I've salvaged 3 HDD's from a failed server (running WIndows server
2003). All were fine immediately before the server failed (no
diagnosed reason for failure yet). The first disk is fine, but the
other two show as "unreadable" in XP (SP2).

I ran Spinrite (v6) level 2 data recovery on both disks. In both cases
it completed within a couple of hours and didn't report any errors.
Both disks were NTFS.

Both are Maxtor drives - one a Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb, the other a
540DX 80Gb.

Can anyone advise on next steps? These disks contain data which would
take helluva long time to restore (and clean up) from a number of
sources.

TIA for any help
Ian

It could be an ownership issue,
see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421


--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.


"ITM" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
| I've salvaged 3 HDD's from a failed server (running
WIndows server
| 2003). All were fine immediately before the server failed
(no
| diagnosed reason for failure yet). The first disk is fine,
but the
| other two show as "unreadable" in XP (SP2).
|
| I ran Spinrite (v6) level 2 data recovery on both disks.
In both cases
| it completed within a couple of hours and didn't report
any errors.
| Both disks were NTFS.
|
| Both are Maxtor drives - one a Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb,
the other a
| 540DX 80Gb.
|
| Can anyone advise on next steps? These disks contain data
which would
| take helluva long time to restore (and clean up) from a
number of
| sources.
|
| TIA for any help
| Ian

For maxtor,dwnload powermax from mators home page,run the DOS
utility and chk results.You might/should boot to xp cd,recovery,press enter
for password,then typeiskPart In DiskPart,locate the letters for each hd,
then press Esc Key,then type:CHKDSK D: /R D: being one of the drives,repair
will attempt to repair bad sectors and clean up the drive.Recovery can also
copy files,and list files per drive,chk articles #307654 307973 and 314058

"ITM" wrote:

> I've salvaged 3 HDD's from a failed server (running WIndows server
> 2003). All were fine immediately before the server failed (no
> diagnosed reason for failure yet). The first disk is fine, but the
> other two show as "unreadable" in XP (SP2).
>
> I ran Spinrite (v6) level 2 data recovery on both disks. In both cases
> it completed within a couple of hours and didn't report any errors.
> Both disks were NTFS.
>
> Both are Maxtor drives - one a Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb, the other a
> 540DX 80Gb.
>
> Can anyone advise on next steps? These disks contain data which would
> take helluva long time to restore (and clean up) from a number of
> sources.
>
> TIA for any help
> Ian
>

Jim Macklin wrote:
> It could be an ownership issue,
> see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Jim,

Usually you're spot on, but if the disks are "unreadable" (which probably
means they're identified as RAW) how on earth can that be an ownership
issue...?



--
In memory of MS MVP Alex Nichol: http://www.dts-l.org/

I am currently attempting to revive a drive that has the same sym
"Andrew E." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:A035978B-F337-4D36-A40E-(E-Mail Removed)...
> For maxtor,dwnload powermax from mators home page,run the DOS
> utility and chk results.You might/should boot to xp cd,recovery,press
> enter
> for password,then typeiskPart In DiskPart,locate the letters for each
> hd,
> then press Esc Key,then type:CHKDSK D: /R D: being one of the
> drives,repair
> will attempt to repair bad sectors and clean up the drive.Recovery can
> also
> copy files,and list files per drive,chk articles #307654 307973 and
> 314058
>
> "ITM" wrote:
>
>> I've salvaged 3 HDD's from a failed server (running WIndows server
>> 2003). All were fine immediately before the server failed (no
>> diagnosed reason for failure yet). The first disk is fine, but the
>> other two show as "unreadable" in XP (SP2).
>>
>> I ran Spinrite (v6) level 2 data recovery on both disks. In both cases
>> it completed within a couple of hours and didn't report any errors.
>> Both disks were NTFS.
>>
>> Both are Maxtor drives - one a Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb, the other a
>> 540DX 80Gb.
>>
>> Can anyone advise on next steps? These disks contain data which would
>> take helluva long time to restore (and clean up) from a number of
>> sources.
>>
>> TIA for any help
>> Ian
>>

I am attempting to revive a drive with the same symptoms.
Spinrite found no problems, Powermax found one and fixed it.
It appears that the boot sector is trashed. I am now attempting to find a
cure for that. I have not been able to get Recovery Console to start.
This is the boot drive (C in an XP Home (SP2) system.
Good luck...
"Andrew E." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:A035978B-F337-4D36-A40E-(E-Mail Removed)...
> For maxtor,dwnload powermax from mators home page,run the DOS
> utility and chk results.You might/should boot to xp cd,recovery,press
> enter
> for password,then typeiskPart In DiskPart,locate the letters for each
> hd,
> then press Esc Key,then type:CHKDSK D: /R D: being one of the
> drives,repair
> will attempt to repair bad sectors and clean up the drive.Recovery can
> also
> copy files,and list files per drive,chk articles #307654 307973 and
> 314058
>
> "ITM" wrote:
>
>> I've salvaged 3 HDD's from a failed server (running WIndows server
>> 2003). All were fine immediately before the server failed (no
>> diagnosed reason for failure yet). The first disk is fine, but the
>> other two show as "unreadable" in XP (SP2).
>>
>> I ran Spinrite (v6) level 2 data recovery on both disks. In both cases
>> it completed within a couple of hours and didn't report any errors.
>> Both disks were NTFS.
>>
>> Both are Maxtor drives - one a Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb, the other a
>> 540DX 80Gb.
>>
>> Can anyone advise on next steps? These disks contain data which would
>> take helluva long time to restore (and clean up) from a number of
>> sources.
>>
>> TIA for any help
>> Ian
>>

Mine passed the basic Powermax test, so maybe that means the boot
sector's OK? Will see if I have any luck with the XP recovery option
next...


