Corrupted HDD

[OneClone]

ok,
i have a normal computer.
Xp Pro
p3 800 MHz - CopperMine
512 MB RAM
i use it everyday
3 Internal IDE HDD
1 FDD
1 optical cd-rom 52x

1 internal fan sucking in.
4 internal fans blowing out.


now,
i have spent the past 3 hours trying everything i can think of to fix this situation.
about 3 hours ago, i open "MY COMPUTER".
Next i was about to double click on the icon that represented one of my HDD that contains all my life's work.
But the icon wasnt there!
Everything else on the computer is werking great.
i have not modified anything, have not installed anything new, have not uninstalled anything new, have not touched drivers or snything.
it is really bothering me.
So i righ click MY COMPUTER and choose MANAGE to see if the disk is being detected.
it is being detected after selecting DISK MANAGEMENT.
all my disks are there.
When i right click on the drive via disk management, i choose PROPERTIES.
it says FileSystem = RAW.
Then it says if i want to use the drive, it first needs to be formated. The OS thinks the drive is store-fresh.
But i use the drive everyday.
The drive IS working properly in respect to its internal mechanisms. The heads are not stuck to the platter or anything like that.
It is being detected in BIOS and it is being detected in post. Like i said, the drive is functioning fine, but for some reason, it needs to be formatted for me to use it.
I have even thrown the HDD into another machine and still ahve the same problem.
Its a WesternDigital WD400 40 GB HDD.
-=-sigh-=-
My data is just NOT there anymore. I dont kniow what to do. Please throw some help back at me.

Thank you in advance, i will be rechecking for replys in the forum about every 10 minutes.

/Clone:frown:
email me also if you feel it will be of great.

 

[Carbo]

For starters, I would go to WD's site and download their hard drive utility program. Then, test the drive and you'll see what the problem may be.

 

[ockky]

i think i've got the same deal.

yesterday, i booted up and my J drive was gone. it's one of many partitions on my 80gig hard drive, and every other drive is fine. device manager shows no problems, and disk management shows the drive as raw. i too use this drive every day, granted it doesn't have my lifes work on it, but it does have my most played game on it, and i'd hate it if i'd lost all my precious key bindings! nooooooooooooo

i just *may* have a fix for it though, and if so, i'll post it tonight once i get my crap up and running again

if anyone has a 'for sure' fix (other than reformating) please post it

 

[ockky]

okay, i'm pretty sure i've found something that works, at least *it could work*. i don't actually know because i didn't try it until this morning, but try checking out this 'test disk' from the following:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/

i tried it, and it can actually see the files in those missing drives, and i'm sure it will be able to fix the problem. Anyhow, that's all i got. sorry i didn't take the time to test it more, but i was up late playing NSF:Underground on my new xbox! woot!

 

[OneClone]

IT WORKeD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO!!!

Ockky... i want to kiss you !!

above, ockky posted a link to help himself and my self out with our HDD partition trouble.

The program werked great!

If someone is having the same trouble, let me try to clarify what i did to solve this problem.

First off, the HDD had NO mechanical problems, it was spinning just fine. The problem was that the Boot Sector of the HDD was corrupted, i dont know how, but it was.

IT was a 40GB HDD and had just the one 40GB partition on it. It had all my stuff on it that i needed. Remember, this was not my primary windows HDD. This was a third HDD in my computer.
Well after trying the HDD in another computer hoping for THAT to werk, it didnt.

I spent about 2 days trying to fix this. No avail. Ockky posts a message that this program mite werk for me.

I went to the download site and downloaded the CORRECT version for me. There is a Win98 version and down, and also a Win2k, and Winxp single version. make sure to download the correct one. I used the Windows version, even though it took about 4 minutes to scan the hard drive, it was slower then the pure DOS version. But i ised the Win Version.

I downloaded, unzipped the program. Ran the .exe
It showed me every HDD connected to this machine.
I arrowed down to the correct HDD and selected ANALYZE.
After analyze was done, i hot ENTER to quit that PART of the program. Next it asked me if i want to RESCAN to go deeper into the sectors of the HDD.
I scanned deeper and it found a partition!
I fumbled around with more options of the progra, (i forget exactly what).
The program printed to screen that the boot sector was bad BUT the Backup Boot Sector was good!
So i copied the backup boot sector info OVER the original boot sector.
The next screen said that now BOTH boot sectors were OK. (backup and master).
So now i rebooted machine and looked in MyComputer and THE DRIVE WAS THERE!!
Oh, also in the programs directory, which was sitting on my desktop.... There is a text file labled TestDisk.txt which logs everything that this program does and finds.

ok, i hope this helps.

The link to the Author's website of this software is below:

Author Home Page: http://www.cgsecurity.org/
Program name: TestDisk version 5.3
Use the menu on the eft side of the page to find program.

I hope this helps!

Thanks again ockky and THANKYOU to the Author of TestDisk!!! Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>

TestDisk 5.3, Data Recovery Utility, May 2004
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Windows version

 

[OneClone]

=)

 

[ockky]

sweet! glad to have helped, now if i can just get it to work on mine. . . lol

 

[xbassman]

Glad you got it working OneClone!
Now it's time to backup that data. Many times errors like that are a sign of impending HD failure.
It's a lot easier to restore a ghost image to a fresh drive than to try to recover data from a dying or dead drive.