damaged / lost volume header

[janimal666]

hi.
i think i've lost the header to one of my internal disks. this is a storage only disk, and contains no software but regularly accessed files. after a system reboot, the disk name was magically reset to 'local disk', and the file system changed from ntfs to raw. whenever i try to access the disk in any way, windows simply prompts me to format the disk. i have tried to diagnose the disk in norton disk doctor, only to be told that the disk contains no recognisable format. is there a convenient way to recover the disk header or do i have to recover the data to a secondary location using recovery software? i'd rather not have to resort to the latter, as there is about 100gb of data and i don't have the room on my system.the disk is a maxtor 160gb. foolishly, the data is not backed up (waiting till i can afford a server), so one way or another i want to recover it. i've tried the disk investigator app, but it pretty much just tells me there's nothing on the disk. should i try to create a disk image before i continue?

 

[garebo]

You could do the fdisk /mbr routine.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[janimal666]

could you elaborate on that please?

 

[garebo]

sorry. Use a win98 boot disk to get into dos.
then run this command while in dos:

fdisk /mbr

then press enter

you have to make sure there is a space after the k in fdisk.

This will repair your master boot record in hopes that you can get at your data and back it up.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[janimal666]

doesn't seem to have had any effect. as this is not the os drive we're talking about, shouldn't i be able to fix this within windows?

 

[garebo]

Yes, you can go to the hard drive mfgr website and download their diagnostic program, there is one for windows and one for dos. You can use the windows diagnostics.

Im sure you havent changed the jumper to make it stop working, sorry, have to ask?

Lets try this, totally unhook the drive from your pc and turn pc on and off, then put the drive back in and turn pc back on. This isnt usually for drives with this problem, but it wont hurt any.

Does bios see the drive?

If, in the end, you dont get anywhere with this drive, then i would strongly urge you to use the "write zeroes to the hard disk" option in the hard drive mfgrs diagnostic program. But again, thats only if and when you give up trying to get your data or you are successful in getting your data and you want to repair the drive before formatting. I wouldnt just reformat this drive, use the zero write program, in this case, and in the future, before formatting. Resolves some potential issues we didnt know might have been there and cleans drive free of virus\malware\trojans\worms, and gets it ready for formatting.





Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[janimal666]

hi. yes, the drive is visible in bios as well as windows, it just shows no format. there is no change in the jumper setting - otherwise i wouldn't be seeing it at all, would i? anyhow, the case hadn't been opened for weeks before this. i have got the maxtor hard drive utility, but as far as i can see, this is mainly for the purpose of low level formatting, which of course i don't want to be doing if i want to be able to recover any of my data. i will try the unplug and reconnect routine, but have my doubts whether thats likely to achieve anything.

 

[garebo]

I have my doubts as well, but it wont do any harm. Make sure the bios and windows both see the drive correcty.
After that, i am out of options, but there are other, more knowledgeable people around here, give them a shot at it before you do the format.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[janimal666]

i bit the bullet in the end and bought another disk to recover the data to. stellar phoenix crashed every time i tried to scan the disk, ontrack found all the data, but none of the volume or file names (nice), but r-studio did the deed and successfully recovered the entire directory structure and around 99.8% of the files.