Best utility to fix hard disk bad sectors/corrupted FAT???

[Joe M]

Hi, I've got a hard disk with something BAD eg, Bad Sectors, corrupted File
Allocation Tables. Or Something that's preventing the drive from being
accessed.. And now it's unrecognizable to Windows XP. What would be the best
utilities to use(eg. Scandisk??) to fix up the bad sectors/corrupted FAT
so that the drive can be recognize again. Because there are crucial
information on the hard disk that needs to be recover.
And also what's the best utility to use to check whether the hard disk is
faulty???
Thank.

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

I recommend Restorer2000 to view the hard drive and recover the data. As
for making the drive recognized for future use, I wouldn`t, I would replace
the drive. Restorer2000 should be able to read the drive and recover all
the data that is not corrupted. You can try the free demo to see if it sees
all the files. I used it to recover files from a hard drive that was going
bad. The hard drive MFT and partition information got corrupted and XP
could see the drive that needed to be formatted. The drive had damaged
sectors but I was able to recover 90% of the data with that program. You
might want to give it a shot.

Jeff

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi, I've got a hard disk with something BAD eg, Bad Sectors, corrupted File
Allocation Tables. Or Something that's preventing the drive from being
accessed.. And now it's unrecognizable to Windows XP. What would be the best
utilities to use(eg. Scandisk??) to fix up the bad sectors/corrupted FAT
so that the drive can be recognize again. Because there are crucial
information on the hard disk that needs to be recover.
And also what's the best utility to use to check whether the hard disk is
faulty???
Thank.

Try some of the tools below:
http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm (to restore NTFS partitions - seems to
work well)
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz (has NTFS undelete tools too)
http://www.runtime.org/ (GetDataBack)
www.acronis.com (RecoveryExpert)

After restoring your crucial information, review your backup policy.
The iron rule of computing says that all important files must be backed
up at least weekly to an independent medium. Many people feel that
they can ignore this rule, until they suffer a king hit.

About your hard disk's condition: Run the diagnostic tool that the
disk manufacturer makes freely available on his home site. If the
report is bad, discard the disk. It's not worth it using a flawed
disk.

 

[Guest]

Sometimes bad sectors and corrupted File Allocation Tables can be a result of
viruses. Cleaning them up with a virus scanner and rebuilding the MBR may
reduce the problem from occuring again. If the hard drive does have bad
sectors, they are usually signs of drive failure and would be a good time to
have your data backed up and replace the hard drive.

 

[Guest]

I should have added that if you wanted to test the hard drive for errors, you
can download utilities from the hard disk manufacturers website that will
create a bootable diskette. After you have created the diskette, reboot your
computer with the diskette and you can perform a full sector scan. It will
notify you if you have any problems. Most new computers can predetermine this
using SMART aka Smart Monitoring and Reporting Technology. That technology
can be used with a grain of salt though.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

There are some inaccuries in this post.

Bad sectors are a hardware issue. Viruses can cause software
problems but they cannot cause bad sectors.

Rebuilding the MBR cannot "reduce" the problem from occuring
again. Either the MBR is correct, in which case the machine
is bootable, or it is corrupted (e.g. by a virus), in which case
the machine cannot boot.

 

[Guest]

Some people need to learn to read between the lines.
Virus cause the effect of having bad sectors. Removing the virus and
rebuilding the MBR e.g.: FIXBOOT fixes the problem. You don't need
certifications to know this.

 

[Richard Urban]

You are very wrong!

Bad sectors are "physical defects" and CAN NOT be repaired! PERIOD!

Corrupted sectors can be repaired by using chkdsk with the /r option.
Sometimes the repair will cause a non bootable condition.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard