MFT corruption, what to do now?

[Prophious]

fresh install of OS(Windows Vista) installed on 80 GB HD, and one of my 400 GB hard drives has crashed


what happened is that while i was downloading a file though firefox, firefox froze and could not be shut down(by task manager and by right clicking - close, and various other ways of trying to shut down the program) , so i reset the computer thought the start menu, now after a full re-install of the OS (vista ultimate) i have no access to the hard drive that has very super ulta important information, i've had a bad experience with data recovery programs that i still lost everything anyways, so i'm wondering if there is a way to rebuild the MFT with a free program so then i can access the hard drive in a whole, just like it was before the MFT got corrupt

the only things that were installed in the new OS were firefox, avast, and the raid drivers(that the crashed 400GB drive is NOT connected to)

 

[Tmagic650]

Will this help?
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_NTFS_Boot_and_MFT_Repair

 

[Prophious]

no i tried that already, because the $MFT and the $MFTmirr is corrupt that program would not work and did not work, but thanks for the info

 

[Tmagic650]

So there's a new hard drive in your future

 

[Prophious]

i did get alot of files back with a data recovery program, zar recovery 8.3

if you think that the hard drive may crash again in the future then i will not use it untill i get a new HDD

 

[almcneil]

Prophious,

You have two options in this case, both cost money. In fact, I know you problem with data recovery is likely because you tried a freeware one. When it comes to data recovery you only use a licensed one because they are reliable unlike the freeware ones.

In fact, before you do anything, I recommend you take a disk image of your corrupted drive. I recommend either Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. This way, if you attempt one of my suggestions and it messes it up worse, you can restore from image backup and try another technique.

First technique is to use a Partition manager. I recommend Acronis Disk Director. They can sometimes repair file tables and the partion maginally reappears!

The other is to use a licensed data recovery tool. I recommend GetDataBack. I've used it 3 times and it works. Also, it has a feature that will analyze but not do anything. The analysis will tell you it can at least detect the files. Then you decide whether or not to proceed with the repair.

Reply with results or if you need more details.

-- Andy

 

[Prophious]

i already paid for a data recovery program, listed in my last post, i had this one for a while tho, either way i managed to get about 90% back of files, and the most important ones are there, now to go though to see about the e-mail, good thing i have gmail

but my question now is the HDD any good, i will be checking the smart of that HDD to see myself if it is, i might be able to get a log of the smart and i'll post here and tell me your opinion about it