Data Recovery

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wazza

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Hi All

Dont know if this thread is in the right forum but here goes ...

What is wrong with my HDD? It displays all the files and folders on the drive but only some files have filesizes and the rest of the files haves filesizes that are equal to zero.
I can copy files to the drive and read files from the drive. The HDD is NTFS done through windows.

I think my HDD is ... BROKEN but I cannot say die! To many valuable files on the drive as you all can imagine.

How do I fix or recover the files?

Thanks in advance
 
Do you mean the data recovery software shows this, or Windows shows this?

Anyway please try this:

Manual steps to run Chkdsk from My Computer or Windows Explorer
  • Open My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check.
  • Click Properties, and then click Tools.
  • Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed
Use one of the following procedures:
  • • To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start.
  • • To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start. (tick)
  • • To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box.

Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message:
The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?
Click Yes to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.

Wait until Chkdsk finishes Checking / Repairing any faults
Windows will then either restart your computer or continue loading Normally.
 
You can also run the hard drive manufacturer's drive fitness test you can get free as a download. All drives except Toshiba have one.
 
Rick said:
This is a listing I have put together of every major drive manufacturer and their drive diagnostic utilities. These utilities will allow you to test & diagnose your drive. Some utilities also allow you to "low-level" format (write zeros) or enable/disable certain features on your drive.

Drive Diagnostic Utilities

chkdsk
Built in utiilty for Windows 2000/XP. Start --> Run. Type chkdsk /r for full scan. Can also be run from recovery console. Not recmomended for diagnosing.

Hitachi / IBM - DFT "Drive Fitness Test"
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
Works with all manufacturers

Western Digital "Data Lifeguard"
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#dlgtools
Works with WD drives only

Maxtor "Powermax"
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD
Works with all manufacturers

Fujitsu "FJDT"
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1
Works with fujitsu models only

Samsung "hutil"
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm
Compatability unknown...

Seagate "Seatools"
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools
Works with Seagate drives only

Toshiba - N/A
There are no tools available for Toshiba, but you may be able to use IBM or Maxtor's drive tools as well as other third party programs


Other Useful Drive Utilities

HDD Regenerator - Repair bad sectors
Repairs most bad sectors by remagnetizing the disk surface without losing your data. Works independantly of the file system, making it compatible with all PCs, operating systems and hard drives...
http://www.dposoft.net/

Active@Partition Recovery
Recovers most deleted, lost or formatted partitions.
http://www.partition-recovery.com/

Partition Magic
Fast and easy partitioning, Supports all Windows and most Linux file systems. Great for ignoring bad sectors and for advanced partitioning schemes.
www.partitionmagic.com

Ranish
GPL/Freeware partitioning program for use with Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and more. Not much on eye candy, but it works. :).
www.ranish.com

gParted
GPL/Freeware partitioning program for use with Windows and Linux. Nice, intuitive interface and comes available as a bootable CD image..
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Acronis Partition Expert
Easy to use interface. Supports Windows and Linux partitions.
http://acronis.com/products/partitionexpert/


Drive Backup Tools

Symantec Norton Ghost
Ghost 8.0 or less runs under DOS, but extremely reliable. Ghost 9.0 and 10 requires Windows 2000 or XP. 9.0 & 10 are Windows-centric. Ghost 9+ supports full "hot imaging" of system partitions while in Windows, but not incremental imaging.
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

Acronis True Image
Supports Windows and Linux file systems. Allows "hot imaging" of system partitions while in Windows, supporting full and incremental (fast) backups. TI 10 has been rock solid for me -- Recommended.
http://acronis.com/products/trueimage/


Drive Secure Erase Utilities

Darik's Boot and Nuke
Securley erases all data on your harddrives, beyond the point of possible recovery. Use with care! Tip: remove harddrives you will not be erasing from the computer.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
. .
Source here: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic7602.html
 
Hi Kimsland

Thanks for the help.

I tried that and it ran check disk on startup. All went well and then booted into windows but I still have the same problems. No filesizes for the files.
 
No filesizes for the files I thought I'd seen it all.

Um, can you create a txt file or pic or something and just confirm that you get a filesize.

No filesize usually means the file is absolutely blank (can't remember the lowest I think it's 32K)
 
Found smallest size for one file here:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457112.aspx
A cluster (or allocation unit) is the smallest amount of disk space that can be allocated to hold a file. All file systems used by Windows XP Professional organize hard disks based on cluster size, which is determined by the number of sectors that the cluster contains. For example, on a disk that uses 512-byte sectors, a 512-byte cluster contains one sector, whereas a 4-KB cluster contains eight sectors.

It's 4kb on standard NTFS
 
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