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That's right I need some computer help ...

Here's the deal I have a SATA drive in a NTFS format that is not bootable anymore it was running XP Pro, I'm getting the old drive not found, which I think means the 0 sector is toast. I had the power flicker here about 10 times real hard, real fast and this computer was turned off but it seems it still got it. I was able to reload Windows on the second IDE drive but the original primary SATA drive is not visible from these new install on the old secondary drive. There is data on there I HAVE to have, I really don't want to pony big bucks to have it recovered, so does anyone here know of a program I can run that will find this drive and allow me to recover the data I need. I've found a couple of program at NTFS.com but I haven't had time to try them yet. Some of the data was backed up, but some wasn't recently.... :hatred:

Does anyone know of a way to recovery this data or to rebuild the 0 sector? I don't remember the exact message but I know it's the one you get like when you leave a floppy in the drive ... invalid system disc or something. So that makes me think it's the HDD is bad.

Thanks in advance ...

If the system won't see the drive, it is probably a problem with the electronics on the drive.  You can't rebuild the boot sector if you can't get the system to see the drive.

Something you can try that sounds crazy, but I've seen it work. Put the drive in a ziplock bag, seal it up good and put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  When you take it  out make sure to let any condensation dry before you put it back in the computer.  Put it back in the computer and try it out. If this doesn't help and you still can't see the drive, you've got a drive electronics problem or a motherboard problem (but it's most likely the drive).

It will see the drive in BIOS, just will not boot the drive, I'm running a program that is bootable called ntfsreader and I can see the drive and the folders and right now after being up until 3 AM I'm trying to recover some files I have no idea if it's working or not. I just no it's really slow and time consuming.

Get a live version of Linux (such as Knoppix) and boot that.  Then you might be able to mount the drive and recover your data.  To do this, you'll need a FAT partition on another mountable drive in the system to write your critical data TO.  But first things first, let's see if the drive is mountable.

If you need, I can send you a Knoppix disk (CD), and we can talk on the phone if you need help using Linux to try to mount that drive.

Norton Disk Doctor MAY be of help if you don't have it and want to spend money on a possible solution.

I might do that ...

So far this program I got from ntfs.com will see the drive and will see the files and folders. It's a DOS based program that will read NTFS files and says I can copy those files to a FAT drive. Which I'm trying to do, I don't know if I have actually moved any files or not I mainly need to recover some Quickens book keeping files that haven't been backed up to an external drive since entering a bunch of info ... yes I know stupid. But tis life. Don't have time to worry about coulda, woulda, shoulda. AS I rule a back the info up just got busy and forget to do the last lengthy entry.
If seems the drive is working just not mountable so I figure the 0 sector was fried or something happened to the mtb during that power surge. (So much for APC surge protector.) 

If that dos-based program is seeing the drive and the files, it IS mountable.  Just not by brain-dead Windows.

Sounds like you are on your way.

Well right now it's NOT creating the folders on the drive I'm trying to save to, I figure and this is theory only is that the data is on a NTFS drive and I'm trying to save it to a FAT16 drive, that drive does have a FAT32 partition so I might try saving it to that, otherwise I need to put another drive in and format it to NTFS ... I really don't have time fool with this crap right now, but I'm gonna have to. 

Uh, I don't think the format of the drive you are reading FROM has anything to do with the format of the drive you are reading TO.  Once read, data is data.

Dumb question:  your destination drive is not mounted read-only is it?  Or permissions not set to read only?

In DOS, are you using copy or xcopy?  (I think those are the commands).

Try creating the folders manually and then copying files.

Really, FAT on destination should not care that you are reading NTFS.  *IF* you are actually reading the data, and not just the directory information. 

