Bad Blocks On Seagate Drive And Erased C Partition

[welo]

Hi guys! This is my problem:

During the process of fixing bad blocks on a friend's harddrive the contents of the C partition got wiped out. I didn't use any tools that write to the drive (apart from 1 low level tool that 'repairs' bad blocks). Two other (extended) partitions are unaffected and the contents fully accessible. The partition table of partition C seems to be OK, but the file allocation table seems to be lost.

How can I recover the file allocation table - the partition is NTFS.

I tried several data recovery tools that would allow to copy recovered files to another partition, but I didn't find any that would recover the file allocation table in place.

Partition Recovery Software seems to be unsuiteable, since the partition table is OK.

I assume there should be a program to rebuild the file index.

There is no important data to recover on this drive, I just want to avoid a Windows re-install (Windows, drivers, programs,.. we all know that..). I am going to buy a new harddrive anyway but my intention was to copy the Windows installations to the new drive keeping the installed software (doing a repair install if Windows doesn't like it).

Anybody knows what exactly was destroyed on that harddrive/partition and how I can fix it?

Thanks

welo

Here is a more detailed description of what has happened:

(You can also read about it in the old thread but since most of the problems described there are solved I decided to open a new thread and start with a summary of what has happened so far)

This is the second time Windows (XP) is rendered unusable due to harddrive issues. I recovered the harddrive about a month ago, fixing bad blocks with HDD Regenerator and running checkdisk therafter to fix the filesystem (NTFS on all 3 partitions). Windows ran stable since until a couple of days ago.

This time I followed the same procedure and got Windows running again. In my efforts to determine the state of the harddrive so I can safely issue a RMA with seagate I ran multiple 'Long Tests' on Seagates SeaTools with the intention of getting a clear FAILED status, however, the Long Test would never finish but abort with a program error and no clear FAILED status. SMART would still report 'OK'.

Further it appeared that Windows runs slow and checking the Device Manager I found both the harddrive and the DVD drive are running in PIO mode. Changing a setting in the BIOS on the IDE configuration I finally messed up the BIOS so it would hang on detecting attached IDE devices, interestingly that made it also impossible to enter the BIOS setup and revert the change. I had to clear the CMOS by setting the appropriate Jumper on the motherboard. Before I had also updated the Bios to the newest version in the hope of reverting the change that way (without success).

Finally the BIOS would no longer hang, and I loaded default settings and tried to boot into Windows. Windows (XP) would crash just shortly after displaying the Windows logo with the loading bar, and reboort. After disabling 'automatic reboot after system error' I could see the Blue Screen message, something wrong with the NTFS file system (...000024).

Booting from a LIVE CD I could see that all 3 partitions on the harddisk (1 primary, 2 extended) are still valid, but the contents of partition C is empty. No files on this drive (checked for hidden files too). The other 2 partitions are OK, contents still accessible.

Data Recovery Tools can still access the directory table and list its contents. A Uneraser Tool would also list all files as 'erased' and offer to recover the contents to another partition.

Partition Recovering software would report the partition table as OK.

[Supernova]

How can I recover the file allocation table - the partition is NTFS.

I assume there should be a program to rebuild the file index.

You mean the Master File Table (MFT) records on NTFS, I assume.

TestDisk

[welo]

I am not sure what is broken, I just see the result.

I actually did run TestDisk and found the feature to recover erased data to another partition, but not the feature you linked to. From the description it sounds that it might be exactly what I need. Thanks a lot!! Will try it first thing when I can get hands on the computer tomorrow!

welo

[Supernova]

TestDisk 6.11.3

[Advanced] Filesystem Utils >> select ntfs partition, [boot] >> [Repair MFT]

[welo]

Just wanted to report back on the outcome/latest events.

I gave up on reactivating the Windows partition to boot into Windows. The drive started to become (even more) unstable, TestDisk would stall for tens of seconds with each menu step, so I focused on backing up the data. I know this should have been the first step, but the data partitions were a real mess and I wanted my friend's daughter to sort it out for herself.

Whatever, I finally removed the drive from the computer to fit it into my external HDD case (I only have Laptops), and surprisingly nearly all harddisk and recovery tools also worked via USB.

I used the Linux LIVE CD from sysrescuecd.org to mount the drive in readonly mode and copy the data. Very professional I thought, but unfortunately it did not support copying Thai (or Unicode?) filenames to a NTFS or FAT32 partition.

So back to Windows XP, removing the drive letter for the corrupt C partition and backing up the data from the other 2 partitions. That worked nicely, just had to free up enough space on my drives to hold all the gigabytes - this part took longest I have to say

Finally I was confident enough to tackle the C partition. sysrescuecd includes TestDisk, and this time the Repair MFT option actually worked. Linux would list and access the whole filesystem contents as before, however, backup not possible due to Thai character filenames.

Problem is, back in Windows XP the C partition is still not readable. I'm not sure I am motivated enough to tackle the problem of fixing the filename problem in Linux.

My strategy for now is to buy a new harddrive and try to clone the Windows partition to the new drive on a bit-by-bit basis if filesystem based imagers fail.

Thanks for listening, tune in next week

welo

[Beggar]

My strategy for now is to buy a new harddrive and try to clone the Windows partition to the new drive on a bit-by-bit basis if filesystem based imagers fail.

Thanks for listening, tune in next week

welo

Your strategy should be to make a backup. Nothing more

[JetsetBkk]

Good tech support forum:

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

They show how to use Testdisk.

You may need to register and log in to see the pictures.