Recovery of Files from 'Damaged' hard disk!

D

Delgal

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I am not sure what exactly happened but I seem to have 'damaged' or 'corrupted' my hard disk which is a Hitachi 120GB which was formatted with 20GB Primary and 100GB Logical partitions in FAT32 and contained the Windows 98 operating system on the Primary Partition.

At the time I was trying to backup some large files from the logical partition to a DVD disk, using Nero 6.5 and about half way through copying I got the dreaded 'blue screen'!

I restarted the pc and 'everything' seems to have completely disappeared from both partitions.

As I have removable hard drive bays and I have tried, using another drive complete with Windows 2000 operating system and using various recovery software, including Easy Recovery; Restorer 2000 and R-Studio to recover the data but without any success.

I seem to remember that when I first tried to access the drive I got a message which mentioned that the disk was FAT12 but, I am afraid, I did not take much notice, choosing the easy option, as recommended, to convert to FAT32.

Apart from trying to recover the data using the software mentioned, I have not used the drive at all in order not to risk damaging any data that could be recovered by overwriting it.

The amount of data concerned is substantial, taking up some 70GB of disk space.

At first I tried to run the 'recovery software' on a 40GB hard drive and then I realised that the recovery drive needed to be larger than the damaged/corrupted one so I am now running it on a 200GB drive, but still no joy.

Is there anything else that I can try to recover this data?
 
FAT12? Are you sure, as this is a floppy disk filing system?

Did you try and convert it after it became corrupt? If so, you have possibly now made it totally unreadable.

If the data is important to you, you could send me the drive, as this is one of my specialist areas. You'll have to email me (address in my profile) if you want to go down this route.
 
I seem to remember that when I first tried to access the drive I got a message which mentioned that the disk was FAT12 but, I am afraid, I did not take much notice, choosing the easy option, as recommended, to convert to FAT32.
Click to expand...

Owwww!

You have completely changed the file structure on the hard disk, rendering data recovery much more difficult. It may be possible, but I reckon you'd have to send your disk to a specialist data recovery agent. It aint cheap though, these are the same guys that do the forensic data recoveries for the police. Depending on how much your data is worth, then it might be goodnight vienna.

Take backup's in future..... just like I do :lol:
 
Ouch!!

I thought as much but as it was originally FAT32 and when the option appeared, it said that the drive was unreadable in its present state and offered me the option to change it back to FAT32, I must admit that I really didn't think that it would do as much damage as it appears that it has done.
 
Delgal said:
Ouch!!

I thought as much but as it was originally FAT32 and when the option appeared, it said that the drive was unreadable in its present state and offered me the option to change it back to FAT32, I must admit that I really didn't think that it would do as much damage as it appears that it has done.
Click to expand...

It's likely your recovery software has defaulted to FAT12, because it was unable to determine the structure. This didn't actually mean that it was a FAT12 volume (which it wouldn't be). You may have been lucky in that if it was already FAT32, then only the FAT may have been damaged and the data is still in a viable state.

Anyway, my offer of help is still available if you want to send me the drive. I'll assess it free and let you know what can (or can't) be done.
 
Thank you for your suggestions and offers of help.

I have tried using a program called Getdataback for FAT and it certainly appeared to find a load of data that it could recover but during the scan procedures I got the following messages to which I chose the ‘Ignore’ action:-

Access violation at address 0056FD8E in module ‘gdb.exe’. Read of address EBDEFBDE

Info: FAT28
Address: 0056FD8E

----------------------------------------------------------

Error: Write Error
Info: JOBS:294
Address: 00414FD3
Stack Dump (included several numbers here)

---------------------------------------------------------

Error: Access Violation
Access Violation at address 0056FD8E in module ‘gdb.exe’. Read of address …..

Info: FSYS:144
Address: 0056FD8E
Stack Dump: (included several numbers here)

---------------------------------------------------------

I can get to ‘Step 4’ in the recovery operation but as soon as I click on the ‘Next’ button the pc reboots and I have to start the procedure again from scratch.

If anyone has got any experience in using this particular program and any suggestions that I can try to get round this particular problem I would be very grateful.
 
Errrm, unfortunately the program Getbackdata (gbd.exe) is crashing, you need to ask the authours of the software as to what is causing this. Alternatively use a different product.
 
I finally got the Getdataback program to overcome the errors and am pleased to report that I was able to recover my 'lost' data.

Many thanks to everybody for their help.
 
Well done! Now buy a box of CD's and write 100 times

I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data

:wink:
 
JohnD said:
Well done! Now buy a box of CD's and write 100 times

I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data

:wink:
Click to expand...

Just like we all do. :D
 
Delgal said:
I finally got the Getdataback program to overcome the errors and am pleased to report that I was able to recover my 'lost' data.

Many thanks to everybody for their help.
Click to expand...
Now all you need to know is what caused the problem in the first place so you can avoid a reoccurance :wink:
 
Hi,

Firstly i'm glad that you got most of your data back.

The last disk i had recovered cost £2500.

Most people i know that back up data are the ones that have lost data, personally i'm beyond CD\DVD but can't justify LTO etc, with HDD space being cheap i just have an old machine with a 500GB HDD that i backup to.

Jon.
 
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