HEHE, we may get to go Linux yet.   :twirl:

I'm in a DOS based type program that kinda of reminds me of xTree is you remember it. It is not DOS-DOS ... I had to make it a bootable CD and I'm running it it what looks to be a classic DOS screen. It will show both DOS file names (8 Char) and Long File Names (128 Char) you can highlight a selected file and copy it to another disc, but since this is a NTFS reader (also the name of the program) I'm not sure it can even a read a FAT disc to write to it, because while it will see the FAT drives it can not display the content and I get a message that the program can not read FAT drives, so this is why I think I need another NTFS drive. Make sense?

I use to have Linux a long long time ago when it first came out and I was more geeky then I am now ... but back then the number of programs and the job I had required Windows as many company programs wouldn't run in xWindows.

For stuff like this I almost always use ERD Commander.  However, based on what you are saying, have we tried two things:

Are the jumpers set correctly on the second (your old, crashed) drive to make it the slave?

Have you tried getting an empty USB drive case?  You can get them for like $25 at a good computer store.  Then you could just put the old drive in the USB enclosure and connect it that way.  I have one here and use it like that all the time.

Hmmm in all the stress and hast I don't think I changed the jumpers, but I'm thinking that are set to CS (cable select) on both the old crash drive and the old working drive.

But since I can't see the drive from that now working copy of Winders on the new install on the former slave (D:\ and E:\) drive which is now C:\ and E:\ and this this program I'm using it's calling the old C:\ .... D:\ go figure.

Do you think it will be visible via a USB case? If I set it to be a slave and I still can't see it in Windows for what ever reason how would it be visible through a USB connection? I'm confused ... and I'm lacking sleep so forgive me if my thoughts wander.

I just don't get why this silly little program I'm using will see the files, (everyone but the one I REALLY need) and not copy it to the other drive. I keep getting a "Failure to Create Folder" error ... I even went in and made the folder for it and pointed it right to it and I still get the error and I try to write to a different drive which the program says to do. (would be stupid to write to a fried drive anyway.)

Anywho ... there as got to be a why of reading this drive in windows and drag and drop the needed files, this program is limited and slow and doesn't read all file types ... it would seem the .qbb is one of those it can't read and that's a QuickBooks backup file ... hell it won't even see the folder it is in, and I know the correct path. Starting to make my nerve ... I need one more thing to screw up and I'm going to snap. (long story won't waste your time with it.)

My first guess for this is because that program is not really reading the FILE, but simply the directory entry.

Since you can 'see' the drive, have you tried running chkdisk (or similar) on it?  Maybe there is a file that has not been closed down properly (and my guess is that is is the qbb file that is not showing up). Run a low level format checking utility to search for bad descriptors and the like, maybe you'll find something that way.

Cheezeflixz, are you using a free "demo" try-before-you-buy copy of the program?  Some of them are crippled, and will let you see that the data is still there, but just won't let you grab the data.

Another idea:  if you're no longer booting to this drive, then it may need to have the jumper on it set to slave mode.

No it's a n full functioning freeware program if I knew of another program that I KNEW would work I'd buy it.

This program is here ... http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm (http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm)

This is a160gb SATA (7-pin Serial ATA with 15 pin power) drive not a IDE so it does NOT have jumpers on it, the IDE drive I'm currently running is set to CS (cable select) If I could put this thing in a case and run it via USB or Firewire and I knew it would see it I'd do it, but I'm not sure what the issue is with the drive, I only have theories. 

Here's a pic of the back of one and you can see it does not have your atypical 8 and 10 pin jumper sets.

(http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/MaxtorULTRA16300GB7200SATA-Liquid3D-7738.jpg)

I've had to walk away from it for a bit I have real work I need to do in addition to a few other repairs the lighting and surge took out. Like 3 ceiling fan remote control units. Lord knows I wouldn't want anyone to have to get up and pull a chain ... :lookingup:

Damn, well if you're going to make it hard for me, then I'm out of ideas.

Hey if it was easy I wouldn't be calling all geeks ... LOL.

I was a automation engineer for a long time and rule number one is when something is not working as designed; rule out all the stupid stuff first, like is it plugged in or is it turned on? So after the stupid stuff was ruled out I was left with a mountable drive but has 0 track corruption so Winders won't see it.

