Recovery of CHKDSKed NTFS HD lost data

[R.Fodor]

PLEASE! HELP!!!! Before my wife murders me!

BACKGROUND:
Compaq Presario 2701US laptop
Windows XP Pro
Que 120GB external firewire HD, partitioned into two logical drives,
80GB and 40GB
Write caching on the external drive (both partitions) turned off (or
so the external HD's device manager properties panel claims; I have a
feeling that it turns on automatically each time I turn on the
external HD {the panel always shows that it's turned off}, but I'm not
positive.)

PREPARATION:
I took my digital wedding movies and transferred them to my main
laptop HD. I then copied them to my Que external firewire drive's
first partition (80GB) for storage, one by one, doing a defrag with
Diskeeper v7.0.043 after each copy to ensure the drive was properly
defragged. No problems with any of this. After copying the last file,
I did a CHKDSK on the partition to ensure all was well, and it was,
followed by another defrag just to be sure. All files copied fine and
were usable without problem after the last defrag.

PROBLEM:
When I went back to transfer the movies to CDs as a backup, without
having used the drive in the interim, one of the movies (of course it
was the one with the "I do") wouldn't launch in any movie viewer. I
did a CHKDSK /F in a DOS box on the partition, and the screen whizzed
by with several "deleting orphan file segment" messages. After the
CHKDSK was finished and purportedly "corrected" the errors (and how
they got there, I don't know), my wedding movies (now no longer on the
laptop internal drive or the camera) were ALL GONE!

CHKDSK corrected problems simply by deleting my data!

(This is why I hate NTFS, but FAT32 isn't much better. This is not
the first time a chkdsk on this external drive has conveniently just
flat out "deleted" data!)

I assume that the data is still there on the drive somewhere but that
there's no entry in the MFT for the files; hence,"no can find."

PLEASE! HELP!!!! What utility or other tools can I use to get my
wedding movies back? (And, please, don't tell my wife in the
interim.) Isn't there something that can examine the drive, find the
movie files and recover them to another drive? I have been careful
not to write anything else to the drive, so, hopefully, they are
retreivable. PLEASE! HELP!!!!!

Thanks.

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

Don`t know if this will work since the chkdsk deleted some files, but you
can try Restorer2000. It work on my HDD when the partition tables were
screwed up. Also, you don`t really need to defrag after each file was
copied over, just copy them all over then do a complete defrag, that might
have helped cause this problem. Second thing, even though you backed them
up on that drive, its always best to have a second backup somewhere,
especially if it is as important as wedding pics and vids. Depending on the
movie format, there are tools out there that maybe able to restore or fix
the format so you can view it again. On the laptop that you previous copied
them too, did you add any new data to the drive? you might be able to also
pull the file off the laptop, since the files are really deleted, just their
entries in the FAT table is removed, untill you save something to the drive,
the previously deleted data is still there till that space is occupied. The
Restorer2000 may be able to see and recover any deleted files on your
laptop.

Jeff

 

[R.Fodor]

Thanks, Jeffrey, I'll look into Restorer2000. Is it free, by chance?

I was defragging after each file because the drive is already packed
with other stuff, so the free space was only about 5GB. As for the
backup, I was just about to do that when this happened. Grrrr!! Any
suggestions as to the video tools (and how to use them)? As for the
laptop, yeah, the drive has had lots and LOTS of stuff written to it,
so I doubt that anything could be pulled from the laptop.

What pisses me off ROYALLY is that a microsoft tool (is that an
oxymoron?) (I should have known better: time for Linux, I think!)
meant to help just went ahead and DELETED my data, at least in the
MFT. So, now that there's nothing pointing to the relevant sectors, I
think I'm royally screwed! THANK YOU BILL GATES - WOULD YOU LIKE SOME
MORE OF MY MONEY? My potential, his passion! My A$$!

What the hell happened to all this supposed NTFS safety?

Thx again.

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

Restorer2000 has a free demo, but will only retrieve files 64kb or smaller,
the full version is only like $50, but its well worth it. The tool was
referred to me by a few MVP`s after the MFT got screwed up on my main drive.
Unfortunately I didn`t have the latest data backed up, but Restorer2000 was
able to find the data and allowed me to transfer it to a new HDD. The MFT
got screwed cause the HDD was going bad.

As for the movie repair tool, I don`t really know of any, just have to do
a Google search for that. NTFS is very safe, just a problem happened with
the HDD. Usually chkdsk tends to find problems on the HDD, when sectors or
tracks start to go bad and tries its best to move that data to another
sector, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn`t. HDD`s are sometimes
considered hit or miss, you never know when a sector or track will go bad,
even if its a brand new drive.

Was the wedding movies on a previous computer, besides the laptop? If so,
has any new data been written to that computer, cause you maybe able to
recover it from that. If the video is still on digital tape and has been
erased, there are some tools out there that can still pull stuff off of it.
If not, start packing and say you have to go on a long business trip or
start looking for a marriage counsuler or divorce lawyer. But someone else
has to have a copy as well though.

