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From: sachin on 31 Mar 2008 15:33
On Mar 31, 11:14 am, Matt <matt...(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hey guys. I've got a real problem on my hands. Basically all my work
> for the last 4 years at University, along with countless amounts of
> data I've accumulated over the years stored on my hard drive might be
> lost. The drive suddenly stopped working properly 2 nights ago, and
> I've spent the weekend since trying ot recover what data I can.
>
> The first thing I should address is the issue of backups. Any
> meaningful backup has simply not been possible due to the high volume
> of data, and the very finite budget I live on as a student
> constraining me to only having one hard drive. A conveneient place to
> store around 9GB of data just doesn't exist for me. I guess hindsight
> is a wonderful thing, but at the moment I'm stuck without my data.
>
> Anyway, recovery of my work is of course a top priority, so I could do
> with some advice on how I should proceed from here? Firstly, I'll
> explain the situation in more detail:
>
> Causes for Concern:
> ------------------------------
>
> - I get a "Disk Read Error" whenever I try to boot up the hard drive
> as a Master.
>
> - When I boot it up as a Slave, I can boot into XP from the other hard
> drive, but it takes a very long time to boot up and load XP. Once in
> XP, I cannot read the contents of the drive (which I can verify as
> I've just given it one last try) and I get a message telling me to
> format the drive.
>
> Causes for Optimism:
> --------------------------------
>
> - On occassion the drive has been more co-operative and I have been
> able to copy over a small fraction of my work with the drive as a
> slave either in XP or in DOS. However, very quickly the operating
> system comes up against a file it cannot read, and eventually gives up
> the copying.
>
> - The drive is always detected by the BIOS
>
> - There are no clicking noises or other strange noises coming from the
> hard drive, which suggests to me the fault may not be mechanical.
>
> Going Forward
> ----------------------
>
> A friend of mine who has more experience with PC repair ran a program
> called Restorer2000, but the drive contents couldn't be read by
> Windows, so the program didn't have much success either. However, it
> was able to read a few files from my Windows partition, but my work
> partition was completly unavailable. A number of read errors were
> quoted in locations. These locations were given as a string of
> numbers, either about 7-8 digits long, and 11 digits long. The exact
> values I can't recall.
>
> My next step has been to look for some companies that specialise in
> data recovery and see if they will have more luck by perhaps taking
> the drive apart and extracting data from the platters themseleves.
>
> Anyway, the main point of this post is to gain some a better idea of
> what has happened to my hard drive, based upon the above symptoms.
> From there I can see if paying ~£500 to recover a 40GB partition is
> likely to be successful.
>
> The drive is a Western Digital WD800JB 80GB ATA hard drive.
>
> Kind Regards,
>
> Matthew Boulton

Hey bro

Try to get hold of this software"Dead Disk Doctor" Its free from
internet. If you need a crack search for it. Thos happened to me once
and I managed to recover my data using "Dead disk doctor". There is a
high possibility it will work. Let me know the outcomes

cheers!!!
From: Pennywise on 31 Mar 2008 09:00
monkey_cartman(a)yahoo.com wrote:

>
>
>Pennyw...(a)derrymaine.gov wrote:
>> Matt <mattb95(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Anyway, recovery of my work is of course a top priority, so I could do
>> >with some advice on how I should proceed from here? Firstly, I'll
>> >explain the situation in more detail:
>>
>> Install the HD as secondary - and another HD to copy recovered files
>> to.
>>
>> Then use one of the Boot CD's below to recover your files, each has
>> the tools you need (I like the Hiren's CD)
>>
>> Hiren's Boot CD
>> http://thepiratebay.org/search/hiren/0/99/0
>>
>> Or
>>
>> Ultimateboot cd
>> http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

>I've seen the UBCD tools, where you can create an image of a hard
>drive, would that be what he is looking for,
>and how does one do that as far as connecting the two hard drives
>together?

Personal preference, I like to be able to boot the system that has a
bad drive. your options increase many fold.

With the claim of the bad sectors, I figured he would have to grab
what he could, a disk image far from possible, yet he could place an
image to the third drive.

I've never done a disk image, 40Gigs is just too much to back up,
anything of importance has been backup'd, in the OP's case I would
just install a new installation to a new drive.
--

Linux Developer Gets Laid
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2000/9/linux_laid.html
From: Stretch on 31 Mar 2008 13:20

Rod Speed wrote in news:65b8mqF2edpc5U1(a)mid.individual.net
> Matt <mattb95(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>
[snip]
>
> > > > Anyway, the main point of this post is to gain some a better idea of
> > > > what has happened to my hard drive, based upon the above symptoms.
>
> > > Its either had a head crash and so there is loose material floating around
> > > in the sealed chamber, or there is a flakey connection to the heads etc.

Or bad powersupply.

>
> > > How repeatable are the read error locations ?
>
> > They were very repeatable, it was always the same locations that couldn't
> > be read.

> Thats bad news, because it means there is no simple fix that will

> eliminate the errors.

As in getting the data back, sure.
As in making the errors disappear, that's not a problem.

> Professional recovery can certainly recover what is recoverable in that
> situation.

Ooh, that's almost as informative as saying that "Professional recovery
can certainly not recover what is not recoverable in that situation".

