Hard drive recovery

[pbj]

So, we had a brownout that corrupted a Windows XP hard drive.  When plugged into a Windows 7 machine, I get the error that the file system is unknown and I need to format it.  Shows up as "RAW" file system.

I've tried numerous enclosures and data recovery software packages and haven't had much luck.  Stellar Phoenix will find a bunch of the files, but it locks up during the scans, and you can't abort it partway through and recover what it's found until that point.

Have any of you had any luck in situations like this?  I'm contemplating doing a quick format to NTFS and attempting deleted file recovery.

[vwalbridge]

I've had success with Recuva

[knave]

you can always try a Linux live CD, There are a few out there that look like they might work.

2 Lists:
http://lifehacker.com/5984707/five-best-system-rescue-discs

https://opensource.com/life/15/2/five-specialized-linux-distributions-computer-repair

[pbj]

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten anywhere with Recuva because of the RAW file system.  That's what has me contemplating doing a quick format to NTFS.

I'll give a couple of those Linux CD's a shot.

[HaRuMaN]

I'd second linux.  I've had luck there where other methods have failed.

[pbj]

Okay, mounted hard drive internally in an old pc.  Run testdisk off the trinity rescue disk linux thing.

Says MFT and MFT backup are corrupt.

Tried a program called "getdataback" in Windows 7.  It indexed everything but only copied over blank files.

Will try again in linux but I need to scrounge up a way to get two drives mounted internally, or find a program that will dump it to a usb drive.

[yotsuya]

I've used GDB before with success.

[Howard_Casto]

Don't make me flash back to my computer repair days......  This was an eternity ago mind you, but I was thinking that Symantec had a companion to ghost that was pretty good at recovering dead drives.  Also hard drive manufacturers will occasionally release utilities, though I don't remember them being any good. 

[ed12]

for that stuff
i use parition magic 9.2 >freeware<

ed

[nexusmtz]

I use Zero Assumption Recovery (windows). It's $70, but I've used it to recover several drives, including a RAID5 set. It took a couple days to do that one, but it manged to figure out which drive was which and what the striping was without me having to make sense of the sectors myself.

Since I've had it for a few years and I haven't had to go looking for anything else, I don't know if it's been surpassed by the free/linux programs.

The demo version does 4 folders and doesn't save its scan results. A cheap bastard would run it in a VM and snapshot the VM after it does the scan, but before any folders are recovered. Then he'd recover 4 folders, restore the snapshot, and repeat.

[pbj]

Okay, I'll give that one a shot, too.

[ark_ader]

I use Zero Assumption Recovery (windows). It's $70, but I've used it to recover several drives, including a RAID5 set. It took a couple days to do that one, but it manged to figure out which drive was which and what the striping was without me having to make sense of the sectors myself.

Since I've had it for a few years and I haven't had to go looking for anything else, I don't know if it's been surpassed by the free/linux programs.

The demo version does 4 folders and doesn't save its scan results. A cheap bastard would run it in a VM and snapshot the VM after it does the scan, but before any folders are recovered. Then he'd recover 4 folders, restore the snapshot, and repeat.

Or use W2K on VM and stop the clock. 

[nexusmtz]

Or use W2K on VM and stop the clock. 

ZAR's XP/2003 requirement aside, wouldn't that only help with demos that expire? What is the clock's involvement in this case?

[Titchgamer]

I know people above have already mentioned Linux but I to use them for HDD recovery.

I usually use Ubuntu Linux to boot a PC from the CD.

Once loaded I plug the dodgy HDD in via a USB enclosure and then copy the desired files to the PC's HDD then to another USB drive if required.

[ark_ader]

Or use W2K on VM and stop the clock. 

ZAR's XP/2003 requirement aside, wouldn't that only help with demos that expire? What is the clock's involvement in this case?

Have you tried the application on W2K on a VM first?

[pbj]

So, Zero Assumption Recovery locks up anyway.  Comes back to life if I unplug the drive.

Basically every Windows utility is freezing when it starts working on this drive with anything more than a superficial scan.

So what specific linux utilities are good for this?

[Titchgamer]

I dont use any specifics for linux just boot into ubuntu or one of the others (fedora i think is another?) and see if you can access the file system in the file explorer.

[pbj]

Hm.  Worth a shot.  I'll plug it into my Stepmania laptop running Debian/Crunchbang and see if it gets recognized. 

[Titchgamer]

Good luck

[nexusmtz]

Have you tried the application on W2K on a VM first?

Yes. It doesn't install on W2K. That's why, for the sake of discussion, I was setting aside the OS requirement. I'm asking what the clock does for limitations that aren't date/time based, since I have W2K available and could use it if there's some benefit I'm not aware of.

[nexusmtz]

Basically every Windows utility is freezing when it starts working on this drive with anything more than a superficial scan.
So what specific linux utilities are good for this?

If windows utilities are freezing because of hardware read errors and retries (and you've already told the software to do only 1 or no retries), Linux might have the same problem. If you have a spare drive that you can copy to, ddrescue (looks like there's a debian package) might be good enough to get the working sectors, then run the windows utilities against the new copy.

[ark_ader]

Have you tried the application on W2K on a VM first?

Yes. It doesn't install on W2K. That's why, for the sake of discussion, I was setting aside the OS requirement. I'm asking what the clock does for limitations that aren't date/time based, since I have W2K available and could use it if there's some benefit I'm not aware of.

Some types of "demo-ware" is configured to be limited/gimped due to the current time of install..... 

Not all but some.

I will leave the rest for you to figure out.