Machine Crashed, now files missing. Any way to get back?

[kilabyte]

I have a 40gb hard disc which is patitioned into 5 drives.
I am using Windows XP Pro. AMD 1600XP CPU and 512MB of DDR RAM.
System has worked solid for three months no problem.

I was transfering a file from the second partion with cut and paste to the third partion. Part way through the transfer my screen went blank with no warning and the computer reset.

When it tried to boot it came up with unable to find system disc insert a disc. I turned it off and on and it said the same thing. I turned it off for 5mins and on again and it booted up OK (after doing a scandisc).

But when I now look at the hard discs it is still showing as 5 drives but when I try to open the second drive (the one I was copying from) a window says drive not formatted do you wish to format?

I have checked it out with Partion Magic 7 and it says that the partion is not formatted, no disc space used, 7GB+ free. All the other drive partions are normal and can be opened OK.

I presume that all the data is still written on the disc but that the lookup table (or whatever it is called) is corrupt. Is there anyway that I can get the data back off this second drive so I can use it. I had about 3GB of files and programs that I need to get back.

Any ideas?

[Toejam31]

You could try to run the Recovery Console and repair the Master Boot Record.

Link (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/WINDOWSXP/home/using/productdoc/en/recovery_console_overview.asp) to the Windows XP Recovery Console Overview, Installation, and Commands.

Good luck ...

Toejam31

My Rig: Toejam31's Tantalizing Tantric Toy (http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847)

[kilabyte]

I forgot to mention drives are formatted with FAT32, not NTFS, don't know if this makes any difference.

Tried the Fixmbr as suggested. It accepted the command but did not appear to do anything just returned to the prompt. No error shown or any evidence anything was processing, was this correct?

On rebooting to Windows it still says Drive not formatted do you wish to format?

Wallijohn, I'm not sure about what you are saying reinstall xp over original partition. Windows XP is installed over the first partition (Drive C:) and that is fine, it is partition 2 that is not readable. Do you mean reinstall XP on the c: drive or an additional install onto partition 2?

Checked it as a slave in another machine and it just gives the same answer, for partition 2. IE. not formatted.

[Jimstep]

Sounds like a virus got you. You might try running a virus scan, though, it sounds like it may be too late.

[kilabyte]

Nope not a virus. Have Norton Virus 2002 running all the time. No other file of drive affected.

Have done a full system virus scan and no virus. I am convinced this has nothing to do with a virus.

I am sure the data must still be there but need a program to grab it back so I can then format the partition again, and put the files back. But which program?

[Peter M]

So apparently the root directory or FAT are gone. The data are still there, yet the information on how sectors are linked to files is lost. In other words, your stuff is lost.

Lesson: Backup is best done BEFORE **** happens. People who care for their data own tape drives.

regards, Peter

[kilabyte]

Peter, yep your first part of the analysis appears to be correct. I am sure there must still be a way of rebuilding it.

On the back up side I back up the C: drive every two weeks, with drive image, but seeing as I have a total of 4 Harddisc in the machine, 2IDE and 2 SCSI with a total of over 140GB it is not practical to do a back up of it all. Especially with an expensive, slow, tape streamer would take up a full day (and more than one cartridge). The vital stuff is backed up but not the more mondane.

That's why I have to live in the real world and just back up the C: drive, now in an ideal world I would have everything backed up. But how many of us have the money to live in the ideal world (or the time come to that).

[Peter M]

Well an OnStream ADR2.60 IDE tape drive isn't really expensive, and with 30 GBytes native tape capacity (60 GBytes compressed) you should be able to backup the important stuff daily, and do a weekly full backup on two tapes (provided your drives are filled, which usually isn't true). This drive does around 18 GByte/hour, certainly fast enough for a backup at the end of the day. The tape media are affordable too.

http://www.onstreamdata.com/products/adr2_60ide.html

Back to the topic, FAT file systems with the FAT and/or root directory lost cannot be rebuilt. If you're missing the FAT, all is lost. If you're missing the root directory, software might be able to rebuild the files, but not the file names and directory structure.
There are professional services that do these restorations. They cost a fortune, but certainly less than what rebuilding your business data manually and being out of business for weeks would cost ... but several orders of magnitude more expensive than a tape drive.

regards, Peter

(yes, even my home box has a suitable tape drive)

[kilabyte]

Thanks for the Info.

Nearly £600 is certainly more than my pocket can afford. Only cost a couple of hundred more to build my whole system. I think my best bet would be to buy a another 40GB hard drive (£80) to use for compressed back ups. Tape steamer is certainly out of my league.

Most of the drives I have are quite full. I do a lot of Video and Music editing.

I guess I'll just have to reformat the partition again and use it as spare space (I'll leave it a week just in case anyone comes up with a solution).

[Peter M]

600 pound sterling?!? The ADR2.60 costs US$448 from the retail shelf ... another case of UK consumer ripoff I guess :(

Whatever backup media you choose, you need to have at least two sets on physically separate media. Why? Because with only one media, you are empty handed _during_ backup ... and guess when HDDs are most likely to crash? In phases of heavy activity ... and when do HDDs get more active than during backup? Looking at your original question, this kind of incident is EXACTLY what got you here, isn't it?

This is why tape drives and media quickly get less expensive than HDD backup ... with the media count piling up, it quickly gets way cheaper than the same number of harddrives plus the HDD removability rack stuff you'd need for safe HDD backup.

Yes the stuff costs money ... but it's a ridiculous bill compared to having to restore a working installation AND all the lost data and time.

With a full tape backup available when a complete HDD or system death happens, you're back at fully operational state in a matter of a couple of hours after the hardware has been repaired or restored.

regards, Peter

[kilabyte]

Wow that is a real difference in cost.

I just don't have anywhere near half that amount to be able to afford a tape streamer of that capacity. If you don't have the money you can't buy it!!!

Just managed to get myself a second hand HP Colorado tape drive though for £30. Only Parallel connection though, and 8GB tapes. But better than nothing. If I compress with Drive image I can at least reduce each drive to about 50% of its original.

On an even better note. I'v got most of my data back using Easy Recovery Pro. Set to RAW data mode. So all was not lost (I thought it could'nt be if I could just find the right program).

[Peter M]

that's Travan-4 technology, isn't it? That's what I have here (internal SCSI though). That does about 30 MBytes per minute, the tapes fit 4 GBytes without compression.

That HP drive doesn't compress by itself, you need to enable software compression in your backup application.

Congrats for the purchase, and congrats also for getting some of the files back.

regards, Peter