HDD/Data corruption, fix/recover?

[HeidiK77]

Hi,

I thought I'd post here cause I need an extreme solution to a headache giving problem I kinda myself.... but I'm looking for something else to blame :P

So, here's the deal:

I run win2k SP4, edited the registry to cope with large drives, prepped the drive with Western Digital's tools and used their DDO software to overcome my Bios' limitations.

All looked fine (windows Explorer and Disk Management saw the proper drive size), so I started to cut&paste all my data onto the 160gb hdd.

Once I had copied over 128/137gb, i got this error message:
file or directory is corrupted and unreadable

What I could see in Windows:
ALL files and folders, with odd characters/symbols,
inaccurate file sizes displayed in windows explorer as in
- found a very big file like a 3gb file that i know for sure i dont have
- or files/folders's properties showing a size of 0kb.
Also, looking at windows explorer's display of the disk usage, it showed i had used just over 138gb of diskspace in use.

I didnt run checkdisk to make sure it wouldnt make things worse and kept the file system intact.
I suspect the files should NOT be fragmented since I just copied them.
My motherboard manufacturer dont have a bios update that will support 48bit-lba.


1. Would I have more chance to recover the data or reconstruct the FAT or whatever is wrong using a hex editor or something else?
2. what do I have to do in win2k to disable checkdisk to avoid further problems?
3. What went wrong since I had DDO software and LBA enable in registry? (since those steps should overcome old BIOS limitations)
4. Which programs do I need to attempt to recover the data?
5. Which programs do I need to maybe/somehow undo the damage and restore my hdd/data in its previous state?
6. Do I need to use a 48bit lba compatible system to attempt recovery?
7. If yes, wont the change of translation mode for the drive risk further data corruption?
8. What bios mode for the wd160 do I need to use to increase chance of recovery?
normal, large, auto, lba?
9. Do I need to uninstall the Dynamic Drive Overlay software on the drive? If so, why?
10. What Windows operating system is more prone to create less problems with my hardware specifications for recovery purposes?
11. Is it better to attempt recovery from DOS or Windows system?
12. Do you know what most likely happened to the data on the WD160:
a. it's still there but the file allocation table is incorrect?
b. the data is physically there but not accessible to OS? if so, how to go around that?
c. the sectors are now reported as bad? if so, what to do?
d. the data is in lost clusters? if so, what to do?
e. the data has been silently corrupted? If so, what does this implies? and what to do?
f. any other suggestion on the data situation?
13. Has the bios performed wrapping and created an offset in the FAT system/directory tree thus overwritting some data by making some cross-linked files? if so, any clues on fixing it?
14. Is there a simpler or better way of fixing this problem than recovering the data?
15. Can the system be amended so that the drive and its data are accessible again?
16. To attempt data recovery, should I use the drive as a slave, a master or it doesn't matter?
17. Is there a freeware prog to tell if a system is 48bit lba compatible?


Now I believe there's got to be a way, I'm patient and eager to learn.
Thanx immensely for any help you can provide.

[sllywhtboy]

i've learned from experience to never cut/paste. always copy/paste, then delete the old after you've verified the new data is in place.

all it took me was one time to lose 80hrs of work in 2 clicks. i cut. i pasted. during the copy, the machine crashed and the data was gone forever. i lucked out though, i was able to restore the files from a tape backup.

moral:
1. create backups.
2. copy, then paste, then delete after verification.

you may be able to take your old drive (where you cut from) and send it off for data recovery.. you may be able to try any 'hard drive recovery' programs available at your local PC software store. try chkdsk /f drive: ?

if it's a boot drive/partition/, stop booting or loading/saving from/to it until you figure out a plan.

[HeidiK77]

Thx, info noted.
I'm afraid checkdisk would just get rid of anything it cant link to the FAT, since it seems my FAT is corrupted, I reckon the application would destroy everything it finds and any chance of recovery I have, thx DDO software!
Thats as much info as I have for now, I'll post anything that might be of interest to anyone else when I got something.
'later

[Brona]

Hi,

You can try restoring data using Active@ undelete or Uneraser (for DOS) data recovery tools. They never failed me before and might really help you.

http://www.active-undelete.com/
http://www.uneraser.com/

If your whole partition is corrupted then Active@ partition recovery can help you restore it, as it did for me in a simmilar situation.
http://www.partition-recovery.com/