No access to hard-drive (corrupted partitions?)

[Clath]

I've lost access to a hard drive with windows 98 fat32 partitions.
Partition magic gives 'error #108' and findpart reports this:


Searches for partitions type 01, 04, 06, 07, 0B, 0C, 0E, 82, 83,
plus Fdisk F6 and Lilo sectors. Information based on bootsectors
is marked B. If the disk is larger than supported by BIOS, the
supported part of the disk is examined. Disks are numbered from 1.

OS: Windows 4.90

Disk: 3 Cylinders: 1312 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 10292

-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
Fdisk F6 sector 0 1 1
Fdisk F6 sector 0 2 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1 1 1
477 1 0B 63 6715107 3278 477 1 1 894 254 63 R0 OK
477 2 05 6715170 6715170 3278 895 0 1 1312*254 63 477 OK?
0 - 0B 7663068 6715107 3278 477 1 1 894 254 63 B OK
895 1 0B 63 6715107 3278 895 1 1 1312*254 63 R0 OK?
0 - 0B 14378238 6715107 3278 895 1 1 1312 254 63 B OK?

-----FAT CHS -Size Cl --Root -Good -Rep. Maybe --Bad YYMMDD DataMB
0 1 33 7470 4# 2# 6996 474 0 0 000620 3519
477 1 33 6546 4 2 6546 0 0 0 000925 0
895 1 33 6547 4 2* 6547 0 0 0 0

Partitions according to partition tables on third harddisk:

-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1*0B 63 4120641 2012 0 1 1 1021 63 63 F6 NB
0 1 1 256 127 63 Actual

Is there a way I can recover the data from it? I'm running Windows ME
and the drive is in an external USB enclosure.

Thanks in advance

 

[Bill Starbuck]

There are companies that specialize in recovery of data from damaged
harddisks. I understand they charge rather high fees (around $1500)
but this is a bargain if your alternative is to lose valuable
documents.


Bill Starbuck (MVP)

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

OS: Windows 4.90

Disk: 3 Cylinders: 1312 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 10292

-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
Fdisk F6 sector 0 1 1
Fdisk F6 sector 0 2 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1 0 1
Fdisk F6 sector 1 1 1
477 1 0B 63 6715107 3278 477 1 1 894 254 63 R0 OK
477 2 05 6715170 6715170 3278 895 0 1 1312*254 63 477 OK?
0 - 0B 7663068 6715107 3278 477 1 1 894 254 63 B OK
895 1 0B 63 6715107 3278 895 1 1 1312*254 63 R0 OK?
0 - 0B 14378238 6715107 3278 895 1 1 1312 254 63 B OK?

-----FAT CHS -Size Cl --Root -Good -Rep. Maybe --Bad YYMMDD DataMB
0 1 33 7470 4# 2# 6996 474 0 0 000620 3519
477 1 33 6546 4 2 6546 0 0 0 000925 0
895 1 33 6547 4 2* 6547 0 0 0 0

Partitions according to partition tables on third harddisk:

-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1*0B 63 4120641 2012 0 1 1 1021 63 63 F6 NB
0 1 1 256 127 63 Actual

Most data probably can be recovered. The primary partition was damaged
by entering the Fdisk create partition screen. If data were in logical
partitions, ask again.

A repair could be done, but only if the directory structure was not
damaged by Fdisk.

The commands to attempt to copy all files to current directory and
below may be (using Findpart version 4.37) (if there is room for the
files):

findpart cyldir 3 0 1 33 7470 4 2 cdir.txt
findpart cyldir 2 tree +lost

Afterwards the copied files can be checked for Fdisk damaged files by
searching for files containing ÷÷÷÷÷÷ (6 ascii 246 characters).
Depending on what happened, more files than that can be damaged.

The current partition table on the disk is invalid. If there is not
room on other disks for the files, it would be possible to create a
partition at the end of the problem disk, to which the files could be
copied. Assuming no lost files from other partitions are in that area.

I prefer to see the entire Findpart output, in order to be able to see
possible problems on other harddisks and guess if there is room for
copying lost files. And to see Findpart version number.