Re: Partition inaccessible all of a sudden

Kourosh wrote:

anyone?
Kourosh wrote:
I rebooted and one of my partitions is unaccessible now. The error is
"the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable"

I've ran powerquest partition magic and windows checkdisk and none
detected errors. It's all one hard drive and it's only one partition
of it that's corrupted like this. What's the best thing I could do
next? should I just try recovery software, or is there a way to try
to fix the partition without affecting the data on it?

If Partition Magic didn't detect any errors (still sees it as a viable
partition), I'd boot with Knoppix (since Windows can't deal with it)
and retrieve the data. Then I'd format the partition and restore the
backed up data.

Knoppix is a Linux distro on a live cd. You will need a computer with
two cd drives one of which is a cd/dvd-rw, OR a usb thumb drive with
enough capacity to hold your data, OR an external hard drive formatted
FAT32 (not NTFS). To get Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast
Internet connection and third-party burning software. Download the
Knoppix .iso from www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then
boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are
using the usb thumb drive or external hard drive, right-click on its
icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that
says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note that the default
mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single
click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows' double-click.
Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files to cd/dvd-r's.

If Knoppix can't see the files, then you can try data recovery software.
I use Easy Recovery Pro, but that is expensive. I've heard good things
about R-Studio and also about the free Restoration.

R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Professional data recovery companies (not inexpensive but only you can
determine the value of your data):

DriveSavers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services -
http://www.seagate.com/support/service/drs/services.html

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
.

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