windows 7 and hdd recovery

xirokx · 25 Jan 2011 at 13:02

hi there,

a friends laptop will not run the OS which is win 7 even in safe mode

so i whipped it out and put it in my desktop to extract his files then to format it

but when i connect to it my pc I receive a pop up "format the drive" before you can use it and i definately dont wanna do that

how can i access his data without formating the drive? recuva?

or do i have other options here?

please help

Pho · 25 Jan 2011 at 13:14

Try a Linux live CD, that might read it. Alternatively try something like TestDisk (handy if its just the partition which has got nuked) or GetDataBack

xirokx · 25 Jan 2011 at 13:19

im running chkdsk at the moment and so far 5 - 6 errors have appeared they are all the same in that they all say "file record segment xxxx is unreadable"

is my hdd dying?

is time of the essence?

whats the best "freeware" program to recover all files? recuva will do it but it will not keep the file names which I need to keep as they are important..

bledd · 25 Jan 2011 at 14:17

Use testdisk to recover the partition

It's part of the suite that comes with Partedmagic, burn that ISO to disc, boot from it and away you go

Tell your friend he should buy an external usb drive for backup

Jim.Ow · 25 Jan 2011 at 14:23

I'm not sure how you can recover the data, but what I would say is that before you format the drive and put Windows back onto it, run a HD Tune Error scan on the drive, As in the past I have found that a check disk sometimes thinks that it's found a bad sector and it hasn't, whereas a HD Tune will show you if any sectors are damaged.

xirokx · 26 Jan 2011 at 06:24

bledd,

I burned partedmagic to disk, booted it but now I am lost...

The hdd is dying, so what do I need to do? its a NTFS file system I am trying to gain access to to recover files from...

Any help would be appreciated..

boot from it and away you go

i can see the partitons a) restore partition and b) main partition which has the OS on and the files I need to recover, now what?

Thanks mate

bledd · 26 Jan 2011 at 10:41

Look for a guide on how to use testdisk, there's one on their site I think, it's fairly straight forward.

Testdisk is one of the tools on the pmagic cd, it's in the 'start' menu somewhere

xirokx · 26 Jan 2011 at 11:14

yeh I found testdisk ages ago but it a DOS based menu and not so straight forward to use...

i'll head over to the tube to find somehelp I thought you knew as you recommended it..

thanks anyways

bledd · 26 Jan 2011 at 11:33

Well I do know how to use it, it tells you on screen..

Because it doesn't have a pretty GUI, doesn't mean it's not a good program

Edit, found the guide on their homepage

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

xirokx · 27 Jan 2011 at 11:27

I cannot use Testdisk, I just don't understand it...

Here is my problem, I took the hdd out of the laptop, plugged it into my PC using the sata cable

I can the see the drive it has 2 partitions a) recovery and b) the main hdd

If I try and click on the the main hdd it says "drive is not accessible"

I really need to get the files off the drive, how do I :

a) find out if there the data exists on the main hdd?
b) how can I get the files of the hdd?

I am currently running chkdsk / f and it tells me some file segments are unreadable, is the hdd dying? have I lost the data from it already?

thanks for your help

xirokx · 27 Jan 2011 at 13:22

Just tried Ubuntu....

I can see the drive but cannot mount it,

error msg " dev sdb3 pending"

I give up,

I can access the other partitions on unbuntu as I could on windows but just cannot access the main partition the one with all the data on it on either OS

I guess its truly knackered...

blastman · 27 Jan 2011 at 14:01

na, it's never knackered unless its got smoke coming from it...

spinrite is what your after.

give it a google, nice easy app with good documentation. it'll get the data back.