Boot Partition Recovery

[Jason Piercey]

Hi There,

Just recently I've had a boot drive fail It was fine one night, the
next morning not fine. At this point I'm not exactly sure what
the problem is, perhaps bad spots on the drive.

My question: is there any chance of recovering some of the data?
I don't need much off of it, but a few things would be nice.

This drive has two partitions, C and D. D appears to be fine
(I've booted to a second drive in an attempt to examine the
contents of the problematic drive) C on the other hand appears
to not be readable.


Thanks for any advice/tips.

Jason

 

[Jason Piercey]

PS: Booting to the CD, using the Repair option, then FIXBOOT didn't help.

 

[Mike Lowery]

PS: Booting to the CD, using the Repair option, then FIXBOOT didn't help.

There is lots of software out there that may help, like this:
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

There's a free app available too but I don't remember the name of it now.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

If you can, put that drive into another machine and see if you can read the
C partition there. You don't mention how you know the partition isn't
"readable". How did you try to read it? Using some kind of bootable CD or
floppy utility? Or do you mean you just can't boot it?

 

[Jason Piercey]

If you can, put that drive into another machine and see if you can read
the C partition there. You don't mention how you know the partition isn't
"readable". How did you try to read it? Using some kind of bootable CD or
floppy utility? Or do you mean you just can't boot it?

[snip]

This drive has two partitions, C and D. D appears to be fine
(I've booted to a second drive in an attempt to examine the
contents of the problematic drive) C on the other hand appears
to not be readable.

[snip]


The drive does not boot, nor is it readable via another boot
drive. Windows tells me the drive isn't formatted when I try
to use windows explorer to view the contents of the drive.

While in windows repair mode (booting from the cd, then
choosing R) if I try and DIR the contents of the C drive
I get "Error during directory enumeration" or some such thing
(going from memory here)

During the boot up from a different drive, CHKDSK runs
and finds all sorts of unreadable sectors on the problematic
drive.

 

[Jason Piercey]

If you recall that name, please mention it

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

OK, then recovery software is called for. I use R-Studio from
http://www.data-recovery-software.net

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

If you can, put that drive into another machine and see if you can read
the C partition there. You don't mention how you know the partition isn't
"readable". How did you try to read it? Using some kind of bootable CD or
floppy utility? Or do you mean you just can't boot it?

[snip]

This drive has two partitions, C and D. D appears to be fine
(I've booted to a second drive in an attempt to examine the
contents of the problematic drive) C on the other hand appears
to not be readable.

[snip]


The drive does not boot, nor is it readable via another boot
drive. Windows tells me the drive isn't formatted when I try
to use windows explorer to view the contents of the drive.

While in windows repair mode (booting from the cd, then
choosing R) if I try and DIR the contents of the C drive
I get "Error during directory enumeration" or some such thing
(going from memory here)

During the boot up from a different drive, CHKDSK runs
and finds all sorts of unreadable sectors on the problematic
drive.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

I should mention that R-Studio has a free demo that you can use to see if
there is any recoverable data (might not be if the drive's mechanics are
screwed up.) If you discover files can be recovered, then you can easily
purchase the license and immediately recover the files. I've tried many
recovery software offerings and R-Studio is by far the best one I tested.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

OK, then recovery software is called for. I use R-Studio from
http://www.data-recovery-software.net

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

If you can, put that drive into another machine and see if you can read
the C partition there. You don't mention how you know the partition
isn't "readable". How did you try to read it? Using some kind of
bootable CD or floppy utility? Or do you mean you just can't boot it?

[snip]

This drive has two partitions, C and D. D appears to be fine
(I've booted to a second drive in an attempt to examine the
contents of the problematic drive) C on the other hand appears
to not be readable.

[snip]


The drive does not boot, nor is it readable via another boot
drive. Windows tells me the drive isn't formatted when I try
to use windows explorer to view the contents of the drive.

While in windows repair mode (booting from the cd, then
choosing R) if I try and DIR the contents of the C drive
I get "Error during directory enumeration" or some such thing
(going from memory here)

During the boot up from a different drive, CHKDSK runs
and finds all sorts of unreadable sectors on the problematic
drive.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

you mentioned using fixboot.

however, did you also run
fixmbr (fix master boot record)
via the recovery console?



--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[Jason Piercey]

you mentioned using fixboot.

however, did you also run
fixmbr (fix master boot record)
via the recovery console?

Yep. No such luck.

 

[Jason Piercey]

Thanks for the link and mention of the free demo. I'll look into it.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

ok,

did you also look into
the ntldr and ntdetect.com?

you may have to copy the
two above and paste them
back onto your root drive.

another thing is that if are able
to access the partitions
with the recovery console, then
it is likely that the ntfs crashed
and you simply need an ntfs
recovery tool/utility.


--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[Jason Piercey]

ok,

did you also look into
the ntldr and ntdetect.com?

Nope. Did neither of those. Anything special I need to
know about them?

you may have to copy the
two above and paste them
back onto your root drive.

The root drive at this point is actually the second parition
since the first is unreadable. Does this matter?

another thing is that if are able
to access the partitions
with the recovery console, then
it is likely that the ntfs crashed
and you simply need an ntfs
recovery tool/utility.

DISKPART reports two partitions (well, three actually one 8mb'er)

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

well, that 8 meg partition
is likely your hidden partition
with the emergency factory restoration
files / programs.

however, if c is the system
partition and you have "no
access to it" even with the
recovery console, then
copying those files onto
it will do little good. but

if you want to review the
article on this method you
can look here:

http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?docid=177718

it sounds like the issue
you have is on a laptop
because of the hidden partition.


--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[Jason Piercey]

if you want to review the

article on this method you
can look here:

http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?docid=177718

Thanks, I'll read up on it jusst in case.

it sounds like the issue
you have is on a laptop
because of the hidden partition.

Nope. Don't own a lappy. This is a desktop box
and there shouldn't be factory restoration anything
since this is not a pre-fab box, built it at home.
Besides, not much fits on 8mb.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

ok,
keep us posted.

but it simply sounds
like you can do a windows
repair install with your cd,
that's if ntfs recovery tools
like "acronis disk director"
doesn't work for you....

it really isn't a bad idea to
install a secondary operating system
somewhere. i have a secondary one
that is virgin (having absolutely no
updates) and use it as a backup
windows to access the computer
and the other o.s. if and when it fails.
--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[Mike Lowery]

I think this was it:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

[Jason Piercey]

Well,

Looks like I may be hosed here.

Checked out the R-studio software, which shows me
some .pst files and some .dbx files (the two types I'm
concerened about restoring) via the "extra files found"
tab but when I go to restore them I get nothing.
Folder structure is restored but the files are not.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

How large are the files? Unless you purchase R-Studio, you can't use it to
recover any files larger than 64KB. The files you target are definitely
going to be larger than that. If you did purchase R-Studio and it still
can't recover the files, then I suggest you request a refund.

 

[Jason Piercey]

I did purchase it. I believe I read during the purchase
they don't do refunds since they have no way of stopping
the product use.

Odd the files show up but can't be recovered. Why show
data that is not recoverable?