Here's a Toughie...

We have an off site XP Pro machine that has suffered a hard drive failure due to unknown reason. There is a very important database file I need to recover off that drive. No, there is not a backup copy, I can't fix all the previous problems at once, so let;s don't go there.

Here's the deal, I have a drive that just keeps rebooting, no repair installation is possible without formatting the drive. I can however get to a DOS prompt and I can also drive down to the file. The problem is that I am getting an "Access is Denied" message when I try and copy it.

CHKDSK returns the error message "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable errors" after 58% completion. ATTRIB is one more possibly in order to remove all attributes with the file.

Is there any way around this? You would make some military personnel very happy if we can solve this problem.

Thanks all.

Here are two excellent freeware file recovery programs, hopefully one of them will get it back for you:

PC Inspector

Restoration

Is this two different problems or did you hook the failed drive up to your machine and it keeps rebooting?

Same problem. If you try and boot from the drive, it just keeps rebooting. My guess is a Trojan got it and shut the drive down while XP was trying to close out everything casuing a crash.
No boot from the drive is possible.

Well, this may be way too simple to work, but... "when you see hoofprints, think horses, not zebras"...

So... Have you tried FDISK /MBR on the drive? This will of course, just reset the Master Boot Record, without (hopefully) changing anything else on the drive.

If it was a virus or trojan that ONLY disturbed the MBR, this may get the drive right back in business for you.

You might also try using Stinger and Ultimate Boot CD to try and clean out the drive.

Doc

Fixing the MBR did not work but I will look at those two program that Sparks mentioned. Better download them now, becasue we get balcked on base from downloads., even for an Admin.

The second of those two apps can be run from a floppy BTW, so you might want to try that first. Otherwise you'll need to install the problem drive as a slave in another PC.

Or you may try something like the Knoppix Live CD, and copy the database off the HDD to a USB pen drive.

It sounds like this database at a minumum has permissions associated with it, and may even be using EFS. Though you did mention getting to a DOS prompt and being able to see the file. So does that mean the disk is FAT32? If it is NTFS, were permissions or EFS used? If so, that makes things a bit more complicated and may require a workaround such as Hong's suggestion of using Linux, or the use of the Win2k recovery console.

I've seena refernce to Knoppix on the Dell boards that I frequent also. I'm not worried about the attributes so much if I can get the file. I know the Admin user names and passwords, If I just get to the file.
It's 05:30 here in Italy, so it's off to work with my trusty spare machine so I can slave that drive to it and hopefully have a great Friday.
I will report back, but just in case I foregt to say thanks, "Thank You" and please remember the troops.

We lost some people from our base last week in the Helo crash in Afghnistan so it's been a tough week all around.

Take care.

Update:

The log file for the database has been recovered using the second program listed by Sparks, but not the database. More to follow...

Fingers crossed :)