Need tips/tricks to recover data from corrupt XPP NTFS vol 1

[AceJupiter]

Hello All!

I, last night, received a KH-100 2.5 HDD external enclosure, in which I have ensconced (sp??) my old laptop drive, which is a recalcitrant NTFS volume.

I was able to mount it earlier using a Linux booter. I get the same "garbage" when I read the disc's contents.

Is there a tool out there that can begin to work on this drive and attempt to recover the data that was thereupon?

I would love to get your expert sgstns for software that works well against an XP NTFS volume. I guess any price range is ok, but certainly I'd enjoy hearing of those bargains out there.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

Ace

 

[bcastner]

This is well liked, and allows you to test if it will help before purchase:

http://www.restorer2000.com/

 

[AceJupiter]

Thanks Bcastner. Will have a look.

 

[linney]

http://www.restorer2000.com

http://www.runtime.org/hints.htm

Try here too.

-General Data Recovery discussion Forum (4103 members)
Forum528

 

[AceJupiter]

Thanks for taking the time, Linney. At one time, I think I kept Restorer2000 V1 around the office. Must be three years old by now.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[AceJupiter]

Unfortunately, GetDataBack NTFS (runtime.org) didn't work at all. :O( Grinded away for an hour as it progressed through the disk (you could see it going through sector by sector) then on the screen where one was supposed to select a file system, the program had apparently not detected one (???).

Hopefully Restorer will have better luck.

ACE

 

[AceJupiter]

Has anyone got any other ideas for software? I want to try again but neither of the mentioned packages, while redoubtable, seemed ideal. Thanks

 

[linney]

Was this comment by you a reference to trying the recover via Knoppix?

"I was able to mount it earlier using a Linux booter. I get the same "garbage" when I read the disc's contents."


Was this forum of any help too?

General Data Recovery discussion Forum (4103 members)
Forum528


I'm sure just typing "Data Recovery" in Google would turn up a few options (some expensive).

"Bcastner" had a list of tools in this thread that might be worth a try.

Users recycle bin
thread779-744465

Maybe your drive is just plain beyond recovery, have you tried the free diagnostic tools usually available from the drive manufacturer? (P.S. I'm often wrong, so there is still hope!)

 

[AceJupiter]

Linney,

I have no doubt the drive *MAY* be beyond recovery, but, sad as it is, I enjoy trying! More maddening still, it contains my tax return which seems to exist nowhere else. :O(

The diagnostic tools oddly return no errors, even though the 30GB drive reads 159GB...

Thanks for the addl. leads. --ACE

 

[Houston1981]

I remember using a program called Pheonix (or perhaps the company name pheonix) to restore completely restore a formatted ntfs partition, sorry not many details but i hope it helps,..

 

[jrbarnett]

Have you tried R-Studio (

http://www.r-studio.com)?

Not free, but works very well.

John

 

[linney]

I was wondering as your thread led directly into recovering lost data, whether you actually tried the Recovery Console options of FixBoot or FixMbr, or even looked at this utility MBRWORK from

http://www.bootitng.com

 

[AceJupiter]

Linney,

Yes I tried fixboot. Didn't try FixMbr.

When I tried to boot off the drive, I got "NTLDR is missing," which has been the bane of better techs than I.

Linney, I'm very familiar with Recovery Console off the bootable Windows CD working on a boot disk. Do you think I can somehow use it to work on the USB-connected drive, as mentioned above? Or do you think I have to reinstall it within the laptop?

Oh, and my question got no play on the data recovery forum!

John and Hous...will look into those. Sound good.

Thanks fellows. --ACE

 

[AceJupiter]

PS: when I say "reinstall it within the laptop," the "it" is the harddrive. thanks. sorry for the mushmouthedness.

 

[linney]

You can "add more power" to the Recovery Console, but you need to do it (unfortunately) before you lose access to your System and Group Policy.

310497 - HOW TO: Add More Power to Recovery Console By Using Group Policy in Windows XP Professional

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310497&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

NTLDR is Missing:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Apologies if I'm going over "old ground".

 

[AceJupiter]

I am having some interesting results with the Ontrack EasyRecovery tool, which sees the drive as ~28GB. First tool that hasn't reported back a 200GB drive.

It reports no physical errors.

The plot, she thickens. Sometimes even the really crummy problems are exciting, in a crazy way.

L: thanks for the update on Recovery.

--ACE

 

[wcburton]

jrbarnett posted about R-Studio. I have also used that with good success. You can try it for free to see if it will read the drive and the files. If you want to actually recover anything over 64K then you will have to purchase, but it is very reasonably priced.

 

[AceJupiter]

WC -

We are running it now. It doesn't see a file system initially, but it can see, on scanning:

NTFS MFT file entries (hundreds)
NTfs Directories entries (1)
and FAT FAT entries (300)

and it's 5% done. We're hopeful this will prove fruitful (I find the co-existence of FAT and NTFS entries somewhat foreboding, I must admit).

EasyRecovery 6 PRO was unable to do anything with the drive.

One of the partners of our firm has literally a dozen of the top recovery programs with "consultant" licenses (he can use them to recover client machines). I wasn't aware he had a practice in that.

this is an interesting experiment. --ACE

 

[wcburton]

With R-Studio, you can tell it to scan the drive as a certain file system. The File systems dropdown has check boxes that allow you to specify NTFS, FAT or Ext2FS. If you know that it is NTFS, just scan for those types of entries. The fact that it sees something it thinks might be FAT will not affect the recovery of any files.

 

[AceJupiter]

W,

Yes...I told it to look for NTFS, but it did not see a file system.

There probably was a small ~20MB FAT partition...this information is perhaps not inconsistent with expectations, now that I think about it.

Hours later, the scan is probably 40% through. We're up to close to 700 FAT Entries and almost 400 NTFS MFT entries detected.

Not sure what that means in terms of getting at my durned tax return, but it's never dull in this industry.

Thanks

--ACE