What tools to recover a file from a corrupted Hard-Drive

[jon.p.weaver]

My works laptop suffered a fatal hard-drive falure.. Fortunatly, I was
able to mount the drive on another PC and get MOST of my important
files off.

But the only thing I havn't been able to get is a 1.7g Lotus Mail
Database which contains 5 years of sent/recieved mails and I would
like to try and retrieve it.

When I do the copy, I am told that it has a CRC error (not
surprisingly) so have been looking for 'recovery' tools which will let
me 'ignore' the errors.. At the end of the day, even if the file is
corrupted, it should not a problem as the file should still be opened
by Lotus and will allow me to see MOST of my mails.. The bad data will
either crash the application or will just appear as corrupted mails.

I have tried 'xcopy' (using the /C option) but after about 10 mins it
gives me an "I/O Device Error"... After looking around, other than
'dd_rescue' (which is Linux) I havn't been able anyhting which will
help.

I don't mind how crude it is.. All I need to do is get the file off..
Even if it skips a few megs every time it hits an error, I don't
mind.. I just need the file.

Can anyone suggest anything will help me?

Jon

 

[Kenny]

The trial version of Easy Recovery Pro will let you see if the files are
recoverable but you will have to buy it to actually recover them.
I have also had success with HDD Regenerator which apparently "fixed"
numerous bad sectors on a failing HDD which CHKDSK wouldn't run on. I was
able to take all the files off it but while it now appears "fixed" I don't
use it for anything important.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I have a lot of respect for the Kroll OnTrack recovery software.

 

[Charlie]

I would suggest the following.
http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm