Corrupted Drive

I had a drive failure, windows got corrupted. I have the drive installed in the 2nd bay. Windows sees it. It says Unknown, 186.31 GB Not Initialized. What will Initializing do? Any recommended software or (freeware) to use to recover the data. Thanks.

 

Does it let you run a Windows disk check on it?

 

How would I go about that?

 

If it needs to be initialized - then it will greatly decrease your chances of recovering the data.

You will also need to initialize it (first) to run a check disk on it.

(To check the disk: right click on the drive in explorer, properties, Tools, check disk and check both boxes and let run a few hours).


Try this instead:

Disable S.M.A.R.T. in your BIOS and see if you can access the drive now.

If you can, copy off any and all DATA you can immediately - don't reboot the machine (you may not see the drive again) until you have all the DATA you can extract.

You may need to take 'ownership' of the folders to get the data off - Win 7 is much better for this than Win XP:

In Win 7: simply right click on the folder and in the properties, security, advanced, Owner tab, click Edit, select your user name, check the box that says 'replace owner on subcontainers and objects' and click apply, okay.

If that doesn't work then:

Still leaving the S.M.A.R.T. status OFF in the BIOS for the drives, boot with a Ubuntu live CD and see if you can get the DATA off like that.

Remember that once you get the drive spinning, recognized and accessible:

DO NOT TURN OFF THE SYSTEM UNTIL YOU HAVE RETRIEVED AS MUCH DATA AS YOU CAN FROM IT.

Good luck.

 

This series laptop does not have SMART enable/disable in it. A question is did the drive and install just get corrupted from trying to O/C or under volt the x9100 too much? if it is a hardware failure then you may need to get to a professional for data recovery. if it is just the data was corrupted from the CPU there is some hope, not much though.

As stated do not initialize the the drive. Once you do this you rest MFT etc and you will need a recovery software and even that stands less of a chance. This is a hard problem to help diagnose over the net as just one wrong move and it could be bye bye for all the data.............

 

TANWare,

I wasn't assuming the notebook has S.M.A.R.T. enable/disable - I would not attempt (serious) data recovery from a notebook - I was assuming that the corrupted HDD was connected to a stable desktop system.

I would remove the HDD right away from the notebook - it will only power on/off so many more times before it finally dies for good.

 

Ah, my assumption is the P78xx all have a second bay. Our bios control is very limited. Agreed if hardware issue the drive is about to be toast if it is at the state he is in.

My other assumption is x9100 for Christmas. With Throttle Stop we can O/C the CPU and I've seen more than one drive corrupt from pushing the CPU too hard. It is extremely important to back up before stressing the CPU and disconnecting the backup from the system.......

 

the drive failed with stock hardware. the drive spins up, windows got corrupted. i was able to boot the drive and get into startup repair on said disk, so drive is ok, windows corrupted, wont boot. so bought a new drive, 1st. then flashed bios, so 7811 could enable 2nd bay.

 

ok, so now the first, original, drive is now in the second bay and you are running the default Vista install on a new drive?

Edit; although I can't recommend a specific tool something like this

 

yes. im sure u read previous posts. looking for software to recovery data

 

I still recommend a desktop system with the ability to disable S.M.A.R.T., but you can try this on your notebook in Windows (although the Ubuntu live cd/usb is still a good option too):

See:
Data Recovery Software, Solutions, Tutorials, Forum - ZAR Data Recovery


What is interesting with the above software is that just installing and running the trial version may enable Windows to see the drive also - just use explorer then to see if you can get your data off (leave ZAR running in the background).

Good luck.

 

There is allot of software out there, Google is your friend. I have no recent experience with these suits so I can't really point you with a recommendation............

Edit; Tiller has got one for you while I was typing..........

 

..good luck to you! EASEUS was a total waste of 8 hours trying to recover some lost files on a stand alone WD Green 1.5T drive last month.

I used their trial recovery version to see just what it could find but the FAT and partition were FUBAR. Drive was then tested and long formated.

EASEUS makes some good utilities so a lot depends on how badly damaged your partition is.

Definitely worth a try!

 

One of the reason I asked how it corrupted. if it is a simple bad data write from the CPU it may be recoverable. If a true HDD hardware failure it may all be a waste of time..................

 

Tiller, does ZAR have a trial DATA limit? I would have tried this in a heartbeat but my media files were backed up..

In my case I think my WDTV box spanked my media drive..never had this kind of failure in two years of use...

 

Hydra, they're pretty strict on what the trial can recover:

See:
Download critical data recovery software - computer data recovery with ZAR.


But, like I mentioned, with ZAR running (in the background) I have been able to successfully use Windows Explorer to simply navigate to the files and recover them manually.

Hope this helps.