How to recover corrupted files? HELP!

[DroogieX]

Hello, How can I recover corrupted files from a Hard Drive?, I've done some search on google but all I get is links to sites who sell software to repair corrupted files but I don't even know which one works, I would really like to know if there's a free utility or one that I can try first in order to see if it works, also if someone knows a method that I could try myself in order to recover those files I'd be grateful if you'd let me know

I was checking some folders on my external USB hard drive on the Windows explorer and suddenly I got a windows notification that sayed "the following files couldn't be saved to your hard drive" and now when I want to open that folder again I get the message "the folder or files are corrupted and unreadeable"

PLEASE HELP!

The files are some .flac music files VERY IMPORTANT to me

Also: How can I prevent from this happening again and what could be the cause?

Thanks!

 

[linney]

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

You can load Recovery Console and run ChkDsk /r from there.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

For data recovery try this free software.

PC Inspector

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

A failing drive may be the cause but there could be many other reasons, perhaps it was a one off type of event?

Your drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software to check the condition of any hard drive.

 

[DroogieX]

Thanks "Linney" for your detailed response, I tried all of that but I couldn´t recover any files, hope it doesn´t happen again

Could the cause of the currupted files be a faulty hard drive enclousure? I'm using a "Cintre XGEAR-II" like this one:

http://www.cintreusa.com/ci-320u2.asp

My Hard drive is a 120GB Western Digital caviar, 3 months old, I already did a checkdisk and a surface/bad sectors test with both Norton Disk Doctor and a Western Digital diagnosis utility, both tests reported no problems at all so I wonder if it's a faulty HD enclosure.....

 

[linney]

These might give you an overview of possible corruption causing events in general. There wasn't too much on Google about "Cintre XGEAR-II", but you can look yourself if you like?

http://www.google.com/search?source...n&q="external+USB+hard+drive"+file+corruption

http://groups.google.com/groups?sou...n&q="external+USB+hard+drive"+file+corruption

Plenty of other recovery software listed here.

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Disk_Management/Error_Checking_and_Repair/

 

[DroogieX]

Thanks again "linney" for your response, I've been reading the links you provided and actually I found out that my problem was a "delayed write failure" which seems to be VERY common, when I got my files corrupted I got that message from windows, I've been reading a LOT of posts about it and still seems that there's no real solution, a lot of factors seem to be involved in that kind of error, actually I'm surprised that didn't happended before, I've been working with my external hard drive for over 4 months and until now I got the error, hope I can find a fix to prevent it from happening again.....

 

[linney]

It is a hard to fix type of error because it occurs on different types of setups, covering different solutions depending on whether it is an external drive, a network drive or just a basic hard drive in a standalone machine.

These links can show you some suggestions, the second one may apply to your setup, I'm not sure though?

"Delayed Write Failed" Error Message When You Manage Files in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330174#appliesto

1394 delayed write failures

http://www.bustrace.com/delayedwrite/

windows delayed write failure
thread779-844566

delayed write failed over network
thread779-402046

Can anyone lend some help/advice?
thread779-463066