Best CRC Recovery Tool?

I have three internal SATA drives made by Western Digital (2x 320gigs and a 400gig).

In trying to backup data between drives I'm getting the dreaded "Cyclic Redundancy Error" I'm sure these drives are failing and I plan to replace them with a single 1TB SATA drive. However, I must do all I can to recover these files first.

I've read that it's sometimes possible to work around a CRC error as it's simply a mathematical algorithm.

Can someone recommend a reliable data recovery tool? I'm willing to purchase a good pro level tool for the future.

Thanks!

 

Hi

Have you tried Unstoppable Copier? It's good for damaged optical disks as well as the issue you're mentioning. You can download it here:

http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29

Best part? It's free. Personally, while some software is worth paying for, to a large extent I feel like I'm wasting money since almost every software license is worthless as soon as a new version of the paid software comes out. I try to stick to open source or freeware for most of my needs.

 

If your new 1TB drive is a Seagate, you might be able to disc cloning using DiscWizard, a free Seagate utility. It usually comes packaged on CD with Seagate retail boxed drives or (if you buy a bare Seagate drive) you can download it free at Seagate's website.

I've used Disc Wizard many times; however not for combining three drives onto one. Prior to cloning the drives, you'll likely have format the new drive into three partitions. If interested in this option, I'd go here to download the program and read the instructions to see if DiscWizard will work for what you're doing:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Remember: This will only work with Seagate brand drives.

Hope this helps

 

Actualy, what I meant was that I need to do my best to recover the files and then I'll just store them and do a fresh install onto the 1TB drive.

Another issue I'm worried about is I'm not actualy sure which drive has the problem. They all have partition problems at this point, which has lead me to invest in the new TB drive.

Is there a way to determine which drive is giving me the CRC problems (IE: the M: drive I'm copying FROM or perhaps the C: drive I'm copying TO).

Thanks!

 

I would recommend going to the original drive mfr's website and downloading their drive test software (SeaTools, Data Lifeguard, etc.).

Run a long/full test on each drive. Although it may take several hours per drive to complete, this will usually catch problems a quick scan or Checkdisk miss.

If a boot drive is corrupt, backup any files on it and do a fresh install of your OS and any software. If you clone corrupted files they will still be corrupted on the new drive (been there, done that :-o).

Hope this helps.

 

Update:

I ran the Western Digital HDD tool using the Full Scan option for all three drives. All three drives failed with bad sectors.

Soon I'll be trying the Unstoppable Copier to work around the CRC error.

However...

I'm a little worried about copying corrupt data from one of these three drives that have bad sectors to the new USB eternal drive I bought to back up these files. Is there anyway to confirm that once the files are transferred they are not corrupt and completely intact?