBCD..
    http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/download.html


    Alternately you could create a Linux live disk and boot the computer into that environment and then see if it's file explorer can see the partition(s) and allow you to move files to another drive.

    Linuxlite would be one version of Linux to use..

    http://www.linuxliteos.com/

    You'd download the appropriate .iso file, 32 bit might work better, and then burn it as an .iso to a blank CD.

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/linu...t.iso/download

    You will probably need to install a burning program that can burn an iso... see above re: UBCD on how to do that.

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  3. #3
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    This is the original thread:
    http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...om-names/page3

    * Volume 1 C RAW Partition 146 GB Healthy
    * Volume 2 D RAW Partition 319 GB Healthy
    The partitions are detected as RAW, so file explorers probably won't see anything. You can try running Testdisk from UBCD to see if it can bring back the volumes.
    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

    Sad to see this, but that's why we preach backups so much. Restoring from a backup is much easier than recovering from a bad drive.

  4. #4
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    Hi Midknyte.. I see your link http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step is for FAT32 which says Recovery of a FAT32 partition (instead of an NTFS partition) can be accomplished by following exactly the same steps. But I believe my HDD ran on NTFS right? Can I follow this procedure or this link http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Undel..._with_TestDisk which I thought running on linux. Sorry to ask. I'm a noobie on these things...

  5. #5
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    I think you misinterpreted that sentence. It's for both NTFS and FAT32.

    Recovery of a FAT32 partition (instead of an NTFS partition) can be accomplished by following exactly the same steps.
    Meaning that the instructions are for NTFS, but will also work on FAT32.

    If you read the section above it:
    Example problem

    We have a 36GB hard disk containing 3 partitions. Unfortunately;

    the boot sector of the primary NTFS partition has been damaged, and
    a logical NTFS partition has been accidentally deleted.
    You need to follow the link I posted first. You can't undelete anything if the partition isn't even recognized.

  6. #6
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    Thanks Midknyte for the clarification. I also saw that note which stirs my head that's why I asked. Hopefully I could buy a new hdd later this weekend to make my failed hdd as secondary and to do this procedure. I'll keep you posted. Thank you.

    Oh BTW, thanks fink for your inputs. Really appreciate it.

  7. #7
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    You don't need the second HD in order to repair the partition info. In fact, it's probably better not to have multiple drives, so you don't try to repair the wrong one.

    If Testdisk is successful, then you can connect the second HD and transfer data.

  8. #8
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    Hi Midknyte.. I was on the process on recovering my HDD but I have to stop because I have doubts on what I'm doing.. I have screen shots for every step for you to check it as well:

    Disk selection
    Disk selection.JPG

    The highlited one is the corrupted one (Western Digital). It has two partitions which are D: and E:
    This is what it look likes on My Computer:

    My Computer.JPG

    The other one is my brandnew Seagate.

    Partition table type selection

    Partition table type selection.JPG

    Current partition table status
    Here's the Current partition table status step:

    Current partition table status.JPG

    There you can see the primary bootable disk while the other one is logical. As I compare mine on the procedure you gave me, I can see in your procedure that there's "Partition 2" note but mine has no any and I started to doubt.

    As I do the "Quick Search for partitions" step, I doubted more. See screen shot below:

    Quick Search for partitions.JPG

    You can see there that both disks are under "deleted" state. What does it mean? Unlike on your procedure, both disks are labeled "logical" and have partition names 1 and 2.

    What should I do? Am I doing the right thing? Please guide me..

  9. #9
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    Ah, so you're running Testdisk off of Windows instead of UBCD. I guess that's ok.

    Picture 4 shows 2 NTFS partitions. I thought your drives were in "RAW" state? What does it say in Disk Management? When I saw "RAW", I thought that Windows wasn't even detecting the partitions at all.

    In Picture 5, you can select the second partition and enter P to list the files it sees.

    You might want to try PhotoRec or Recuva first, before attempting to restore the E: partition in Testdisk. Make sure to recover the files to your new drive.
    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step
    http://www.piriform.com/recuva

  10. #10
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    Where could I see Disk management..? Sorry just a noobie.. I had selected the second partition and entered P and I saw all of my folders there hoping to be recovered. I'll do your steps when I get back home. I'll keep you posted.. Thank you..

  11. #11
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    To get to Disk Management, open the Start menu. Right-click on "Computer" and click Manage. In the left column, click on Disk Management. You could also go to Start - Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.

    Normally, I'd use Testdisk if the partitions weren't showing up at all. Since they showed up in Windows, it might be better to try Photorec or Recuva first. If those fail, then you can attempt to recover the partition in Testdisk. Recuva would probably be easier for you.

    Using the Recuva Wizard:
    https://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva...rd-wizard-mode

    Note that this could take several hours or possibly days, depending on how much data you have to recover. That goes for most recovery tools.

  12. #12
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    Hi midknyte.. I just did recuva. See image below:

    recovered.JPG

    But it doesn't look liked it recovered something. What does this mean.. Should I go for photorec? What do you think?

  13. #13
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    That doesn't show a whole lot. Is that for your entire E: drive? How many files did it recover?

    Note that if the partition is damaged, the files may not have their normal file name. You'd need to check through the files manually.

    You can try Photorec if you want.

  14. #14
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    I think around a hundred..? I just recovered a particular folder from drive E: . I can't view any file from the recovered ones. Maybe its damaged. I'll try Photorec when I get home. Thanks midknyte..

  15. #15
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    Ok. At least, you can see folders.

    What kind of files are they? I often see files with the "RAW" file type, so you'd need to know what kind of file it is in order to open them. For example, if it was a Word doc, you'd have to open Word first, then open the file.

    I don't think Photorec has the option to specify a folder, but you can specify file types.

    PCInspector is another freebie you can try.
    http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?language=1

    You can try different tools, but if the files are damaged, there's not a whole lot you can do.

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