>
> > I agree with your earlier comments that the drive should be left well
> > alone now before I hand it over to a professional firm, and I wish I
> > had done so earlier. But the prospect of being able to recover my
> > data, given I had no idea how severe this was, so I could make a
> > backup to my parents hard drive made sense at the time. Paying
> > �500 isn't something I can do without a second thought.
>
> Sure, but you should have had that further thought and realised that
> when you have no backups at all for 4 years of irreplaceable data,
> its very risky to try recovering it yourself with data that important.
>
> > Do you recommend any firms that have done good work for you in the past?
>
> I've never needed to use anyone because I always have full backups.
> And havent even needed to use them except for convenience either.

From: Stretch on 31 Mar 2008 13:22
Gotde T Shirt wrote in news:1fq7n7eqyzg9u.1kpvh41b1ncm2.dlg(a)40tude.net
> On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:54:05 -0700 (PDT), Matt wrote:
>
> > I agree with your earlier comments that the drive should be left well
> > alone now before I hand it over to a professional firm, and I wish I
> > had done so earlier. But the prospect of being able to recover my
> > data, given I had no idea how severe this was, so I could make a
> > backup to my parents hard drive made sense at the time. Paying �500
> > isn't something I can do without a second thought.
> >
> > Do you recommend any firms that have done good work for you in the
> > past?
> >
>
> As you appear to be in the UK, suggest you try:
>
> www.retrodata.co.uk
>
> They've done a couple of recovery jobs for me, successfully and for
> relatively affordable fees.

> Duncan (aka Odie Ferrous)

aka Odiferous

> is associated with Retrodata.

Is Retrodata. A venture he started out of boredom.

> [I have no business interest in Retrodata,

> other than as an occasional trade customer]

Exactly. So your discount scheme is safe now.

>
> BTW: Don't be upset by Rod's rants, he's from Australia.

So he is your cousin.


From: Stretch on 31 Mar 2008 14:48
Odie Ferrous wrote in news:47F07C96.D44225E5(a)hotmail.com
> Matt wrote:
> >
> > Hey guys. I've got a real problem on my hands. Basically all my work
> > for the last 4 years at University, along with countless amounts of
> > data I've accumulated over the years stored on my hard drive might be
> > lost. The drive suddenly stopped working properly 2 nights ago, and
> > I've spent the weekend since trying ot recover what data I can.
> >
> > The first thing I should address is the issue of backups. Any
> > meaningful backup has simply not been possible due to the high volume
> > of data, and the very finite budget I live on as a student
> > constraining me to only having one hard drive. A conveneient place to
> > store around 9GB of data just doesn't exist for me. I guess hindsight
> > is a wonderful thing, but at the moment I'm stuck without my data.
> >
> > Anyway, recovery of my work is of course a top priority, so I could do
> > with some advice on how I should proceed from here? Firstly, I'll
> > explain the situation in more detail:
> >
> > Causes for Concern:
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > - I get a "Disk Read Error" whenever I try to boot up the hard drive
> > as a Master.
> >
> > - When I boot it up as a Slave, I can boot into XP from the other hard
> > drive, but it takes a very long time to boot up and load XP. Once in
> > XP, I cannot read the contents of the drive (which I can verify as
> > I've just given it one last try) and I get a message telling me to
> > format the drive.
> >
> > Causes for Optimism:
> > --------------------------------
> >
> > - On occassion the drive has been more co-operative and I have been
> > able to copy over a small fraction of my work with the drive as a
> > slave either in XP or in DOS. However, very quickly the operating
> > system comes up against a file it cannot read, and eventually gives up
> > the copying.
> >
> > - The drive is always detected by the BIOS
> >
> > - There are no clicking noises or other strange noises coming from the
> > hard drive, which suggests to me the fault may not be mechanical.
> >
> > Going Forward
> > ----------------------
> >
> > A friend of mine who has more experience with PC repair ran a program
> > called Restorer2000, but the drive contents couldn't be read by
> > Windows, so the program didn't have much success either. However, it
> > was able to read a few files from my Windows partition, but my work
> > partition was completly unavailable. A number of read errors were
> > quoted in locations. These locations were given as a string of
> > numbers, either about 7-8 digits long, and 11 digits long. The exact
> > values I can't recall.
> >
> > My next step has been to look for some companies that specialise in
> > data recovery and see if they will have more luck by perhaps taking
> > the drive apart and extracting data from the platters themseleves.
> >
> > Anyway, the main point of this post is to gain some a better idea of
> > what has happened to my hard drive, based upon the above symptoms.
> > From there I can see if paying ~�500 to recover a 40GB partition is
> > likely to be successful.
> >
> > The drive is a Western Digital WD800JB 80GB ATA hard drive.
> >
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> > Matthew Boulton
>
> Matt,
>
> The more you play around with that drive

> (which has bad sectors and possibly failing read/write heads)

Yeah, immediately assume the worst. That will scare him witless.

> the WORSE you are going to make it.

Not if the bad sectors are logical rather than physical.

> Those "strings of numbers" you see are the sector location where bad
> media has been located.

Nope, where sectors with bad ECC have been located.
There is no way to tell whether this is a logical or a physical problem un-
less they keep accumulating even when only reads are done to the drive.

>
> Switch the drive off, keep it powered off, and get it to someone who
> knows what they are doing.

> Spinrite and its ilk are fine if you have a _purely_ logical problem;

Bullshit. Not a clue.

> for all other causes of failure, you'd best be buying some snake oil.

> I see countless drives come in for recovery that have been obliterated
> due to the owner taking advice from another who has absolutely no real
> knowlegde of data recovery.

I'll take it that traditional scaremongering still works in the trade.

>
> Switch that drive off immediately, and it it done professionally.
>
>
> Duncan

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