Can my data be recovered with software?

[AudioVayne]

Well once upon a time (6 months ago) my brother had a laptop which had an issue...Starting with a f*****d intake fan...leading to a f*****d 60Gig HDD and CPU...

I ended up pinching the 60Gig and have been using it as an external ever since...

As of yesterday I tried accessing the drive (Using a USB - IDE card or a 40pin - 44pin adapter to no avail) and I got the message : "Error Performing Inpage Operation"

So I booted with Winternals 2007 (the last time I xferred data was via Winternals...Otherwise it has been less than 72 hours since I used it in Windows...

"Error Performing Inpage Operation"

So I setup to run chkdsk /r...8 hours later it's still running!!
Stage 1 - 4x File record segments are unreadable
Stage 2 - Deleted one index entry
Stage 3 - OK
Stage 4 - Windows replaced bad clusters in file 23 and most files so far to 542
Stage 5 - Pending

I'm really paranoid that chkdsk is corrupting the data and really worried I won't be able to recover it! Most of it has been backed up prior to this occasion, but there are still a fair few files that MUST be recovered!

Please, any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Drive: NTFS 60GB HDD Toshiba 2189 4200RPM, Data only (OS incapable due to errors in the boot sector)

 

[kimsland]

Recovery Software

Try this one: http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm
It is free for up to four folder down, ie
C:\Documents and Setting\UserName\My Documents\My Pictures
1,2,3,4 folders down

Here are a lot free ones to choose from
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads38.html

 

[AudioVayne]

Wow that was fast!

Just got a txt from a friend of mine offering his 'Easyrecovery pro'...Do you know or recommend this program?
That program should do the trick though because I don't think I have any files further than 4 folders deep...

Oh and the files that chkdsk are fixing so far have all been .jpg files...It'l be just my luck all my photos (literally copies of all I have) are on there and chkdsk is gonna take a day or 2 to complete! We're up to file 546 as of this posting...

 

[kimsland]

If you want to recover your data don't run Checkdisk or anything else
Just the Recovery software, whilst the drive is connected internally in a PC as a secondary drive

Yes "Easyrecovery pro" is good, but I find ZAR the best

 

[AudioVayne]

Wickid! And Ummm...What's the best way to stop chkdsk then? I've heard that you're not sposed to, but I'd rather corrupt one of the photos than wait for it to potentially ruin any other files

 

[kimsland]

By rights it is CTRL + C keys together, if you are running from a Command prompt

But this can also take time for the computer to Catch Up to the keys pressed
If it takes too much time, just turn off
When Windows reports that CheckDisk needs to be run on one of your drives (on restart), do not do it

By the way I'm crossing between threads here, so my answers are delayed at times
Also I might sign off soon.

 

[AudioVayne]

Ok...Well thank you for your help! Will post the results shortly...

 

[LookinAround]

Here's a perfect example of why it's wise to invest a few $$ for backup software capable of "ghosting" your hard drive.

The first thing to then (or even now) do is create a ghost disk image of your entire hard drive (including every bad, corrupt and/or unallocated sector on the disk filesystem simply AS IS). This assures that no matter what chkdsk or any other utility you should try that might remove or change any sector data/ fail to recover data/etc. you can STILL always get back to this point in time to simply re-try and use a different approach to recover any data lost on your disk somewhere! No need to worry about that "woops, i shouldn't have done that" feeling because you have the confidence to know you can always get back to the full disk image as it was BEFORE you did whatever you wished you didn't do!
You can read the different opinions on backup software approaches / reasoning here
.

 

[AudioVayne]

I generally keep all my data on my PC and laptop (same data, 2 separate HDDs) and update them from time to time with any changes...The externals are used as a harvest medium or backup (I generally lose my flashdisk twice a week and various tools discs just as common)...But of the past few weeks my machines are mostly full ad I've had to rely on the external...

ZAR Is a great program! It is thorough...But because I'm a tight cat I can't buy it therefore It can't recover enough files for my use...Ill hold onto it though...Just in case...It recovered the specific files I needed...

I'm using Easy Recovery Pro to get my bulk data back though...

Thank you guys for your help and input!!

Kimsland, if you ever make it to New Zealand I'll happily shout you a few drinks!

 

[kimsland]

It recovered the specific files I needed...
Kimsland, if you ever make it to New Zealand I'll happily shout you a few drinks!

Thanks for the update :grinthumb
I'm not allowed to receive payment for support here, but that one sounds tempting
If I ever have enough courage to bungy jump, I'll let you know

 

[AudioVayne]

:haha: might join ya!