Data recovery...?FAT tables fragged

[kingsize]

Had to back track a little but this is what I discovered. The ide HDD auto-detect on the m/b incorrectly guessed that my dma33 was capable of dma66. It posted but failed to boot.
It was put in another machine running dma33 only, as a slave, and scandisked. I could then read some info on the drive, but had hundreds of .chk files. The windows directory on the slave drive turned into a file, as did all the program files. Some files are untouched and operate fine. It's just the err, operating system and programs. Is this terminal?

 

[Alt255]

Scandisk is terminal. Never use it on a drive with major errors as it is almost impossible to "unrecover" it's particular brand of file recovery.

Probably too late, in this instance. Next time, try Lost and Found or place the drive in the hands of a qualified data recovery firm

Alt255@Vorpalcom.Intranets.com​

 

[datasafe]

More than 98% of data CAN be recovered AFTER Scandisk has been run, if you go through a quality Data Recovery Company.
The first thing ANYONE should do before attempting data recovery is to replicate the drive (Not just Ghost - but a true replication!) Once this is done, An algorithm can be constructed to lift the files/dirs out of the hard disk and save them, one at a time to another drive.

After all of that, the data can be taped off or cut to CD-Rs to be returned to the client.

We perform this service dozens of times per day - the procedures work. SCANDISK only alters the FAT - not the DATA, but, as you say - don't ever trust it - it only makes things worse.

Brian NESTOR
Precise Data Recovery Services (AUSTRALIA)

http://www.pdrs.com.au

 

[Stumpy2000]

I agree with the above comment, you COULD repair it yourself even, but without the proper programs available it would take months.
The way I recovered on a drive that failed on me was to go to each Primary root on the drive. Identify the directory and associate it with what program it is. Then you go to each of the inside files and have to determine what the applicable extension is.
For an individual never having done this before you are talking about a project that will last months and consume thousands of manhours.
hidesight being 20/20 ... backup backup backup. Raid is a good thing.
If the hard drive was important, I would definately pay a third party for repairing it, chalk up the cost as a business loss, (you may be able to collect some through insurance or other methods...tax deduction) and start back ups.