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Trying to recover data from damaged HDD

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xlav

Technical User
Oct 23, 2003
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JM
My ide (has win2kpro) hdd won't boot because it is damaged or corrupted. Installed a working SATA hdd (with win2kpro) with bad ide drive to access bad drive data via working drive. Working SATA drive won't boot with bad ide hdd installed with it even if switch 2nd and 3rd boot device in BIOS betweem HDD0 and HDD1. Error is 'unable to load boot device'. Working SATA hdd will boot when installed alone. Can the working hdd boot with the faulty hdd installed?
 
Yes, it should be able to. You need to set the SATA HDD to be the first boot device. Is the SATA built into the motherboard or do you have a PCI SATA card?
If the SATA is built in you should be able to select the SATA as the first boot device.
 
SATA is built in MOB. In BIOS ide hdd is primary master. Don't see option to make SATA 1st boot device in BIOS although BIOS says 'If SATA selected as boot device SCSI cannot be a boot device and vice versa'. Set floppy, HDD0, HDD1 in BIOS, still get 'Error loading operating system' when boot. Have PCI SATA card but use only for external hard drive. MOB: Abit NF7-S v2.0, bios: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
 
What options do you have in the BIOS for the boot devices?
You may need to set the first boot device to SCSI if SATA is not an option.
 
Buy a $20 external USB hard drive case. They are amazing to have laying around in case you find yourself with a bad drive and need data off it. If it is a hardware problem you're pretty much screwed anyway but if it is just an OS problem a USB drive should be all you need.

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!
 
This is something we had issues with also, where the SATA drive would not show up in bios under boot devices.

If the SATA drive is new to the motherboard and didnt come installed you need to find the spot in BIOS where it says to enable SATA. Usually it is turned off if your computer came with IDE installed.

Once that is enabled reboot back to BIOS and then you should see the SATA HD under Boot Devices.

Jake Chaffee
"There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who can read binary and those who can't."
 
My pc was self built. I scrolled past the end of boot device list in BIOS and saw SATA.
Booted with both hdd connected and sata was selected. At startup message said a disk could not be configured. Double clicked ide drive in my computer. Message said 'the disk is not formatted and asked if I wanted to format it'. Chose no. Scanned the ide hdd with MultiStageRecovery, a file recovery software. It said the drive is invalid or damaged. Considering to use 'File Scavenger' a file undelete and data recovery software to try and recover files from ide hdd. Wondering if it will work.
 
It sounds like the drive has some physical damage or a faulty control board & may not be recoverable.
I had a drive go down on me & I thought that I had lost everything. I got lucky, as I had a PC handed in to me for spares. The HDD was the exact model of my faulty drive. I swapped the control boards over & got my data back. If it is the control board on your HDD, it may be worth trying to get hold of another HDD of the same type & swap them over. You may need a set of security screwdriver bits to remove the boards. Most manufacturers use small star drive screws. May be worth a shot.
 
Is the data on the damaged IDE very important? If yes, then initially try running software that doesn't alter anything on the damaged drive. GetDataBack is a favourite of mine - it costs, but does a pretty good job at recovering seemingly "lost" data. After that you could try running CHKDSK /R on the drive, or you could fork out for SpinRite. Be aware that SpinRite make take a long time to go through the drive if it's badly damaged.

Or if your data is EXTREMELY important, you're best leaving it entirely in the hands of a professional data recovery company...

ROGER - G0AOZ.
 
After scanning the drive with GetDataBack I was able to open some of the lost files. Decided to purchase the software. During the copy process of the recovery the process froze while copying a file. Emailed the sellers and they said my drive seems to be damaged. Here's the correspondece:

To: support@runtime.org
Subject: Copy files freeze

Hello,

I purchased a copy of GetDataBack for NTFS (v3.03), recovered files from a hard drive, selected to copy NTFS from the Recovery Tree and started the copy process. After about 10 or 15 minutes the Copy files window froze at: From:
~DFEEEF.tmp

To:
E:\Documents and Settings\blue\....\~DFEEEF.tmp

Total progress: 18%

It has stuck there for about half and hour now.

The hard drive being copied from is IDE with Windows 2000 OS. The drive cannot boot. When I try to access the drive by clicking it via a bootable one a message says the drive is not formatted and asks if I want to format the drive. I chose no. The destination partition is on a SATA hard drive with Windows 2000 OS.
I
Seeking your assistance .

And here is the reply:

It sounds like there is either physical damage with the drive you are recovering the data from or the destination drive.

Did you get any error messages during the scan with GetDataBack? How long did it take to scan the drive? If you have physical damage with this drive that prevents you from copying your files, you should consider making an image of this drive first and then running the data recovery software for this image again. That would be a bit of a lengthy process, but it would be the safest and probably most successful approach.

You will find more information about how to create an image with GetDataBack on our website at
Best regards,

I was almost sure I could recover the files after I was able to view some after scanning. That's why I purchased the software. Have to go buy a drive to do a second scan. The files have important but not critical info. Will look at SpinRite. Swapping control boards seems a good option but I would have to get the security screw driver bits. Wonder if I could recover the files by selecting individual folders and files instead of trying to recover everything by selecting to copy NTFS. Will ask runtime.org support.
 
Try to recover smaller amounts of data at a time. It may be that the drive becomes more unreliable the warmer it gets, as the heat will expand the metal. One trick that may work is to put the drive in a sealed bag & stick it in the freezer for an hour. This would cool the metal down & may give a bit longer to recover your files. I know it sounds nutty, but I know this trick has helped some people before. I tried it once, but this was on the drive with the faulty board, so it didn't help. As you seem to be able to get access to some files it may help in your case. Worth a try? maybe.
 
id you have exhausted all efforts try looking into Winhex and see if it gets you data back.

it has helped me when i had a HDD crash

good luck
 
As kestrel1 suggests, scan the drive in smaller chunks. Make a note of the sector where it stalls, then rescan stopping a few sectors short of the troublesome one(s). Ditto after the stalled sector(s). If it's a .TMP file, then it probably isn't of any significance...

ROGER - G0AOZ.
 
Recovered individual folders and files using GetDataBack.
 
I recovered Microsoft Office 2000 folder, opened it and clicked EXCEL.EXE and WINMWORD.EXE. Error messages say 'The operating system is not presently configured to run this application'. How can I configure the OS (Win2kPro) ?
 
When you say "I recovered Microsoft Office 2000 folder", I presume this folder contains programme files and not documents and data files that you've created.

You cannot just copy programme files onto another system and expect the applications to work. Files need to be placed correctly by the Microsoft Office Installation programme, which amongst other things will make numerous new entries in the Registry. If, however, you're talking about documents and data files, then yes they can be copied into the My Documents folder of the relevant user.

ROGER - G0AOZ.
 
The folder was copied from Program Files folder and contains program files. Thanks for the info.
 
You need to install MS office 2000 in the current computer to run those programs.

 
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