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Data recovery help needed (Read 535 times)
gdonovan
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Data recovery help needed
23.08.08 at 13:40:40
 


A program crash last week in XP scrambled the registry making it necessary for me to pull one of the mirrored drives on my main computer.

I was able to reboot off a boot disk and repair the damage, but when I reinstalled the second drive (to rebuild the array) and rebooted the machine it wiped out the MBR of both drives.

Can anyone point out a good data recovery program? I tried R-Studio software using two different platforms but it just crashes after scanning about 20%

If I could rebuild the MBR, I'd be gold or a program that would scan and move the files. I have 10 years worth of files I'd like to get back.

No more mirrored crap for me, this is the second time this happend! Dual external is how I'm going next.

Been offline for more than a week due to this, hate using the laptop with the tiny keyboard if anyone was looking to contact me. I have an older box up and running now but really need to get the main PC back up. Lots going on here non-computer related! I'll post pictures when I get a few minutes of time.

Gary
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« Last Edit: 23.08.08 at 13:51:35 by gdonovan »  

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exxe
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #1 - 23.08.08 at 14:35:39
 
use a 3th harddrive?

install wndows on it and copy all the data on it
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gdonovan
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #2 - 23.08.08 at 15:13:57
 
exxe wrote on 23.08.08 at 14:35:39:
use a 3th harddrive?

install wndows on it and copy all the data on it



There is no Master Boot Record- As far as Windows is concened the drive is blank and unformatted.

Already tried popping it into another machine, with no MBR.. there is nothing for Windows to see.
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #3 - 23.08.08 at 15:59:54
 
IDE or S-ATA drive?

you can try Knoppix linux and look it is see the drive
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razrx
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #4 - 23.08.08 at 16:13:11
 
I have a favourite Data Recovery program that hasn't failed me yet, it's called: Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro

I'm partial to Seagate and that's what Seagate recommends.  Wink
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gdonovan
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #5 - 23.08.08 at 16:14:57
 
exxe wrote on 23.08.08 at 15:59:54:
IDE or S-ATA drive?

you can try Knoppix linux and look it is see the drive


Seagate S-ATA

I considered booting up a Linux box but will leave that as a last resort.
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gdonovan
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #6 - 23.08.08 at 16:15:56
 
razrx wrote on 23.08.08 at 16:13:11:
I have a favourite Data Recovery program that hasn't failed me yet, it's called: Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro


I might give that a go later today, I just might have a copy that came with one of my drives.

I also have Spinrite 6.0 I'm going to try later today.
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razrx
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #7 - 23.08.08 at 16:19:48
 
Ohhh yeah!  I forgot about Spinrite!  I've seen Leo Laporte have the guy that wrote Spinrite on his TV show Call for Help and The Lab With Leo Laporte.

Good call.   Cool
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exxe
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #8 - 23.08.08 at 16:30:14
 
knoppix is a live dvd
boot without installation
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gdonovan
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #9 - 23.08.08 at 18:28:42
 
No good on SpinRite.
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #10 - 24.08.08 at 04:27:14
 
I had a similar issue with my SATA raid AAAAAAGES ago... Roll Eyes

Now I swear by testdisk:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

FULLY rebuilds MBR. Cool

Best of all? Huh IT'S FREE! Cheesy

For those of you without a floppy drive, go get THIS Linux Live-CD. Wink

Parted Magic (includes testdisk for linux):

http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php?n=PartedMagic.Downloads

Also the BEST tool for re-partitioning PERIOD! Cool

Allowed me to re-partition a completely fuxored WD SCSI HDD that I use in my old 486 machine (the partition was unreadable to practically everything - except this!) Cheesy
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« Last Edit: 24.08.08 at 04:36:48 by paulpsomiadis »  

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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #11 - 24.08.08 at 14:00:09
 
can`t you just do a repair install of xp on one of the drives to repair the mbr
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paulpsomiadis
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #12 - 24.08.08 at 15:31:24
 
An XP "repair install" doesn't work if the MBR is toast - testdisk does! Wink
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #13 - 24.08.08 at 16:14:05
 
fdisk /mbr

perhaps this is what you are looking for  Huh

edit: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/69013/EN-US/
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« Last Edit: 24.08.08 at 16:16:43 by gtxe »  
 
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Re: Data recovery help needed
Reply #14 - 24.08.08 at 18:07:36
 
For cases like that I repeatedly had excellent results with "Stellar Phoenix" Data Recovery.

Only small caviat is, that you need to install it onto a working Windows machine and then attach the troubled Drives to it (works on USB Drives as well, however, so you don't have to attach the Drive to the Board's Controller if you got an external USB Case available)

Generally, I would avoid writing data to the troubled disks at all cost, it only makes things worse.
A missing MBR should not affect Partitions, it just prevents the Disk from being used as a Boot device. Therefor I think, the Partition table got scrambled (that's actually a frequent cause of data loss in the mass of defects, I recently fully revived such a Disk within Seconds using the above Recovery Tool)
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« Last Edit: 24.08.08 at 18:10:28 by FalconFly »  
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