Pepfontana
asked on
Hard drive failure
Just looking for opinions on this one. I have a machine that would not boot, giving various errors pointing to the disk failing.
I install a new drive, put Win2000 Pro on it and all is well. I then take the old drive and hook it up as a slave in order to try and get the data onto the new disk. This works and I can see the data on the old disk, but when I go into the documents and settings folder, the users profile folder is gone. The Administrator and All Users folders are there and are accessible.
So this leads me to my question, is the missing folder located on the "bad" part of the disk and is that why it can't be seen? If that is the case, I guess there is no way to recover that folder, correct?
Thanks!!
Gene
Not sure I put this under the correct topic, feel free to move it if necessary.
I install a new drive, put Win2000 Pro on it and all is well. I then take the old drive and hook it up as a slave in order to try and get the data onto the new disk. This works and I can see the data on the old disk, but when I go into the documents and settings folder, the users profile folder is gone. The Administrator and All Users folders are there and are accessible.
So this leads me to my question, is the missing folder located on the "bad" part of the disk and is that why it can't be seen? If that is the case, I guess there is no way to recover that folder, correct?
Thanks!!
Gene
Not sure I put this under the correct topic, feel free to move it if necessary.
ASKER
Any recomendations concerning the data recovery software?
Hi Pepfontana,
I use Active Undelete for all my data recovery needs.
You can find it here: http://www.active-undelete.com/
The only downside is that the demo has a 64 kb limit, the purchased version has no limit. This program has already paid for itself 100 times over...believe me!
Try out the demo, and see if it is what you are looking for...it's free!
Good luck!
I use Active Undelete for all my data recovery needs.
You can find it here: http://www.active-undelete.com/
The only downside is that the demo has a 64 kb limit, the purchased version has no limit. This program has already paid for itself 100 times over...believe me!
Try out the demo, and see if it is what you are looking for...it's free!
Good luck!
Be sure you "own" the Documents and Settings folder [http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=268019]; and that you have all viewing options in Windows Explorer set so you can see hidden files, Protected System Files, etc. [Tools - Folder Options - View]
The two best data recovery packages (both are free to download and scan your drive; but both require you purchase a license to do the actual recovery) are GetDataBack [http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm] and Easy Recovery Pro [http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/]
By the way, what was the OS on the failed drive? (XP uses a newer version of NTFS than 2000 ... so this COULD be part of the issue)
The two best data recovery packages (both are free to download and scan your drive; but both require you purchase a license to do the actual recovery) are GetDataBack [http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm] and Easy Recovery Pro [http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/]
By the way, what was the OS on the failed drive? (XP uses a newer version of NTFS than 2000 ... so this COULD be part of the issue)
Yes Easyrecovery pro option is good application to recover the data ...firstly cehck with trial verrsion if it shows the data then not a problem ,if its done with easyrecovery then you can purchase that sw.
ASKER
Hi Gary,
The OS on the old drive was also Win2000 Pro. I do have all viewing options turned on and no luck.
Thanks!
The OS on the old drive was also Win2000 Pro. I do have all viewing options turned on and no luck.
Thanks!
Easy Recovery Pro is excellent ... but very pricey. There's a "Lite" version that's more reasonable ... and it will do all of your recovery, but only 25 files at-a-time. GetDataBack is also excellent, and is much more reasonably priced. I'd try it first. These two packages are the cream-of-the-crop in recovery.
ASKER
Just ran Easy Recovery and it does not find the folder either.
Are you SURE there was a separate profile for the user of the system? Renaming the Admin profile (which many folks do) does NOT change the name of the profile tree in Documents and Settings [i.e., did you look through the Administrator folder structure to see if the data you want is there ??]
ASKER
"Are you SURE there was a separate profile for the user of the system?"
Yeah, because our users are only aware of their own username and P/W. Even if he found the profile folder by accident, I don't think he would be capable of deleting it, as the OS wouldn't let him if he was signed on to that profile. The user used the PC the day before and when he came in the next day, he could not boot and the hard drive failure messages began.
Yeah, because our users are only aware of their own username and P/W. Even if he found the profile folder by accident, I don't think he would be capable of deleting it, as the OS wouldn't let him if he was signed on to that profile. The user used the PC the day before and when he came in the next day, he could not boot and the hard drive failure messages began.
try any of these , to check if they "see" the folder :
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp Free Recovery
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm pc Inspector
http://www.stellarinfo.com/ Stellar
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ RecoverMyFiles
http://www.bitmart.net/ Restorer 2000
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html Restoration
otherwise, you may jyst have bad luck as you supposed that the folder is in the bad tracks
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp Free Recovery
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm pc Inspector
http://www.stellarinfo.com/ Stellar
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ RecoverMyFiles
http://www.bitmart.net/ Restorer 2000
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html Restoration
otherwise, you may jyst have bad luck as you supposed that the folder is in the bad tracks
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ASKER
Apparently, while trying to recover using CHKDSK, all of the files that were missing were put into various folders titled dir0001.chk thru dir0006.chk. Within those folders the address book, my documents, old emails, favorites and various other data were all there.
I am going to award the points to leontas as it was the ERD Commander that eventually led me to discover the files.
Thanks everyone!!
I am going to award the points to leontas as it was the ERD Commander that eventually led me to discover the files.
Thanks everyone!!
your HDD had the bad sectors now you have to check with any datarecovery software to retain the data.
Menas install the any data recovery software on your new HDD(installed the win2k pro)and then using that application scan the entire disk ( sector by sector) check that folders / data is avilable in that bad HDD.