Hard drive unreadable. Please help!

[Nate C.]

Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this, but I haven't had
much luck elsewhere yet.

Long story short -- I tried capturing some video to my D: hard drive via
firewire and somehow corrupted it so I no longer have access. It's a
Seagate 200 gb drive that I use exclusively for data and my OS is Win2K Pro.
Some of the data is backed up, some is not, so reformatting is a last
resort.

I ran a Seagate file system check which gave me the following info:

Volume Label:
Volume Size: 0 bytes
The file system contains errors that need to be repaired.

None of the other Seagate diagnostics will work -- they just freeze up.

Via Windows I did My Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management, and the
disk drive shows up and says it's healthy and lists the available space
186.31 (although the file system column is blank). When I check the
properties through device manager, it says "this device is working
properly". Error checking the drive doesn't work -- the window just
disappears and nothing else happens. When I left-click D: through My
Computer, I'm told that the drive is not formatted and asked if I want to
format it now. When I right click and check the properties, there's no
volume label and everything comes up zero. I also tried Chkdsk D: and got
the message that the file format is RAW and that it's inaccessible.

I tried using Ghost to clone the drive, but the program doesn't see the D:
disk, only C: shows up.

If anybody has any suggestions for how I can get this working again, or at
the very least, recover the data, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you very
much.

Nate

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this,

Yes it is.

but I haven't had much luck elsewhere yet.

Long story short -- I tried capturing some video to my D: hard drive via
firewire and somehow corrupted it so I no longer have access.

It might have died, in other words it wasnt the capture that corrupted it.

It's a Seagate 200 gb drive that I use exclusively for data and my OS is Win2K
Pro. Some of the data is backed up, some is not, so reformatting is a last
resort.

I ran a Seagate file system check which gave me the following info:

Volume Label:
Volume Size: 0 bytes
The file system contains errors that need to be repaired.

Thats not very surprising given the Disk Management result below.

None of the other Seagate diagnostics will work -- they just freeze up.

I've lost track of what the Seagate diagnostics do with external drives.

Via Windows I did My Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management, and the
disk drive shows up and says it's healthy and lists the available space 186.31
(although the file system column is blank).

That indicates some pretty serious corruption of the contents
of the drive, that it cant work out what file system was used.

When I check the properties through device manager, it says "this device is
working properly".

That doesnt mean anything, thats only checking for the most
serious problems of bad drivers and resource conflicts.

Error checking the drive doesn't work -- the window just disappears and
nothing else happens.

Presumably because it cant work out what the file system is either.

When I left-click D: through My Computer, I'm told that the drive is not
formatted and asked if I want to format it now.

Thats the usual thing when the drive contents are corrupted.

When I right click and check the properties, there's no volume label and
everything comes up zero.

More evidence that the file system is corrupted.

I also tried Chkdsk D: and got the message that the file format is RAW and
that it's inaccessible.

For the same reason.

I tried using Ghost to clone the drive, but the program doesn't see the D:
disk, only C: shows up.

For the same reason, it cant see any file system either.

If anybody has any suggestions for how I can get this working again, or at the
very least, recover the data, I'd really appreciate it.

You could try Easy Recovery Pro, but it aint free.

 

[Nate C.]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions. That Easy Recovery
Pro looks like a beast, and priced accordingly. However it looks like that
type of approach is all I have left. Do you have any thoughts on a program
called "Recover My Files"? Looks reasonably priced but I'm not sure how
well it works.

Thanks again,
Nate

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions.

No problem, thats what this newsgroup is for.

That Easy Recovery Pro looks like a beast, and priced accordingly.

Yeah, tho its widely available for free, illegally obviously.

However it looks like that type of approach is all I have left.
Yep.

Do you have any thoughts on a program called "Recover My Files"?

Fraid I havent tried it in that particular situation.

Looks reasonably priced but I'm not sure how well it works.

Me neither. I do know that ERP has worked fine every time its been used here.

 

[Lars]

I tried capturing some video to my D: hard drive via
firewire and somehow corrupted it so I no longer have access. It's a
Seagate 200 gb drive that I use exclusively for data and my OS is Win2K Pro.

What service pack are you on?
What file system did the drive have?

Are you aware of the EnableBigLba thing?
http://www.48bitlba.com/enablebiglba.htm



Lars
Stockholm
http://web.telia.com/~u84406120/

 

[Zvi Netiv]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions. That Easy Recovery
Pro looks like a beast, and priced accordingly. However it looks like that
type of approach is all I have left.

Seems that you got what top posters deserve: Bad advice.

Do you have any thoughts on a program
called "Recover My Files"? Looks reasonably priced but I'm not sure how
well it works.

Neither Easy Recovery, nor any file recovery application in the same category is
what you need. These applications can only recover files that were contiguous
at the time they disappeared. The chance that video capture files are
contiguous is practically nil.

The way to recover your files, if possible at all, is by fixing what caused the
drive to become inaccessible. Typically, it's just a corrupted MBR, or boot
sector, or both, which are relatively simple to rebuild. Unless you already
converted what may have been a recoverable problem into full blown disaster.

Regards, Zvi

 

[Rod Speed]

Seems that you got what top posters deserve: Bad advice.

We'll see...

Neither Easy Recovery, nor any file recovery
application in the same category is what you need.

We'll see...

These applications can only recover files that were
contiguous at the time they disappeared. The chance
that video capture files are contiguous is practically nil.

The way to recover your files, if possible at all, is by fixing what caused
the drive to become inaccessible. Typically, it's just a corrupted MBR,
or boot sector, or both, which are relatively simple to rebuild.

And since that is relatively simple, the better recovery apps do that, stupid.

 

[davidmcmaxii]

Nate C.

I had a hard drive disaster a few months ago and bought "Recover My
Files". It recovered 99% of my files although there were quite a few
filename errors. Since then it has saved me on 3 occasions. It is easy
to use but if you have a large hard drive it takes a long time to run.
Has never crashed on me though.

The most recent disaster was a failure of the MBR and loads of bad
sectors - it still gamely found nearly all the data on the disk [which
was subsequently scrapped]

From my experience [which is based on having to fix (my) disasters

rather than an innate knowledge of pcs!] it is a very worthwhile
program. I recommend it highly.

Dave

 

[RetroRadioDJ]

well, i just survived a 71000 files loss with a program called
getdataback

might help you, nice thing is you can download it, scan the drive and
see if it finds the files before you buy the license key.

 

[Ron Reaugh]

Seems that you got what top posters deserve: Bad advice.

Give it a rest.