View Full Version : hard disk recovery
specs
03-16-2009, 07:08 PM
i have a hard drive that i need to fix a partition on, or at least get the data off of. I got the ultimate boot cd. this actually made things worse though, as by trying to fix the drive i inadvertently corrupted the recovery partition. This was not too bad as i was able to see both partitions with ubuntu. I tried to install ubuntu on its own partition but it seemed to freeze. when i reboot back to ubuntu live cd, it can still see the recovery partition but cant mount what was the windows partition. This is incredibly frustrating, because i have tools that tell me my files are there, but would be clunky at best to use to move the data. This got me to thinking, is there a best of both worlds solution? something with the power of the tools on the ultimate boot cd and the ease of function of the ubuntu live cd?
tehboris
03-16-2009, 07:58 PM
Where did you try to install Ubuntu?
specs
03-16-2009, 08:40 PM
it doesn't really matter as I'm looking for a robust partition repair tool and not a ubuntu how to. However , as stated above, i began installing it on a new partition on the same physical drive.
tehboris
03-16-2009, 10:33 PM
You could try testdisk, but I can't tell how messed up this is. I mean, if you simply deleted the partitions by accident testdisk would work. If the drive is dying testdisk probably won't work. If this is the case you could try spinrite as it can recover damaged sectors on the disk.
So does the partition you are trying to recover data from exists? Did you delete it and recreate it again? Also, what file system is in use on the partition, NTFS maybe?
computoman
03-17-2009, 10:53 AM
Live linux usually mounts ntfs in read only mode, If you have an external drive, usb drive, or a share on another machine, I would copy the files there. You do not not need to install ubuntu to do data recovery. There is an easier way to rescue files with trinity rescue kit (TRK).(http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=1&front_id=12) http://trinityhome.org
specs
03-17-2009, 03:41 PM
I know it's hard to convey tone on a message board, so i hope this doesn't sound rude in any way. I do, as always, appreciate the help. Boris, I'm not sure how you're reading my post, but you're over complicating it for both of us. You're trying to respond with a disk repair 101, which, if that's what I asked for and needed would make sense. All I was asking for was pretty much what computoman gave me. Thank you computoman for the suggestion. Boris, the tool you suggested for physical repair was one I'm glad to be aware of, however it is not free. I understand the value of paying for something that works, but in this case it's not an option. Also Boris, the reason I mentioned that your answers are over complicating the issue is beacause I want to know if I wrote it wrong, or maybe you misunderstood what I was asking, so I can avoid confusion in the future. Your responses were written for a call for helper, where as I was looking for more of a system/tekzilla/screensavers type dialog, if that makes sense. I do need a bit of a reminder though. It has been a long time since I ran chkdsk. It is currently repairing volume bitmap on a 160 gig drive. How long should this take? It has been more than 6 hours. After doing some research, I learned that there is a bug in ntfs that can produce this so called fix that actually does nothing. I don't want to stop chkdsk and possibly further complicate things, but i also don't want my drive sitting and spinning for no good reason. Any thoughts on this are appreciated.
tehboris
03-17-2009, 07:24 PM
I was trying to understand what state the hard drive was currently in. but nm that.
If check disk freezes (with no hard drive activity) then there is probable damage on the surface of the hard disk. You can try badblocks (Linux command) which will check for disk surface errors, it's not as good as spinrite, and spinrite will attempt to recover the damage.
freezina
03-18-2009, 07:19 PM
I was trying to understand what state the hard drive was currently in. but nm that.
If check disk freezes (with no hard drive activity) then there is probable damage on the surface of the hard disk. You can try badblocks (Linux command) which will check for disk surface errors, it's not as good as spinrite, and spinrite will attempt to recover the damage.
It is useless..... the quantity of the damaged sectors always will increase in number...It is irreversible process...