Hard Drive Problem: Can read recovery partition but not OS partition

The hard drive on my Dell XPS 1330 laptop won't boot into windows giving me the message "Error loading operating system". I connected the hard drive to a different PC via an external enclosure and I can read the recovery partition on the drive but for the OS partition it says it is not formatted.

I just want to get some data off my drive and it seems to me the filesystem is somehow corrupted so I should be able to repair it. Reading some threads it says to use the Vista recovery environment but when I try booting off the Vista CD Dell sent me I get a black screen with a pointer arrow. The odd thing is Dell sent me a new hard drive and when I put the new hard drive in I can boot off the Vista CD. Any ideas on what I can try?

Thanks.

 

For data recovery, you need that different PC again. Install file recovery software (such as PC Inspector FILE RECOVERY ) and connect the drive again. Leave the software running for as long as it takes.

It's quite probable that filesystem isn't the problem but you may have hardware failure on your hdd. If the files are extremely important, do nothing to the drive and contact specialist instead.

 

Well it may be some bad sectors but I don't think it's a drive head problem or anything like that because I can read the recovery partition on the same drive. Anyone with more ideas?

 

Your dilemma sounds like ones I have had in the past - failing hard drive. I'd recommend download Puppy Linux, make an iso and boot into your other computer - it loads completely into the RAM, then mount your external drive (with the data you are trying to retrieve) and have a place to copy & paste your files to - the hard drive on the computer you're using or another external drive.
Puppy is small, fast and pretty intuitive on how it works and it will read the Windows Files. Copy quickly - if the drive is failing the more reads/writes you do will normally continue to cause damage.

 

I appreciate your reply but I don't think you read my post completely. I've put the failing drive in an external enclosure and connected it to my desktop PC. In Windows on my desktop PC I can read the recovery partition on the failing drive but not the partition with my system files and data. In windows on my desktop PC it says the data partition on my failing drive is not formatted and asks me if I want to format. I don't see how using any linux liveCD to mount the drive will allow me to magically read the partition.

I definitely seem to have bad sectors but they must be in critical areas like the master file table for 2 reasons:
1) I can't boot from the failing drive as I get an "error operating system not found"
2) Accessing the failing drive in an external enclosure via a Windows desktop PC the data partition is detected as unformatted but the recovery partition on the same drive can be read just fine.

If anyone can recommend some software that can possibly repair my drive enough so I can get some data off I'd appreciate it. Everything I find via google is years old so I'm not sure what to use. Furthermore, I found some often recommended tools actually modify the drive in such a way as to cause more damage (spinrite).

 

testdisk is the software you want.

The other methods suggested are useful if you have a function partition and functioning file system--you have neither.

Testdisk will find lost partitions and attempt to recreate them.

It is not easy to work with but it is your best bet

 

Thanks, I will give that a shot.