I have to agree that the first thing that came to mind was that the partition's file table is corrupt or perhaps invalid.  That might explain being able to see it with your freeware program, but not Windows.  The first thing I would try is the drive in a USB enclosure.  That way you are just using the straight USB 2.0 standard.  Of course, the thing is that I would definitely have use of the USB enclosure after the troubleshooting - so that is a win/win for me.

When you check the two drives in BIOS, do they both show up and appear to be playing well together (not conflicting)?

A program I have had luck with in the past was Active Undelete.  http://www.active-undelete.com  If you have mechanical failure so that the drive cannot read that part of the platter, it will not help.  However, it can do a lot and the price has come down a lot from what I remember it being.  I'm not sure how much functionality is included in the trial version they have available.

Ok this is just stupid ... I removed the old FAT drive and put a NTFS drive in as I had advice that it MIGHT be able to see the other drive. Ok sound logical, well that drive had a problem and I got the blue screen of death on startup ... ok fine I have yet another drive formatted in NTFS ... so put it in but it had no jumper and frankly I wasn't sure the drive was still alive or not. Well I start the computer and it boots of the original thought fried drive ... the SATA drive ... everything is there, less the drive I removed. Well I had a 200 gb external drive so first thing I did while it
s running, just in case this is a fluke or something is to copy the entire drive to the external usb drive. Now lets add stupid to stupid I just ordered two 500 gb SATA drives, figured screw it I'll just start over and run a RAID.

So some how some way this drive is alive, it's alive at the moment and I've saved the most important files not only to the usb external drive but also to a flash and transferred copies to other computers in the network, by god it's not getting lost this time. So will it stay alive it is it a fluke and a conflict with the other drive that is now got Winders on it? I guess I can set it to a slave instead of a CS and see if it works as it has info on it too I need. Not as important as financial files. But it does have over 20 gigs of mp3's and all my Canon D10 images which is about another 50 gigs.

What happened? Don't know, sometimes you don't ask questions you just be greatful it did what it did. Now I'll have to see if it last or not ... I have however learned more about NTFS data recovery than I ever wanted to know. Still want to figure out what the hell happened though ... 

 

1.) I'm glad you got your data recovered.  Why or how on that is not important.   :cheers:

2.) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is why I absolutely, unequivocably HATE Windows.  It just hides too much from the user - even when you NEED to know what is going on.

3.) Personally, I'd never trust that drive.  Sure, it might work without failure 'til the cows come home, but you'll always wonder "is today the day it acts goofy."  Better to move it off the front line, and RAID is not a bad approach for hardware redundancy.  Disk space is cheap compared to the cost of lost data, dig?

1. Thanks and true.


2. I agree I don't like windows either, however I still do CNC automation consulting work on the side and some priority software that is used only runs on Winders. In the business world Windows is like English ... a language nearly everyone speaks.


3. Agreed again, I have 2 500gB I ordered tonight and this PC in question is already set up to run a RAID so that will be easy I likely use this iffy drive as a place the dump files I don't really care lose or not ... not sure why since I won't fill up 500 gigs anytime soon. Even if I had to get a data dig done it's a write off on the taxes, not that I go looking for every write off I can find. :buggedout:

I guess I'll try to set it up as a simple dupe drive as opposed to a real A,B,C RAID with 3 drives. Simple truth is I just need to be more diligent about backup crucial files to an external source. Getting lazy in my old age.

I thank to everyone that has offered advice and help karma all around. I did learn a couple of things regardless if I wanted too or not. I use to be right on top of the computing world but it's not required anymore so I operate now on if it ain't broke don't fix it. I got my first 'computer' in 1978 so I guess the honeymoon is over for me.

I still have some of my really old computers I must remember to post some pics some day like my Sharp Laptop the weighs about 40 lbs and runs on DOS 1.0 on one 5 1/4 drive and the program drive is another 5 1/4 drive. I think it's an 8088 ... smokin'