HDD Corrupt, CHK files Dilema

[Guest]

Thank you all very much in advance for reading this.
In simple terms my problem is as such, for some reason, when i tried
accessing my D:\ partition, Windows said that it was Corrupted and
unaccessible. So without much thinking, I ran "CHKDSK /f D:". During that it
said it was fixing a bunch (probably several thousand) "minor" errors. After
which it hung... After that, i had only 13gb out of the 90gb of data I
previously had. But, i noticed that the total space used on my partition
DIDN'T change! Investigating this matter, i found D:\found.000 with, what I
assume to be the remnants of my missing files, now for the problem, a lot of
them are put in random order into different folders and some have the
extension CHK. So figuring that those were left by CHKDSK, i ran it again
with the same parameters. Some of my files got back to where they were
supposed to be, but there are still files missing and there are some
duplicates and duplicate 0-files in the found.000 directory. Is there a way
to decipher what those CHK files used to be and get other files back to their
original folders, etc?

My setup- 2 EIDE Drives a- Partition C:\, Z:\ and Drive b Partition D:\
The hdd b in question is the 120 Seagate barracuda (dont remember the make)
that served for bout 4~5 months
proudly running XP Pro SP2

Thank you very much

 

[David H. Lipman]

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Dave




| Thank you all very much in advance for reading this.
| In simple terms my problem is as such, for some reason, when i tried
| accessing my D:\ partition, Windows said that it was Corrupted and
| unaccessible. So without much thinking, I ran "CHKDSK /f D:". During that it
| said it was fixing a bunch (probably several thousand) "minor" errors. After
| which it hung... After that, i had only 13gb out of the 90gb of data I
| previously had. But, i noticed that the total space used on my partition
| DIDN'T change! Investigating this matter, i found D:\found.000 with, what I
| assume to be the remnants of my missing files, now for the problem, a lot of
| them are put in random order into different folders and some have the
| extension CHK. So figuring that those were left by CHKDSK, i ran it again
| with the same parameters. Some of my files got back to where they were
| supposed to be, but there are still files missing and there are some
| duplicates and duplicate 0-files in the found.000 directory. Is there a way
| to decipher what those CHK files used to be and get other files back to their
| original folders, etc?
|
| My setup- 2 EIDE Drives a- Partition C:\, Z:\ and Drive b Partition D:\
| The hdd b in question is the 120 Seagate barracuda (dont remember the make)
| that served for bout 4~5 months
| proudly running XP Pro SP2
|
| Thank you very much

 

[Guest]

Thank you David, I will do that, but the problem is, how can I first get all
my files into their original directories and subdirectories (if possible)
because w/out that, all I potentially have is a lot of files in a lot of
folders that dont provide any cluse as to where they came from. I suspect
that the harddrive is allrite physically since I think most (if not all)
files that were lost ended up in found.000 but in an agonizingly large amount
of folders that are not connected in any way and their naming doesnt provide
any clues as to where they came from.

 

[David H. Lipman]

That's why you backup files to other media.

Dave



| Thank you David, I will do that, but the problem is, how can I first get all
| my files into their original directories and subdirectories (if possible)
| because w/out that, all I potentially have is a lot of files in a lot of
| folders that dont provide any cluse as to where they came from. I suspect
| that the harddrive is allrite physically since I think most (if not all)
| files that were lost ended up in found.000 but in an agonizingly large amount
| of folders that are not connected in any way and their naming doesnt provide
| any clues as to where they came from.

 

[Guest]

Thank you, David, I realize that and i would kick myself in the rear if I
could, but given the situation AS IT IS, is there anything I can do?

Thanks again

 

[Malke]

Thank you, David, I realize that and i would kick myself in the rear
if I could, but given the situation AS IT IS, is there anything I can
do?

Thanks again

Probably not. That's the major reason techs like me charge so much for
data recovery - it's a long, slow, tedious process whereby you have to
comb through all the files, picking out the ones that need to be saved.
I'm sorry.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thank you Malke and Winux, and all the others who have posted in this thread.
I guess ill have to bite the bullet and next time be sure to prevent
something like this from happening again.

~stasik

 

[Winux P]

Hi Stasik,

Look at http://www.r-studio.com/ maybe it will help you. Hope this helps
you...

Regards,
Winux P.

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 17:37:03 -0800, Stasik

In simple terms my problem is as such, for some reason, when i tried
accessing my D:\ partition, Windows said that it was Corrupted and
unaccessible. So without much thinking, I ran "CHKDSK /f D:".

Bad move! ChkDsk bullies the file system into a sane state, and
doesn't "care" if it trashes data along the way - plus it has no "big
picture" awareness; it will happily "fix" 2000 files without thinking
"hey, maybe I'm over my head here" or "maybe there's a basic
assumption I'm working on (e.g. CMOS HD geometry) that's wrong"

And being stone-age ChkDsk, it won't stop and ask you permission
before "fixing" things, e.g. "Looks like the Windows directory is bad,
I think I'll just delete it. OK?" - after all, it is The OS's File
System Repair Tool, and you are just some jerk; what would you know?

During that it said it was fixing a bunch (probably several thousand)
"minor" errors. After which it hung...

Yup. You can bet there's no undo path either.

Proceed to data recovery (good luck, if NTFS). Next time, if FATxx,
use a compatible Scandisk from a compatible Win9x DOS mode boot. If
you are NTFS, you don't have that option; rabid ChkDsk is the new
standard of darkness you are expected to live with.

I'd suggest you also check your PC's hardware before trying to do any
sort of HD disk writes, or running any sort of Windows.

See http://cquirke.mvps.org/pccrisis.htm