From: Robert J. Stevens on
I have a IBM Travelstar that quit. Drive clicks when I try to access it.
I was able
to see it once on the Laptop when I used HDDREG 1.41. It showed that the
first block
was bad and sat there for awhile. I should have tried to start at 1M but
didnt.
Is there a program out there that will rewrite the MBR [track zero]
without
trying to read first. Other Prgrams I have sych as MBRWORK says read
failed.
I am trying to look at the drive with KNOPPIX right now.
TIA
Bob in Wisconsin

From: Arno Wagner on
Previously Robert J. Stevens <atreborz(a)execpc.com> wrote:
> I have a IBM Travelstar that quit. Drive clicks when I try to access it.
> I was able
> to see it once on the Laptop when I used HDDREG 1.41. It showed that the
> first block
> was bad and sat there for awhile. I should have tried to start at 1M but
> didnt.
> Is there a program out there that will rewrite the MBR [track zero]
> without
> trying to read first. Other Prgrams I have sych as MBRWORK says read
> failed.
> I am trying to look at the drive with KNOPPIX right now.
> TIA
> Bob in Wisconsin

Sounds very much like physical damage. If the data on it is important
enough to warrant using a data recovery service, stop messing around
with it now.

If not, I doubt rewriting the MBR will help much. I would rather
advise you to mount it in a PC with an additional disk and to try
to copy it sector-by-sector to a file with dd_rescue (part of knoppix,
is tolerant to read errors and allows offsets). You can then
copy the sector image to a fresh disk and try to find your
partitions in there, e.g. with parted (also in knoppix).
There might be also a possibility to mount a disk-image with
partitions via the loopback device (/dev/loop0 - /dev/loop9,
see 'losetup'), but I am unaware of it at the moment, hence
the advice to copy to a fresh disk.

The important think is once you have that sector image (i.e.
a file in the size of te defect disk, use something like
dd_rescue /dev/<source> target_file to create it), you cannot
loose more date from additional corruption of the original
disk.

Arno

From: chad on
Heh, that's why you should never save critical information to disk in
the first place.

Protect your data by storing all passwords as sticky notes on your
monitor, keeping your house key under the front-door mat, and etching
your PIN number onto each of your debit cards. Then security is easy --
simply make sure to have the right friends, co-workers and
neighborhood.

Oh, and one more thing. As an upstanding member of the underworld of
Miami, I feel hurt that you would not trust me with your data. ;)

Chad
http://free-backup.info

From: Robert J. Stevens on
Arno Wagner wrote:

> Previously Robert J. Stevens <atreborz(a)execpc.com> wrote:
> > I have a IBM Travelstar that quit. Drive clicks when I try to access it.
> > I was able to see it once on the Laptop when I used HDDREG 1.41. It showed
> that the
> > first block was bad and sat there for awhile. I should have tried to start
> at 1M but
> > didnt. Is there a program out there that will rewrite the MBR [track zero]
>
> > without trying to read first. Other Prgrams I have sych as MBRWORK says
> read
> > failed. I am trying to look at the drive with KNOPPIX right now.
> > TIA
> > Bob in Wisconsin
>
> Sounds very much like physical damage. If the data on it is important
> enough to warrant using a data recovery service, stop messing around
> with it now.
>
> If not, I doubt rewriting the MBR will help much. I would rather
> advise you to mount it in a PC with an additional disk and to try
> to copy it sector-by-sector to a file with dd_rescue

Arno;
I am not really familier with Knoppix. How does one access "dd_rescue"?
TIA
Bob


> (part of knoppix,
> is tolerant to read errors and allows offsets). You can then
> copy the sector image to a fresh disk and try to find your
> partitions in there, e.g. with parted (also in knoppix).
> There might be also a possibility to mount a disk-image with
> partitions via the loopback device (/dev/loop0 - /dev/loop9,
> see 'losetup'), but I am unaware of it at the moment, hence
> the advice to copy to a fresh disk.
>
> The important think is once you have that sector image (i.e.
> a file in the size of te defect disk, use something like
> dd_rescue /dev/<source> target_file to create it), you cannot
> loose more date from additional corruption of the original
> disk.

From: Arno Wagner on
Previously Robert J. Stevens <atreborz(a)execpc.com> wrote:
> Arno Wagner wrote:

>> Previously Robert J. Stevens <atreborz(a)execpc.com> wrote:
>> > I have a IBM Travelstar that quit. Drive clicks when I try to access it.
>> > I was able to see it once on the Laptop when I used HDDREG 1.41. It showed
>> that the
>> > first block was bad and sat there for awhile. I should have tried to start
>> at 1M but
>> > didnt. Is there a program out there that will rewrite the MBR [track zero]
>>
>> > without trying to read first. Other Prgrams I have sych as MBRWORK says
>> read
>> > failed. I am trying to look at the drive with KNOPPIX right now.
>> > TIA
>> > Bob in Wisconsin
>>
>> Sounds very much like physical damage. If the data on it is important
>> enough to warrant using a data recovery service, stop messing around
>> with it now.
>>
>> If not, I doubt rewriting the MBR will help much. I would rather
>> advise you to mount it in a PC with an additional disk and to try
>> to copy it sector-by-sector to a file with dd_rescue

> Arno;
> I am not really familier with Knoppix. How does one access "dd_rescue"?
> TIA
> Bob

Sorry. It is a commandline tool. Go to a terminal with root access
(Koppix: crtl-alt-F1 .... ctrl-alt-F4) and start off with

dd_rescue -h

It also has a short website at

http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/

Arno