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Need Data Recovery software for failing HDD



 
 
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Old September 29th 17, 02:20 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_2_]
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Posts: 54
Default Need Data Recovery software for failing HDD

In message ,
writes:
I have an old computer with two 120gb IDE HDDs. The first drive has 4
partitions C: thru F:. The second HDD has 3 partitions G: thru I:.
The computer is running Windows 98 SE. (Yea, I know this is a Windows 7
newsgroup, but the Win98 group is dead).


Quiet, but not dead, assuming you mean the one I've included.

Anyhow, my G: partition has gone insane. This started when I was backing
it up, and it refused to copy some files. I ran scandisk and told me


What are you using to backup - just copy, or some utility? Does it stop
when it encounters a problem, or carry on with the remaining files it
_can_ copy? (I use SyncToy, but [a] I don't know if that runs on '98 [b]
I don't know if it carries on after a failure-to-read, though I think it
does.)

there were 2 bad clusters, but could not fix them. Rather than just
marking them as BAD, it made the whole HDD go insane.


It may or may not be scandisk that made that happen.

First it created several folders called DIR0000 DIR0001 etc.
Then I found several folders missing, but the contents of some of them
were in these DIR000X folders.


Yes, that's what it does: if it can't read the name of a folder, it
makes one called DIRxxxx, and puts the contents of the unreadable folder
into the new one.

It told me to run the complete (long) version of Scandisk. I did it, and
after taking hours, it told me there were 2 bad clusters in UNUSED


I'm guessing that the first pass did its moving into rescue folders, so
the bad ones were indeed now in unused space. However, that's just a
guess.

spaces, and said they could not be fixed.


Well, if they were unfixable the first time, they'd be unfixable the
second. IIRR, the default pass just looks at used space and file
structures, so it's pot luck that the dud sectors were in a part of the
disk where you did have data, and it thus found them. The long version
checks the whole disk, including the parts currently not holding any
data: basically I think for each sector, it copies the data, then does
write and read tests, then puts back the original data. (Moving it to
somewhere else if it detects a problem.)

Rather than just mark them clusters bad, I Then found over half of my
folders missing. However, in DOS, I can see them, but found I can only
copy small files, large ones cause ABORT RETRY FAIL.


Does sound as if the drive is decidedly unwell. The symptoms - can see
in DOS but not Windows - sound remarkably like another thread I've read
in the last day or two; I think it was/is in the '98 'group.

This partition is about 50gb, with 23gb used. It's formatted FAT32.
The entire drive is not bad. H: and I: work fine. Just G: is screwed up.


I wouldn't (as you've said you aren't going to, which is good policy)
rely on the rest of it remaining good, though.

I have not run further tests, which might write to the drive. My goal is
to retrieve the very important data to another drive. (I only have about
half of that partition backed up). Once I can save the data, I plan to
also save the data on the other partitions, and will replace the drive
with a new one.


(Good.)

What can I use to retrieve the data?

Google told me to download PC Inspector. I tried it, it ran in Win98,
but everytime I go to G: it errors out.


Does it work on H: and I:, i. e. the other parts of the same drive?

What else is there? I'd prefer free, but will pay a reasonable fee for
something guaranteed to work.The lost data is around 12gb, but it's
extremely important. If I must, I will probably have to pay a pro for
data recovery.

You were backing up - how often do you? [Not that I'm one to talk (-:!]
Also, what is it that is making such important data, that is running
under '98? (Not that '98 is in itself unreliable: it's so simple that
it's probably _more_ reliable. It's just that kit made for it is
probably getting a bit worn by now ...)

Because this is a slave drive, I can plug it into a XP computer if need
be, but will need some special card or something, because that computer


The motherboard may still have an IDE connector, though. (Are you sure
you're not the same person as the other thread?) SATA-_only_
motherboards, I would say, didn't become _common_ until after the XP era
(I'm not sure they're _that_ common even yet).

has a SATA drive. I dont know if I am better trying to retrieve the data
using Win98 or XP????


For a secondary (i. e. not system) drive, I think '98 is less likely to
try to write anything _to_ the drive; conversely, XP might do better,
and there are probably more tools.

I dont have any newer OSs, than XP.
Win98 is what I use the most, and this W98 computer has all my most
important data. I only use XP to play videos.

On reading that, I've added the XP 'group, as those there might
recommend assorted utilities. This probably shouldn't be on the '7
'group (-:.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets
you. - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear
 




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