Disappearing and Reappearing Partition - Recovery

I'm working with an issue where I have three failing internal hard drives (CRC related thread found here: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1570908#post1570908).

My primary C: drive contains my operating and my M: drive contains all my important files (IE: documents, pictures, music, etc).

One day upon restart the drive seemed to be totally wiped. It had reverted back to it's default "Local Disk" name (I had originally renamed it) and Disk Manager showed it being 100% free space (it was almost full the night before.

However, if I boot the third hard drive that contains a copy of Windows 7, it runs a scan disk upon boot and the drive restores itself and I'm then able to access my files.

Unfortunately, the three drive with Windows has totaly failed today and the M: partition is now gone again and I HAVE to recover these files. That drive had my life on it. Is there a utility I can run that will recover fix the partition long enough for me to export these files to a backup?

Thanks!

 

Windows can be flaky on seeing partitions on a HD. Try Partition Wizard and see if it sees the partitions and if you highlight the partition in the program choose explore from the list of options on the left. If it can see the partition it is still there. Don't do any recovery yet, just see if it sees the partition and the files.

 

Indeed you were correct. Partition Wizard detects the correct partition name and I'm able to explorer the drive and access the files.

Now, how would I implement some type of fix in order to extract these files? Windows XP still does not see it.

Thanks!

 

I used segate disc wizard to completely copy a failing drive (it works on other hard drives, but easier if the new one was seagate
but this link could help

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1530545#post1530545
Incidently, one thing about Seagates tool, is that it will copy to a different size hard drive, but if there is a recovery partition, and the new drive is smaller it can show that partition as being full, and the recovery partition may not be usable -I never tried to use the recovery partition afterwards,

 

Hi

I was recently successful using iCare's program to successfully retrieve files from a "lost" partition on a failing hard drive. I was able to grab the software on a 24 hour free license deal... I think it's about $70 for a license, but it allows you to scan the drive (I think) before deciding to buy it or not. In any case, if you have the money, I'd say it's worth a shot.

Note: Not ALL of the files on the drive were intact... some were corrupted. Thankfully, the files I needed to recover (family photos... it was a friend's computer) were intact and successfully recovered.

A free program on MG is Recuva, though I haven't had a huge amount of success using it. Another thought to try, though.

 

I think there is an icare offer good until December 25 using the following link. http://www.icare-recovery.com/giveaway/data-recovery-hard-disk.html Since you are working with failing drives I would grab the software while you can. I think the terms of the giveaway are you have to activate by Christmas.

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I haven't had time to think about this problem but it may be as simple as letting Partition Wizard or another program rewrite the partition table. I'll look at a couple of options but I seem to remember it being a rather painless procedure. Since your drives are unreliable just getting the partition visible again may not be enough to get all the data off. So I'd grab that icare recovery that mcsmc just had success while it is free. It seems to work much like GetDataBack which does a deep search of the drive and finds files with or without a partition table.

 

I think Partition Wizard is worth a shot. Using the Recover Partition option. If it were me I would do it from the bootable Cd to eliminate Windows during the process. But if you are using a separate HD to boot from and the HD you want to work on partitions is not the current boot drive you could use the Windows version.

The instructions are here. You would select the disk # then choose the Full Disk scan. Try Quick scan first since it already sees the partition. Then in step 4 you want to be sure to check all the boxes not just the one for the M: drive. (unless there is some partition you don't recognize where you might want to ask about it before committing)

I've done similar rewriting the partition table using TestDisk when Windows says a partition is empty/RAW and 30 seconds later all is good in Windows again. I think it is worth a shot.

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I've been reading on that iCare giveaway. It may only let you choose one recovery module that the full program includes. If that is the case I would choose Deep Scan Recovery as my module since that is the most powerful. It may mess up the names of some files bu the content should be there.

 

Here's the issues I'm running into...

I ran Partition Wizard that was capable of viewing the "lost" partition that Windows would not recognize. Partition Wizard linked to a free program called Power Data Recovery. This tool allowed me to browse my files on the lost partition, select a destination drive (in this case my external USB hard drive) and save the files successful.

Sooo...

This all started by a CRC error I would get when trying to backup files from one drive to another. I started making a list of all the files I was unable to copy due to the CRC error. So when using the Power Data Recovery Tool, I WAS able to copy these files. But now, when I go to open them, some work fine BUT OTHERS will not open because they say they are corrupt.

Two problems arise here:

1) I'd like to find some way to recover these files so they are not corrupted as some are important.

2) Is there any way to determine what files on the rest of my drive are currently corrupted? I'd rather know this kind of thing now so I can address it as opposed to later when I go to open them and then they don't work due to corruption.

Thanks!

 

Hey Jason,

Glad to know you were able to pull the files off the drive(s).

Unfortunately, depending on the types of files, fixing the corruption can be difficult at best, impossible most of the time. Picture files can sometimes be salvaged (what's left of them, anyway) by opening them with certain picture programs and re-saving them with that program. I believe one picture program that has had success for other people using this method is XNView.

