file system in HD suddenly converted to RAW from NTFS

Hello pmsr2828 =)

You can use one of the tools below to get the Data,

PC Inspector:
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

GetDataBack:
http://www.runtime.org/

OnTrack DataRecovery:
http://www.ontrack.com/Homepage.aspx?id=3&pagename=Software

R-Studio
http://www.data-recovery-software.net/

Do I need to have another HD to use above tools when I recover data?

you shoudl slave the dead drive in another working system, install any of the above tool on the primary drive of the other system, and then from there you will access to the slave drive in order to ercover the data from it.

I think my question was not clear. When I recover data using tool, does tool recovers and copy data on corrupted disk or do I need additional disk to copy recoverd data!?

Boot from Windows CD and use the 'diskpart' utility to diagnose the drive. In order to use that utility do the following:
Boot from CD and enter the 'Recovery Console'. Within the command prompt type:
'diskpart' and press 'Enter'
Type 'list disk' to see the drive's list.
Type 'select disk <destination drive number>' and press 'Enter'.
Type 'detail disk' to view the drive's condition. If it is healthy than;
My guess is that the MFT just got corrupted and there are some utilities might help you in getting this drive back in to shape. Among those utilities you may include PTD software which allows you to get access directly to the MFT and fix it.

Links:
PTD
http://www.ptdd.com/

How to get in to recovery console:
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

More on the 'diskpart' utility:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rlively/MANUALS/COMMANDS/D/DISKPART.HTM

Good luck

Cyber

you need the additional one!

To recover data, you will have to use another drive. But, I dont think you will have to have one (even though it is a good thinking; to backup whatever you can, that is)...

Cyber

I tried you suggestions :

Type 'list disk' to see the drive's list.
Type 'select disk <destination drive number>' and press 'Enter'.
Type 'detail disk' to view the drive's condition. If it is healthy than;

All above command works fine and it seems HD is healthy.  But XP OS is not isnatlled on this disk. This is my secondary Storgae Disk.  Can I still get help from your sugestion
  "How to get in to recovery console: http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm" ??

It doent matter from what drive you operated the 'diskpart' utility, as long as it is on the same computer. If the drive showed as healthy, I would suggest you move to the PTDD (dont use the demo version). You will have to create an image that will be copied to drive A:; boot using that diskette and run that utility. It will help you diagnose the MFT problems thus resolving that corrupted space.

Good luck

Cyber

It seems PTDD is only support  Windows 95/98/Me, MS-DOS, Freedos.

Mine is XP.. !???

It supports fully accrss to NTFS and it supports operating via those systems (to allow full access to the MFT).

Cyber

First of all try Cyber-Dude's suggestion !!!

Let us know how it went.

Best Regards !

I tried  using diskpart. But I am not sure what commands I need to try to recover. I tried some of commands advised by Cyber_dude. It look good. Is there specific Diskpart command  I can try!? Someone have to educate me DiskPart.

Thank you guys for all your help.

LucF,  Testdisk  recoverd my 80 GIG disk completly without loss.  I tried DiskPart but it didnt help much.  XP version of testdisk is excellent.

Thanks for your help

-Pmsr2828

Great to hear pmsr2828!

Glad to help,

LucF

I've got the precisely same problem as pmsr2828, but I don't really know how to use testdisk. I've tried different things, but I only get OK when I search for errors...
Can anyone please give a walkthrough on this one. I'm not sure if it is the program, the HDD or myself who is the problem. :(
Plz help me...

I have the same problem as asked by pmsr2828 on 11/29/2004. I have used two of the tools mentioned but no files were shown as recovered. The panel in fact was blank. Am I missing something and how do I proceed from here.

J King

Hello all,

For your information, let me just tell you that I am an advanced PC user but not a technician or programmer. I have 16 years experience of tough fighting with PCs.

Now to the business: got the same problem with 'RAW convertion' (that is what silly XP says) when upgrading my daughter's PC from Win2k Pro SP4 to XP Pro SP2. Upgrading I write: should not that give a better system? The two external HDs (one 160 GB LaCie Ferrari with USB2, and one 200 GB Western Digital with firewire) that both worked well before the upgrade (I did a clean one) suddenly got file system errors. I tried to fix it with the ordinary tool (chkdsk /f /r) but just landed in the frustrating 'Format ?' and 'RAW' messages.

This problem I saw once before when doing the same type of upgrading. By that time I fortunately had the old PC with 2k left and could LAN transfer the files to my totally new PC with XP that could not read the external HDs (also an FW and an USB). After repartitioning and reformating in XP, those external HDs started working again and still do well in my new PC. In my daughter's PC, her HDs do not. Repartitioning works but formating cannot be finalised!

My impression is that XP does not work safely with externals as one would expect it to be (?). Intense web searching does not give much of a solution in this case, only a lot of frustrated reports and one thousand of advices that seldom seem to promise more than a huge amount of time lost for testing, testing, and testing. Dear Bill, I want to complain as 1 billion of the other users (could be more)!

However, please read my HAPPY MESSAGE following! Among four tested programs from the web (one was freeware), I found only one being able to manage perfect file restoration after the "RAW crash" (PT and MBR were ok but MFT was damaged according to chkdsk that could not fix it):

* Magic Recovery Professional at www.software-recovery.com *

It costs 130 USD but was really worth it (it can be used again). It can manage many kinds of file restorations. It took no time at all to read the disk content (102 GB of media files), showing the files exactly like Explorer did when the disk was working before the crash. Saving the content to my own PC took the same time as copying files in all other cases. All files were fully restored and can be used as earlier without any problems! I really recommend this program to all other users, since the others only got halfway through with and thus were useless (on top demanding 3 hours or more of reading from the HD etc. etc.).

Best regards
Staffan
A Swedish computer freak

Hello all,

Just add to my earlier comment:

+ The file system I use all over is NTFS
+ The precise version of the program I recommend is MagicRecovery Professional v3.2

Best regards
Staffan
A Swedish computer freak