Re: Recover the data when CHECKDISK is not working.

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

redengineer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Malke,
Your website is very interesting and funny.
I tried to download a Seagate diagnostic to check what it the problem.
Here the results:

I have 1 physical hard drive and three partitions. The C partition is
fine, the others have bad INDEXES.

Have you got any idea how can I fix via software this problem? Can you
suggest me any free or shareware recovery software?
Thanks a lot
Manuel

OK, when you say bad "indexes" I'm assuming that you mean the drive
passed all physical tests and your partitions are just messed up.

I would see if Knoppix or a Bart's PE can see the partitions first. It
doesn't hurt to try. If you can get into those partitions and see the
data, you can then copy it off to an external hard drive or burn
directly to CD/DVD depending on what you've got to work with. Both
Bart's and Knoppix are free, but require a bit of skill to create and
use. You are the best judge of your own abilities.

Here are the url's for Knoppix and Bart's:
http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Since you may not be familiar with Linux, here's a little general how-to
for data retrieval with Knoppix:

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 usb/firewire 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 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 the 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 neither a Bart's or Knoppix can deal with the messed up partitions,
you can then try data recovery software. I don't have any experience
with the free programs since I use Easy Recovery Pro (expensive).
People whom I respect have recommended R-Studio (not free but IIRC it
is less expensive than Easy Recovery) and Restoration. YMMV.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software “Undelete” -
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
BadCopy Pro (CD recovery) -
http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/cdrecover.asp?rid=google&kid=gccr0205
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Another thing to try is correcting the partition table with a partition
editor, but I don't have any experience doing that. I will tell you
that you need to be very skilled indeed to do partition editing. Again,
you know your abilities best.

After you get the data, I would do a clean install of Windows. Delete
the partitions during the install and create new ones.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows -
What you will need on-hand

Manuel, once again I'd like to stress that 1) you know your skill level
best; and 2) you know the value of your data best. If the data is
really really important to you and your skill level is not up to this
job, do yourself a favor and take the machine to a local professional
who specializes in data recovery. This will not be cheap, but it will
be less expensive than the last alternative which is to send the drive
to a professional data recovery company such as Drive Savers
(www.drivesavers.com). Although they are in the U.S., Drive Savers
works internationally.

To give you an idea of prices (and naturally local prices will be
different where you live), I normally charge $150-350USD for data
recovery here in Fresno, CA, USA. Fees for companies like Drive Savers
run from $500USD on up. Drive Savers recovered all the data on a failed
laptop drive for one of my clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it
was worth the money; only you know what your data is worth. I
understand that some insurance companies here in the United States are
now covering data recovery charges under "Loss of Intellectual
Property" so check with yours.

After you get all done with this, get into the good habit of regularly
backing up so you won't be faced with this again because Stuff Happens.
I'm happy to help you with figuring out a good backup plan, too.

Good luck and let me know how it goes for you,

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

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