Corrupt Hard Disk

[bonsaimax]

This happened after I tried to connect an old IDE drive to my PC which already has 4 SATA HDDs installed. After connecting the old IDE drive, I had to reconfigure the BIOS settings because detection of the IDE HD messed up the booting order of the disk. During the rebooting process, the screen showed for a split second that there was a "failure of Drive 3", and the computer froze. I then took out the old IDE HD, reset the BIOS to its original settings and rebooted. After rebooting, I tried accessing each of the HDDs, but one HDD was inaccessible and showed that some of the folders and files were missing. Clicking on them would cause the screen to freeze because the files/folders are "corrupted".

I reboot in safe mode, and also to previous working settings several times, and each time, it shows just some of the files and folders, but never all of its original content. A balloon also pops up saying I have to run chkdsk. I try to run chkdsk, but it says it will only run the next time I reboot. So I restart, but now it takes a few minutes longer to boot than normal, and I do not see any chkdks utility running. I tried a few more times rebooting for chkdsk to run, but it never did.

I also try to run "Find & Mount" but it says the HD is corrupted. The disk contains about 460 GB of data, and I would prefer not to lose it. Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

[dave_boo]

Try rebooting into safe mode (hitting F8 right after restarting and before it gets to the startup screen) and then run chkdsk.

[JetsetBkk]

...I reboot in safe mode, and also to previous working settings several times, and each time, it shows just some of the files and folders, but never all of its original content. A balloon also pops up saying I have to run chkdsk. I try to run chkdsk, but it says it will only run the next time I reboot. So I restart, but now it takes a few minutes longer to boot than normal, and I do not see any chkdks utility running. I tried a few more times rebooting for chkdsk to run, but it never did...

Try rebooting into safe mode (hitting F8 right after restarting and before it gets to the startup screen) and then run chkdsk.

( Sorry, Dave )

Try this forum (and I'm not implying anything about the quality of the support here, but these guys are experts):

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-s...r-computer.html

[dave_boo]

...I reboot in safe mode, and also to previous working settings several times, and each time, it shows just some of the files and folders, but never all of its original content. A balloon also pops up saying I have to run chkdsk. I try to run chkdsk, but it says it will only run the next time I reboot. So I restart, but now it takes a few minutes longer to boot than normal, and I do not see any chkdks utility running. I tried a few more times rebooting for chkdsk to run, but it never did...

Try rebooting into safe mode (hitting F8 right after restarting and before it gets to the startup screen) and then run chkdsk.

( Sorry, Dave )

Try this forum (and I'm not implying anything about the quality of the support here, but these guys are experts):

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-s...r-computer.html

Grrrrh, I'm going to blame it on answering before I had my coffee of the day! There's plenty of ways to fix an MBR. I think I should just stick to the Linux section.

[bonsaimax]

Cheers, Dave & Jet. I'll go give the link a try.

[Tywais]

Regarding Safe Mode: Instead, hit F8 until the menu of boot options come up and select Safe Mode with Command Prompt. This prevents windows from coming up and you can manually run chkdsk from the DOS window. Do not use the /F /R options (auto fix) or the /MBR option for the first run, just want to see if any errors show up and what they are.

//edit - you can type chkdisk /? for the available options.

[Cuban]

I had to reconfigure the BIOS settings because detection of the IDE HD messed up the booting order of the disk.

Does the old disk you are adding to the system think that it is the master disk on the system, does it have a jumper/link on the HDD to tell it it is a slave rather than the primary drive?

I have done similar things in the past when taking data from older HDDs to newer systems, I found it easier to access the old drive with a very cheap and flexible external USB HDD adaptor and plug it is as a USB device, no not as fast to access the data but saves opening up my computer and can do a few old HDDs in turn.

HTH.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Cuban

[bonsaimax]

Do not use the /F /R options (auto fix) or the /MBR option for the first run, just want to see if any errors show up and what they are.

//edit - you can type chkdisk /? for the available options.

Thanks Tywais, as always. May I please ask what /MBR does. You mean I should just type "chkdsk /?" (without the quotes) right?

I found it easier to access the old drive with a very cheap and flexible external USB HDD adaptor and plug it is as a USB device, no not as fast to access the data but saves opening up my computer and can do a few old HDDs in turn.

It is a slave and I have done it a few times before. It's just that this time around it messed the new HD up. When using the adaptor, how do you connect it to the power supply?

Cheers!

[NHJ]

i had this kind of trouble once with a customer's hard drive, his was formatted as ntfs and was unable to be accessed from windows no matter if it was connected with usb or ide.

i was able to read the entire content of the hardrive using one of my linux distro (suse 10.0) and conkeror (it does allow longer response time from the hardrive before saying timeout), it was extremely slow especially as the client had a lot of sub directories.

i would recommend you to not attempt to fix the drive by adding another boot sector on it or other actions that will try to write on the hardrive as it's corrupted you don't know what will happen.

you could try to download a linux distro(ubuntu by example) or download a recovery program :

• 2.1.1 - PC Inspector File Recovery
  
• 2.1.2 - Restoration
  
• 2.1.3 - Handy Recovery
  
• 2.1.4 - NTFS Undelete
  
• 2.1.5 - Undelete Plus
  
• 2.1.6 - SoftPerfect File Recovery
  
• 2.1.7 - PhotoRec
  
• 2.1.8 - TestDisk
  

those are free for personnal use, be sure to prepare another hardrive to copy the data on it.

[Guest Reimar]

Thanks Tywais, as always. May I please ask what /MBR does. You mean I should just type "chkdsk /?" (without the quotes) right?

chkdsk /? gives you tha available commands (with short explanation) for to use with chkdsk.

For the first run just use chkdsk and post the result here, that's what Tywais asking for.

Cheers.

[Cuban]

When using the adaptor, how do you connect it to the power supply?

The adaptor 'kit' was bought at the Tukcom IT complex in South Pattaya for a princely 300 Baht. It comprises of an adaptor that takes SATA and IDE (2.5" & 3.5") HDDs moulded into a solid plastic lump, a USB plug is linked to this by a short cable. Apart from minor differances it looks like this. Also in the small box was a PSU that requires an IEC mains lead (not supplied) that provides a 5 & 12 volt power via a 'Molex' connector.

No makers name - it just works.

HTH

[bonsaimax]

Just did another reboot of the system, and strangely enough, the missing files/folders have reappeared, and they seem to all be accessible (touch wood). I still am baffled by windows, but hey, I'm not complaining. Cheers all for your time!!!

[JetsetBkk]

Regarding Safe Mode: Instead, hit F8 until the menu of boot options come up and select Safe Mode with Command Prompt. This prevents windows from coming up and you can manually run chkdsk from the DOS window. ...

That's a useful tip - I sometimes wondered what that option was for.

Just did another reboot of the system, and strangely enough, the missing files/folders have reappeared, and they seem to all be accessible (touch wood). I still am baffled by windows, but hey, I'm not complaining. Cheers all for your time!!!

That was lucky! Copy it quick before you switch it off again!