I had three partitions on a drive that had a hardware failure and now
can't be read by Windows. The only files I really care about are
*.tax. What utility will let me search for them and copy to a working
drive?

On Jan 5, 10:52*pm, Bob Simon <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:
The answer does depend on if the drive is still accessible logically.
If the drive has become corrupted, but can be seen by a PC as a
physical drive, then recovery is probably possible. If the drive
cannot be seen by a PC (typically using a USB caddy) then you will
require specialised data recovery company.

For software recovery there are many possible programs, but the one I
have developed, www.cnwrecovery.com does have a file filter to enable
select of files by extension, such as .tax as you require. The free
demo will indicate if recovery is possible. It will also reconstruct
MBR if required.

All recovery programs should always be used with the 'duff' drive as a
slave or external drive to a working PC.

Michael

On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 15:28:50 -0800 (PST), "mscotgrove@aol.com"
<mscotgrove@aol.com> wrote:

The physical media test reports: Too many errors have been detected
for the Wizard to run. Create disk image

Should I do this? If so, why and where should I put it?

On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 15:28:50 -0800 (PST), "mscotgrove@aol.com"
<mscotgrove@aol.com> wrote:

Please ignore previous reply.

I can't image my bad drive until I buy a larger drive to hold the
image. In the mean time, I analysed the partitions and searched for
previous partions. Type xx non resident was found twice and the scan
is only around 20% complete. What does this mean?

Previously Bob Simon <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
Operating the drive before imaging it is a very bad idea,
since it may suffer additional damage. Waif for the new drive,
imagie the old one. And then start messing around. Not before.

Arno

On Jan 6, 1:16*am, Bob Simon <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:
You obviously have a drive that is physially failing. As Arno says,
the best first stage is to create an image of the drive - for which
you will need a licenced copy of the software. One useful feature of
the CnW software is that an image can be built up in stages, eg the
first 10GB, 50-60GB. This means that areas of the disk that are very
damaged can be skipped. You do require another drive with free space
of at least the size of your failing drive. The Type xx non resisdent
message is not very important, and normally caused by failed sectors
in the MFT - don't worry about it.

Michael

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 03:51:37 -0800 (PST), "mscotgrove@aol.com"
<mscotgrove@aol.com> wrote:

Thanks! While I understand the advice to work from a copy of the
damaged drive, I am almost overwhelmed by the urge to do something
right now. Would I be likely to make things worse by pressing the
"Reconstruct current partitions" button on the Partition analysis
screen?

Bob Simon <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
Very likely.

mscotgrove@aol.com wrote in news:ada82807-cd54-4174-a247-1cde181b7ae4@m77g2000hsc.googlegroups.com
Ah, there we go. The businessman finally emerges.

those areas rather extensively already to make that conclusion.
And that is doing precisely what you are trying to avoid.

Of course not.

Right, why say so when you can conceal that particular meaning
by giving a nondescript message.

Yes, you are using a program made by a duff person. Don't worry about it.

Rod Speed wrote in news:5ucl9jF1h0r3jU1@mid.individual.net
Such confidence in the duff guys sof(t)ware.

On Jan 6, 1:23*pm, Bob Simon <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:
Once a drive has failed, recovery is much more complex, and more
expensive.

Be patient, and try and read the drive once - CnW software has to be
registered to save the disk image.

Michael

Folkert Rienstra <see_reply-to@myweb.nl> wrote
Nothing to do with the software, everything to do with the state of the drive.

Makes a lot more sense to clone it first before attempting to do anything else.

In actual fact, there is a mode so that when a number of bad sectors
are detected consecuatively, another number can be jumped. For
instance, if 10 sectors in a row are found failed, the program can
jump 1000 sectors. Each number can be varied. This means that the
program will not dwell on reading bad sectors for too long.

At then end of a image, it is always possible to go back and work on
these problem areas, but only once the vast majority of the disk has
been imaged.

Some lonks from the help

http://www.cnwrecovery.com/html/damaged_disks.html
http://www.cnwrecovery.com/html/disk_errors.html
http://www.cnwrecovery.com/manual/index.html
http://www.cnwrecovery.com/manual/index.html


Michael

Previously Bob Simon <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote:
You are likely to make things worse by powering up the drive!
Don't do it until you are ready to image!

Arno

Arno Wagner wrote in news:5ud8ujF1h9a11U1@mid.individual.net
Yup.

Good thing that you don't have to power the drive in order to image it.
Brilliant.

Rod Speed wrote in news:5ud50sF1h7k9pU1@mid.individual.net
Right, much better killing it for sure by trying to get all that you don't
really need in a very trying process than trying to get the few bits that
you really need in a jiffy by repairing the minimum.

Folkert Rienstra <see_reply-to@myweb.nl> wrote:
Reconstructing current partitions is nothing like repairing the minimum.

Folkert Rienstra wrote:

Folkert,


You clearly have very little experience of data recovery.

I suggest you pull the plug on your "contribution" to this thread - you
don't have sufficient expertise and could jeopardise the original
poster's chances of a successful recovery.



Duncan
--
Retrodata
www.retrodata.co.uk
Globally Local Data Recovery Experts

Rod Speed wrote in news:5uddubF1gjphgU1@mid.individual.net
Of course it is.

And who said anything about "Reconstructing current partitions".
Just reconstructing the MBR. If the partition boot records are still in
tact, then that's dead easy and minimal effort and strain on the drive.

mscotgrove@aol.com wrote

Which is just hit and miss.
If they are not 'consecutive' they are going to be read.

What number. There is no such number. Bad sectors are spread randomly.
You don't know where they are without reading them all. You can only set a
number if you already know where they are which is obviously after the fact.

Apart from that you can't even tell whether 10 consequtive sectors have
failed without trying 10 times to read each and every one to the last, what's
the point if nine fail. That doesn't make the following bad sectors go away.
Even finding one bad sector says absolutely nothing about whether there
will be more following.

The only way to not dwell on bad sectors is to read the drive with Read
Long (ie error recovery switched off). Every program that can't do that
or drive that won't support that is bound to hit the error recovery func-
tions of the drive that will get it into trouble and work it to it's death
even faster, and then the OS will just do that over once more.

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