Question

Hard Drive Crash: How to Extract Data - SMART Won't Allow Bootup - Blue Screen When Accessed

Asked by: WizeOwl

The 160 GB drive is one of my data drives, I boot off another.  However, the S.M.A.R.T. BIOS utility halts the bootup process and says the drive failure is imminent.  The last time the system was alive, I tried to access the bad drive from Windows Explorer and got the Blue Screen of Death.

So, I disabled SMART and attempted to use Norton Ghost 2003 to Clone the drive to another one.  I use Ghost all the time, so when this failed, I know the drive is real bad.  Ghost kicked itself out right away.

Now I need a way to extract the data from the bad drive.  Please suggest what software to use, I assume it will be a non-Windows interface, something low-level.  I've heard of something called Magic Hard Drive (MHDD):
http://www.exefind.com/magic-recovery-professional-P21558.html

or Hard Drive Mechanic Professional:
http://www.dailysofts.com/program/522/33704/_Hard_Drive_Mechanic.html

Suggestions?

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Asked On
2008-02-09 at 22:28:06ID23151023
Tags

Western Digital

,

160 GB Hard Drive

,

WDC-WD1600JB00HUA0

Topics

Computer Hard Drives

,

Miscellaneous Hardware

,

Norton Ghost Backup Software

Participating Experts
3
Points
350
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2008-02-09 at 22:53:08ID: 20860353

"Ghost kicked itself out right away."

Try rerunning Ghost with the following switches (or set them in the options screen in ghost...)....

ghost2k3.exe -CRCIGNORE -FRO

That will force it to continue even if bad clusters are found....

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/on-technology.nsf/docid/1998082612540625

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2008-02-09 at 22:54:39ID: 20860360

I would actually try Data recovery first. Since any amounts of reading the disk can potentially cause more downward problems.....

My favorite is EasyRecovery, but GetDataback is also good....

These are a few good recovery apps. Just pull this other drive out, and slave it to an available machine, and let the scans run... Most apps you can scan for free, and purchase the license if it is successfull. I find the Paid apps are more reliable....

Paid apps...

EasyRecovery DataRecovery - Trial Edition
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/include/document.asp?file=http://download.ontrack.com/freedownloads/erdrt_610.exe

GetDataBack for NTFS V3.32 Data Recovery Software
http://runtime.org/gdbnt.zip

GetDataBack for FAT V3.32
http://runtime.org/gdb.zip

Spinrite v6.0
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Active@ UNDELETE Recover deleted files on NTFS FAT32. Data ...
http://www.active-undelete.com/

Free utilites

PC Inspector File Recovery - Credit nobus for this link
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,23069-order,1-page,1-c,utilities/description.html#

Restoration
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,23108-order,1-page,1-c,filemanagement/description.html

FreeUndelete
http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

And accessing the recovered files, you might need to take ownership of the files to gain access....

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

by: ded9Posted on 2008-02-09 at 22:57:30ID: 20860369

Hi,

The best way would be take the drive to a another computer backup everything.

Or

Can do a parallel install on the same drive. Before you do parallel install make sure smart is enabled.
Later on you can backup all the data on cd or external drive.


http://www.windowsxpprofessional.windowsreinstall.com/installxpcdparallell/indexfullpage.htm



Ded9

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2008-02-09 at 23:07:57ID: 20860393

I would not recommend writing ANYTHING to this failing disk, as it raises the chances for problems with the data recovery.......

 

by: WizeOwlPosted on 2008-02-10 at 00:46:30ID: 20860555

John, I curious why you put SpinRite 3rd?  It seems to be potentially better than the other two since it runs low-level and can repair the hard drive by blocking bad sectors.  Or do the other two also do that but with a high level Windows user interface?

My main concern is not necessarily repairing the drive, but getting the data off of it.  Although, repairing it would be nice too.

Do you see any problem with trying SpinRite first?

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2008-02-10 at 00:49:17ID: 20860559

Not at all, not really an order of preference.....

Just a handy listing of my favs....

:^)

 

by: WizeOwlPosted on 2008-02-10 at 00:59:03ID: 20860579

I've gone ahead and purchased SpinRite.  I like Steve Gibson's style, it's platform independent, had some great reviews, and didn't cost as much as OnTrack.  I'll let you know how it goes.

 

by: WizeOwlPosted on 2008-02-10 at 01:00:35ID: 31429585

I appreciate your prompt and accurate reply.  I just hope this works!  It's not critical data, but it won't be "convenient" to lose it either...

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2008-02-10 at 01:00:55ID: 20860584

Good luck!!

 

by: sm_ferozPosted on 2008-02-11 at 05:13:20ID: 20865945

Hi,
You can extract data from failed disk by just connecting another hard disk and make the new hard disk as Primary boot disk and failed disk as secondary HDD ,simply you can say as Dual Booting,once this new disk comes up it will show you all the relevant data of crashed harddisk in someother drive from there you can extract data from Crashed Hard Disk.

 

by: WizeOwlPosted on 2008-02-11 at 22:27:49ID: 20872840

Status:

I ran Gibson Research SpinRite on the failed disk.  The program hung at the 4% mark where there was a physical error.  It stayed there for about an hour.   After exiting the program, which was not at all graceful, now the partition table is corrupted.  The drive really was in imminent danger as all the warnings had indicated.  I may just have to write it off.

SM-Feroz:
What do you mean "Simply you can say as Dual Booting"?  Please explain step-by-step.

When I accessed the drive from Windows Explorer (file manager, not IE) it generates the Blue Screen of Death.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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