Documents, like Word files, and other programs are much more unlikely to be fixable. The only way that I'm aware of for fixing these is to use a hex editor and manually fix them (which, of course, requires a LOT of work and a LOT of expertise with the actual file hex structures... way beyond my knowledge level).

I'm unaware of any program that can scan files for corruption. My suggestion is to make two folders -- i.e. "Successful" and "Corrupted", and then open each file and sort accordingly.

Unfortunately, this is the reason everyone KNOWS to, but tend to not, keep important files on a few different medias, including more permanent types like DVDs... because when crap like this happens, it's a real pain to deal with!

 

I'm really not sure. My first thought in this whole thing is I find it very strange that you have 3 bad HDs all at once. If they were IDE drives I would suspect the data cable was bad.

2) I don't know anyway to tell if a file is corrupted without trying to open it. I don't think one exists.

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I think it would be safe to run PW off a CD and try to recover the partition (as well as the other partitions in the list) so that Windows would recognize it. (If in the unlikely event something went wrong I think TestDisk could fix the problem and re-find any partitions on the drive and again re-write the partition table, but TestDisk is a bit confusing because of the command-line interface.) The way I see it is your System Volume Information index is good on that partition so the files can be found. It is a matter of determining if they are already corrupted beyond repair or if copying is the problem.

If you re-wrote the partition table using PW and Windows recognized the needed partition and its files, then you could check if Windows could open the file from its original location. If it could open it I would try copying one of your must have files to the same partition and seeing if you get an error. That way you would know if the files are corrupted enough that Windows has trouble making a copy of them even on the same partition.

 

Thanks for all the great info guys!

So, I am at a cross-roads. It seems I now have to try and salvage the good files while seperating the corrupted files, idetnify them and replace them.

Opening each one isn't really an option as they're are way to many. My thought was this. Tell me what you think...

When I try to do a simple drag and drog copy of multiple folders from one drive to another, everything transfers fine untill I reach the bad sector (or now corrupted file) in the drive' thus generating the Cyclic Redundancy Error (CRC).

Is there not a program that I can scan my drive with that will atleast flag these types of areas? Perhaps it could test each file and flag ones that generate this type of error? That way I'll know exacly which ones are not going to transfer, thus I can replace them.

Just a thought...

 

I wonder if trying Western Digital's diagnostic again on that HD would be helpful. I believe during the extended test it marks bad sectors bad so that Windows ignores them. I know it stopped the first time but maybe a second go would not be amiss.

My understanding is that data in bad sectors is already gone. Even the most expensive recovery options can't make it whole again.

 

If the files that are reading as corrupt are in fact located on bad sectors of the drive (which I fear is the case) I may have to take a loss on these files. If there is no app that will pin point these areas that I can focus on, I suppose I don't have much choice. I've already backed up my irreplaceable items.

So...

I don't want to transfer corrupt files to my new install on my 1TB drive and not know it. So, the only thing I can think of is to re-generate the CRC error of these items by dragging and dropping from drive to drive.

However, I can't do this unless I can get Windows to see the missing partition on Drive M which it shows as empty when we know (via Partition Wizard) that it is still there.

Any thoughts?

 

Run the partition recovery in Partition Wizard. In step 4 select all partitions for recovery. All it does is write a fresh partition table listing the partitions. I believe this will allow Windows to see it. I don't see the downside because as it is it does you little good if only PW or recovery software can see the partition.

 

Just so I'm clear, this app will write the partition around the data there and leave the files untouched? Just want to make sure I don't overwrite anything.

 

Yes it does not change data. There is a partition table in the first part of every HD. It lists the start points for each partition. For some reason Windows is not reading that table correctly. All PW will do is make a new table at the front of the drive listing all the partitions it sees. Most times this is enough for Windows to now see the partition. The partition table is completely separate from the data on the drive so there is no overwriting being done. All the data stays where it is you are just creating a new pointer to the beginning of each partition so hopefully Windows will see the missing one.

The only part you have to be careful in is that at step 4 you select all the partitions in the list so that PW will add each of them to the table. If you don't select all of them then the ones you skip won't be in the list. That can be fixed by rerunning the program.

 

Well, after a night and a half of scanning, I'm able to access the partition on M via Windows XP. So...success on that front. Of course, I'm still getting the CRC errors (which was expected).

Here was a thought.

I know there will be some files that are unable to be transferred from drive to drive due to the CRC error.

BUT!

If I burned those CRC error'd files to DVD from the M drive, could that possibly work?

 

Any thoughts if this method may work? I don't want to copy corrupted info to my new drive from a DVD thinking I was successul and it's really not working.

Thanks!

 

The only tool I have used to check files copied, has been this one
http://majorgeeks.com/CDCheck_d579.html
It could be worth copying some and then runiing the check