Jeff

 

[Richard Urban]

You lost something as important as your wedding photo's and videos, and you
are worrying if recovery software is FREE?

Hell man, get what you need - even if you have to pony up a couple of
hundred bucks.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Mark]

NTFS is very safe,

Only if you consider routinely deleting or corrupting files when you
run CHKDSK to be 'very safe'. In terms of losing data, it's far worse
than FAT32.

Mark

 

[SlowJet]

When the Ideal of Metaphor becomes the Law of Religions, progress slows to a
crawl and many die in ignorance.

When the Sun aligns with Jupiter,
and the Moon is in the Seventh House,
it's time to take out the garbage again.

SJ

 

[R.Fodor]

I got Restorer2000 Pro, but it hasn't found anything. The movies were
nowhere else, and the tapes have been reused.

Is Tibet far enough away for a *long* business trip?....

Thx again!

 

[R.Fodor]

And your recommended software tool is?....

I've gladly forked over $50 for Restorer2000 Pro, but it hasn't found
squat.

What say you?

 

[R.Fodor]

Mark, so you've had this sort of thing happen to you with NTFS drives?
How did you recover?

Anyone know if I can use Powerquest (now owned by Symantec) Partition
Magic version 8 to SAFELY convert an NTFS drive to a FAT32 drive
without losing my data, or am I gonna have to buy a new drive (and
format it for FAT32) and copy the files over (thereby skipping the
step where the NTFS drive is "backed up" to the new drive before I
now-needlessly convert the old drive), or will the conversion with
this tool destroy my data/files?

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

I would suggest applying to the international space station. I am trying to
think of anything else that might help. Is that particular movie file still
there on the HDD, is the file size the same? I am trying to remember what
tools they have out there that can try to restore a damage movie file. What
format is that file in? Only other suggestion is to take that drive to a
professional and see if they can recover the file in the original state or
repair it.

Jeff

PS. Usually whenever I have something important on video, even though its
transferred to some other media, I still keep the original safe.

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

If I remember correctly, you can`t go from NTFS to FAT32, you will have to
either transfer all the data to another drive, reformat that current drive
then transfer everything back. Or just simply buy another drive format it
FAT32 install what you need to install then transfer the data over.

Jeff

 

[Richard Urban]

I have used EasyRecovery Professional on about 5-6 different computers in
the last 3 months (for clients). If the files are there, and are
recoverable, this tool will save them. It isn't cheap though. The good news
is that if you can't recover your files with the program, you can apply the
cost of the program toward their resident "physical" recovery service. This
is more expensive yet!

It could be that you have already over written the files in your attempts at
recovery.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[R.Fodor]

Restorer2000 didn't find the file - anywhere! It was an .MPG format.

Why can't I get the tools that the "professionals" use, and what are
they?

 

[R.Fodor]

Actually, PartitionMagic, starting with version 8, allows the
conversion from NTFS to FAT32. Yes, you lose the NTFS specific data,
of course, but the file, albeit with a decreased property set, is
supposed to be there on the (now) FAT32 partition - except that I've
never done it, and I don't want to make things any worse than they
already are. NTFS was supposed to ensure my data integrity, not
destroy my data!.

And my file really appears to be long gone!

I'll undoubtedly play it safe, but I'll try this conversion at some
point, just to test it, after my data is safely backed-up elsewhere.
I was hoping that someone reading this would have had experience doing
this conversion and might be able to supply a tip or warning of some
sort.

 

[R.Fodor]

I'll investigate this tool. Thanks for the suggestion.

I've been very careful to not write anything to this drive after that
CHKDSK that threw the data away. I have only read the drive with some
tools designed to find my data (all without luck, BTW). I don't know
in what ways, if any, XP writes to the MFT or other on the drive when
it accesses and reads other data on the drive. Does it?

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

I`m sorry the program wasn`t able to find or recover the MPG. As for the
tools the pro`s use, I`m not sure what they are. I do know some of them are
expensive. I will try to find some useful MGP repair/recovery tools. I do
have a few MPG`s that are corrupted that I haven`t deleted yet, so I have
something to work with. Have you also tried different MPG viewers? some
are less picky then other when viewing MPG`s.

Jeff

 

[Rock]

I'll investigate this tool. Thanks for the suggestion.

I've been very careful to not write anything to this drive after that
CHKDSK that threw the data away. I have only read the drive with some
tools designed to find my data (all without luck, BTW). I don't know
in what ways, if any, XP writes to the MFT or other on the drive when
it accesses and reads other data on the drive. Does it?

www.ontrack.com

 

[R.Fodor]

Idon't understand what another viewer would do for me inasmuch as the
file cannot be located anywhere anyway. No need for a viewer unless I
can manage to find some tool that can find the file "hidden" in those
non-referenced (in the MFT) HD sectors.

Sigh!!!....