"The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable" - Hard drive error

[aznamzonbb]

Hi, my PC is running on Windows 2000 and I'm having trouble accessing a logical partition of my 200 GB Seagate hard drive. When I try to access it from My Computer, I receive the error "The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable." Is there a way for me to recover my data from this partition? Or even better yet, is there a way to actually fix its condition?

I have tried many ways on fixing this problem and reading many forums but none has helped. I am afraid of making the condition worse. I have purchased GetDataBack and have only been able to recover some files, but not all. I have 30 GB of information at least on this drive. (I mainly want to recover personal information such as videos, pictures, and past school work.)

I have tried using TestDisk using Knoppix but that has only made the problem worse since it wrote the incorrect partition table information onto the hard drive (which is what caused this error in the first place). Originally, I had the error of "This drive is unformatted. Would you like to format?"

The last thing I have tried was Hard Drive Mechanic. I purchased it since it had a money back guarantee but could not understand how to work it. I called tech support to find out that the program was not designed to deal with the "corrupted and unreadable" error.

Please if anyone could provide me with any type of advice, I would be extremely grateful. If any addition information would be helpful, I will definately provide it.

Thank you!

 

[wolluf]

Its difficult to advise - as you've tried what is generally regarded as a very good data recovery app (GetDataBack). You could try spinrite - that's supposed to carry on trying to recover stuff after others have given up. Or if you can find other apps which allow a free try (there are some which will show you what they can retrieve - but will only let you retrieve the data when yo've paid - so at least you'd get an idea if it was worthwhile). I presume you've already Googled to find possibilities - so suggest just check out those you've got.