Need help recovering data.

[Addikt]

Well I have a bit of a problem. I just built a new rig and with an SATA WD Raptor 74GB and two older Seagate drives that I had prior to the build; 200GB and 120GB. Prior to making the new computer I was using an older computer a 533MHz Pentium, I think Pentium III. Anyways I had some huge problems with the motherboard that I bought, problems which were fixed with a flash of the BIOS. Before that however, the computer ran an automatic CHKDSK telling me that several areas were unreadable; "the file at sector xxxxx was unreadable, or something to that extent." Anyways, this CHKDSK started and it went painfully slow it took about 3 hours to complete the verification stage after which it just hung and I had to restart. I loaded up the computer and I tried to copy some of my files, however upon opening the file there was nothing in them. The files have a size but there is no data in them. I tried to run EasyRecovery, but all it seemed to do was just copy the folder to my desktop. The only files affected were the ones that I put on the drive while it was connected to the 533MHz computer. At first I thought that the CHKDSK did it. Now I'm thinking it might have been because the hard drives were in an older machine. I don't know what's wrong and I really need the data, I have work that will take me months to replicate.

I have run several CHKDSKs with both /f enabled and disabled and it says that I have over 2000 sector errors. Also it seems that the disk is having trouble reading certain sectors. Is there any way that I can salvage the data from my drive, short of paying $2000 for a professional restoration?

Thank you.

 

[dBTelos]

That happened to me also at one time, when I tried to resize a partition incorrectly. I recommend you just write 0s to the effected drive and start new.

 

[mleonard]

A similar thing happened to me a while ago. CHKDSK had to be run taking a very long time and found all these error and said it was fixing them. I got spooked it was screwing up my documents, pitures, music, & work directories I knew there wasn't a problem with. I bought a new HD, reinstalled the OS, and plugged the old HD in as a slave. I found a big dump file, and about 10% loss of files. The lost docs showed up, but would not open or had errors (mp3's were each a mix of 3 other songs). The slave is still in the same state, I never figured out how to recover the files.

 

[dBTelos]

Originally posted by: mleonard
A similar thing happened to me a while ago. CHKDSK had to be run taking a very long time and found all these error and said it was fixing them. I got spooked it was screwing up my documents, pitures, music, & work directories I knew there wasn't a problem with. I bought a new HD, reinstalled the OS, and plugged the old HD in as a slave. I found a big dump file, and about 10% loss of files. The lost docs showed up, but would not open or had errors (mp3's were each a mix of 3 other songs). The slave is still in the same state, I never figured out how to recover the files.

Seems to be a common symptom eh?

 

[corkyg]

Sounds like a really bad situation. I would call Dave Mason at this site and see what he can. He's supposed to be very reasonable, and if you have important data on the drive, it might be worth it.

DM

 

[Addikt]

Would I get a different effect by using a different data recovery software? I mean I only tried EasyRecovery, there are several others, any recommendations that anyone can make?

 

[tjmjr]

Link - I was told that this is very good recovery software, although i haven't tried it myself.

 

[Old Hippie]

Would I get a different effect by using a different data recovery software?

I always have. Try Spinrite or GetDataBack.

 

[Remobz]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

Would I get a different effect by using a different data recovery software?

I always have. Try Spinrite or GetDataBack.

Good suggestion.

 

[Blain]

I've had success retrieving files from a corrupted HD using File Scavenger.
If I remember correctly, the "Demo Copy" is the actual application. You can run it to see what it finds, but you can't extract the files without paying to unlocking it.
For me it was well worth the small cost. :thumbsup::laugh:

 

[Addikt]

Alright well I will try a few of those, hopefully they work, first though I'm going to buy a new hard drive and copy all my files to make sure I don't experience any more loss. Any recommendations on cloning software? Do the drives have to be the same, can I clone and IDE drive to SATA. It shouldn't matter, I just want to make sure. Also I'm going to try putting the hard drive in the original computer first also.

Thanks for the help thus far.

 

[RebateMonger]

Consider buying or building an external USB drive, backing up all your important files to that, and keeping ongoing BACKUPS on that drive. That way, next time your PC's hard drive fails, it won't be a disaster. 320GB SATA drives with 5-year warranties are $94 from Newegg. A good USB housing is $30 to $40.