boot sector data recovery danger

[lazuli]

I recently suffered a hard-disk failure following a new Windows 98/2000 dual boot installation (Windows 2000 disk manager read the disk as healthy but of unknown file format) and downloaded several demo recovery programmes from the internet.

These proceded to make matters worse, to a horrendous degree, even though they were only supposed to be reading data. I thought my hard disk (a 6 month old, 60GB IBM Deskstar, IDE) was suffering severe physical breakdown.

Now my disk is with a 17 year old boy who is successfully recovering the data, although the sectors where these demo programs had been `reading` were the most highly scrambled and took him 20 hours to recover just 1%. Once past the points where these demos had been reading a further 40% was recovered in the next hour and today, the next day, I am expecting the whole disk returned, recovered, in full working ordered.

Considering the disk is physically OK, the only logical reason I can assign to the degredation was either bad work or foul play by the demo programs; which in each final case recommended contacting their main company for repair work; even though before they began their `analysis`the disk was still readable and accessable by Windows.

Am I being paranoid or are these companies deliberately sabotaging peoples`repair efforts in a move to charge them vast sums for having their disks repaired in-house.

Has anyone else had similar experiences???

Richard

 

[kshugart]

There are several responses to your dilemma that could have been solved within a few minutes of investigation and prevented this horror.
First, the problem was in the dual boot sequence. Simply finding out the error code then apply the fix from Micresofts' technet for the answer.

Second: No! the manufactuter's of the recovery programs provide demos in order for you to purchase, however, these programs are only useful if the person understands the how and why's of what is to be recovered. If you do not have a basic understanding of how hard drives operate and their filesystems, DON'T mess with them, you'll cause disaster.

 

[lazuli]

To kshugart,

Thank you for your response to my problem. As you will note that I am also a technical user you will understand that I do know how to use such software and do understand the principles and workings of computer parts and hard-drive systems, software and hardware.

My comments about the demo versions were based upon the fact that an 18 year old kid armed with a RAID system and good recovery software was able to restore the drive, ruling out the only other possible explanation for such continuing degradation.

However, as it turns out I may have been premature in this conclusion as, contrary to earlier indications, the drive does seem to have a physical, hardware, problem - even though it is a 6 month old 60GB 7200RPM supposedly reliable IBM drive; and it is refusing to read beyond the first 40% of the drive, which means that the data is lost, failing hugely expensive hardware recovery services.

I agree with your comments that if you don`t know what you are doing it is very easy to make matters worse and thank you for taking the time to reply to my letter. When I know for sure what the problem is and how it was caused I will post an update, and possibly a general apology for thinking the worst about the demo programs.

Kind regards

Richard

 

[leemi]

Hi lazuli
I'm also having HD problem myself, but wanted to know more about this 17 yr old person that's helping you... I think I need his help to recovery my data, if he does not charge an arm & a leg like the data-recovery big boys do....

Can you tell me what or how does he charged for his services?

 

[lazuli]

The boy wonder is in Poland and so am I. It could be a bit too far.
The end result of my hard drive problem was a hardware failure, electronic or mechanical I`m not sure. IBM`s own DFT program was able to recover the drive by resetting all the parameters to zero but it failed again a week later and is being returned to IBM.
Before you try anything else, why not check the website for your hard drive manufacturer and see if they have any software for downloading that might help.
If you still want to try the boy wonder let me know.

Cheers