On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 06:50:06 -0500, "Mike Flood" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I am attempting to revive a drive with the same symptoms.
>Spinrite found no problems, Powermax found one and fixed it.
>It appears that the boot sector is trashed. I am now attempting to find a
>cure for that. I have not been able to get Recovery Console to start.
>This is the boot drive (C in an XP Home (SP2) system.
>Good luck...
>"Andrew E." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:A035978B-F337-4D36-A40E-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> For maxtor,dwnload powermax from mators home page,run the DOS
>> utility and chk results.You might/should boot to xp cd,recovery,press
>> enter
>> for password,then typeiskPart In DiskPart,locate the letters for each
>> hd,
>> then press Esc Key,then type:CHKDSK D: /R D: being one of the
>> drives,repair
>> will attempt to repair bad sectors and clean up the drive.Recovery can
>> also
>> copy files,and list files per drive,chk articles #307654 307973 and
>> 314058
>>
>> "ITM" wrote:
>>
>>> I've salvaged 3 HDD's from a failed server (running WIndows server
>>> 2003). All were fine immediately before the server failed (no
>>> diagnosed reason for failure yet). The first disk is fine, but the
>>> other two show as "unreadable" in XP (SP2).
>>>
>>> I ran Spinrite (v6) level 2 data recovery on both disks. In both cases
>>> it completed within a couple of hours and didn't report any errors.
>>> Both disks were NTFS.
>>>
>>> Both are Maxtor drives - one a Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb, the other a
>>> 540DX 80Gb.
>>>
>>> Can anyone advise on next steps? These disks contain data which would
>>> take helluva long time to restore (and clean up) from a number of
>>> sources.
>>>
>>> TIA for any help
>>> Ian
>>>
>

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:30:22 -0700, Andrew E. <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> For maxtor,dwnload powermax from mators home page,run the DOS
> utility and chk results.You might/should boot to xp cd,recovery,press enter
> for password,then typeiskPart In DiskPart,locate the letters for each hd,
> then press Esc Key,then type:CHKDSK D: /R D: being one of the drives,repair
> will attempt to repair bad sectors and clean up the drive.Recovery can also
> copy files,and list files per drive,chk articles #307654 307973 and 314058
>

Trying this for the first drive (80Gb Maxtor), DiskPart does not
display a drive letter. It shows:

76317 MB Disk 0 at Id2 on bus 0 on Ultra [MBR]
-: Partition1 [Dynamic Volume] 76317MB (0Mb Free)

(The -: is where the drive letter should have been. For example the
another drive is listed as:

D: Partition1 (SCSI_1Gb) [FAT32] 1041Mb (678Mb Free)

Does this give any clues to the state of the disk?

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 06:50:06 -0500, "Mike Flood" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I am attempting to revive a drive with the same symptoms.
>Spinrite found no problems, Powermax found one and fixed it.
>It appears that the boot sector is trashed. I am now attempting to find a
>cure for that. I have not been able to get Recovery Console to start.
>This is the boot drive (C in an XP Home (SP2) system.
>Good luck...

I don't know how you're getting on, but I'm trying a utility called
RecoverMyFIles (from GetData). It's been scanning the 200Gb drive at
sector level for 13 hours now, has covered about 30% of the disc, and
has "found" about 450 files from an estimated 30,000 files which were
believed to be on the disk. It's not a great result but maybe this is
the best option I have.

> I don't know how you're getting on, but I'm trying a utility called
> RecoverMyFIles (from GetData). It's been scanning the 200Gb drive at
> sector level for 13 hours now, has covered about 30% of the disc, and
> has "found" about 450 files from an estimated 30,000 files which were
> believed to be on the disk. It's not a great result but maybe this is
> the best option I have.

I think I failed to comment that the drive in question is a NTFS type
I have tried several different demos of programs and thus far only found one
that would show the presence of any files.

The MFT is blank and thus to the outside world makes it appear that the
entire disk is available for storage of data.
The MFT (MIRROR) file shows all the content.
None of the demos I have tried make any attempt to read the MFT (MIRROR)
file.
I am not sure if this means that data is really there to be recovered or
it's the equivilent of having a table of contents for a book but having the
pages of the book really be blank. I have so far not been able to copy the
MFT (MIRROR) file as a replacement for the MFT or find a program that makes
reference to the ability to make the copy.

I have tried using CHKDSK /R (for repair) and had great hopes which didn't
materialize.