Hard Drive Randomly Formatted...
 

I have had a problem with one of my fiancee's hard drives for some time now. Some how for some reason one of the hard drives shows no data, when it was actually her main data hard drive (mp3's, documents, videos, pictures, etc). Any time you click on it now it says "Hard drive not formatted. Would you like to format now?"

The hard drive was working fine like I said - I never formatted it nor has she. In fact I used it as the file back up drive while I was formatting a different drive (re-installed Windows XP). I'm afraid to click "Yes" to the formatting question because if the files happen to be there (where they should be) i don't want to risk losing them.

Anyone know of a solution that would get everything back? Any help at all would be great - a lot of the pics were pictures that we didn't have backed up anywhere else.

When a hard drive is formatted, the file system descriptor is written to the boot sectors of the drive. This tells the operating system what the file system is. Using this file system, it can naturally break things into blocks and files, and give you the view you expect to see, where all the files are listed.

If for some reason this boot sector gets erased or corrupted, the files still exist (they're just 1's and 0's magnetically written to the disk, after all), but the OS has no idea how to tell where one file starts and another ends. It's just a big blob of data.

When clicking on the drive in Windows, it is indicating that the drive isn't formatted because it can't read the boot sector. If you click yes, it will re-write a boot sector with FAT32 or NTFS file system, but it will also remove all files, as you predicted.

What you need to do is restore the bad sector(s).

To do this:

Step One: Open "My Computer", RIGHT click on the bad drive icon, choose "Properties".

Step Two: When that loads, click on the "Tools" tab, then click on the "Check Now" button in the "Error Checking" section.

Step Three: When that little window loads, place a CHECK in BOTH boxes, then click on "Start Now".

Step Four: A message will pop up saying that Error Checking will run after you restart the computer, so......Restart the computer. Error Checking will run automatically after the restart and it locks you out from doing anything until it's finished. It takes a little time to perform the task but after it's finished, it will restart into Windows automatically.

Okay - well I tried that. I get to Step 3 and check both the checkboxes and hit "Start Now" and the window goes away without doing anything. No "Step Four" message pops up or anything. I might try putting the HDD in an external enclosure and try on another pc. Will update with info after I try.

Google "hirems boot CD" and download it, burn it, and boot the failed computer with it. You'll see a section for hard drive tests. Run a few, especially a physical test. I suspect the hard drive is flaky.

There are a lot of free recovery tools available - some better than other. The one I had the best luck with was GetDataBack (for FAT or NTFS) but it's not free. You can dowload it an run the rescue - IF you find a lot of files to recover then you can purchase a licence and go on. In the word today there might be other sources for this sofware than the developers homepage if you have no problem trusting stolen and hacked software with your most important files ;)

Okay...so I ran a few HDD scanners to check for errors and such. Got nothing, no bad sectors or anything. I guess the next course of action would be to do the GetDataBack, correct? Is the version of GetDataBack that's on Hiren's BootCD a full version?

I'd recommend using PC Inspector File Recovery on that before using Hiren's, as Hiren's is full of grayware (software that once you had to pay for but is no longer sold).

Download PC Inspector File Recovery 4.0 - FileHippo.com

Alright cool - I'll check that out!

The drive is dying. Get the data off any way possible ASAP. Try using a Linux boot CD like PC Linux OS or something. The data should still be there; like the others said, Windows simply doesn't know how to read it.

Yeah it sounds like your Master Boot Record (MBR) is shot. The data might still be there, but windows doesn't "see" the drive. I agree with Lasereth as booting to a live CD of linux will work. Ubuntu's newest liveCD would be great for that. I've had the same problem myself and used a liveCD to access the information with no problems.

Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

Has download instuctions for burning a bootable CD. Should be able to boot the PC via CD and drag and drop files onto a flash drive or extrenal hard drive.

If I do it that way, Ubuntu (or any other flavor of Linux) should also the other hard drives on the computer - so I could theoretically drag and drop from say C -> D, right? (I don't have an external or flash drive big enough).

After I retrieve the files - should the hard drive be okay for reformat? Or is there still a chance that it would @%$# up again?

If you really need the data on that drive, you can take it down to a professional and allow them to run their data recovery tools. They will likely be able to pull off everything that matters to you, and may even be able to put the original image onto a new drive so the computer once again boots and acts as it did before the problem.

Yes you can copy from C to D if you have 2 hard drives.

You can try the hard drive after you get the data off of it but it is risky. Usually that is a ticket to trouble. Hard drives are like $50 for 750 GB now so I would just get a new one.

Linux is the easiest way to do this. One of my wife's coworker's laptops went dead just like yours, wouldn't even boot into Windows at all. She had all sorts of wedding plans and stuff on there. I booted into Knoppix and you can "force read" the data even if the drive is corrupt. I got literally every single file off of it using this.

Alright well...I tried Ubuntu LiveCD. The bad drive didn't show up. I logged out and logged back into Windows and it was still there. I put the drive in an external enclosure (so my fiancee could actually use her computer while i was doing all this), however, I don't know if the connections actually work. So I'm going to put the HDD in my case tonight and try PCLinuxOS and Knoppix. I assume if both of these versions fail to recognize the drive - my best bet would be to use GetDataBack, yes?

You may have to "mount" the drive in linux, windows does it for you automatically when you access a HD/Flash/CD. I'm not an expert in linux, so I can't tell you the command to do it or how it is done in gnome/KDE. I think your best bet it to go to a local repair shop and let them do it.

I know at my repair shop I would charge you an hours worth of labor ($65, we are expensive) and do it for you. Try looking around on the net to see if there are any PC repair places near you (DO NOT TAKE IT TO BEST BUY). Call them, tell them what happened and see if they can help you out. If you start using different programs that you are unsure about what they are doing to your drive, you may end up losing the data. If you can't ever get this data back (Pictures and such), I recommend stopping now and letting a professional do it.

Where at in NC are you, if I know the area (or one of the NC guys that have posted on the thread) I might know someone near you that could do it.

Yes.

I've used in on two damaged drives - both so damaged they didn't appear in explorer or in some of the other recovery tools. But don't buy it before you've tested it.

I'm around Raleigh - I would think that if a "professional" can do it - so could I. Do they have special tools or something that they use and if so where would you get these tools? I hate taking my computer to other places because I'd much rather do it myself (you learn a hell of a lot more when you do it yourself)

About the only thing I have special is an adapter that I can hook up a IDE/SATA or laptop hard drive to a computer via USB. You can get something like that at best buy I know for sure. The good thing about that is it acts like a flash drive, so it is easier to access the drive in linux.

I know that I would just have to play around with it to get it to work. The liveCD is most likely your best bet, but I can't tell you an more without having the PC in front of me. I would feel the same way, but if I couldn't afford to lose the data, I'd have someone do it for me. Better to pay a little now than kill the contents of the drive trying to do it yourself. You can still get your data, but you have to send it to one of those data recovery centers. They can cost one or two grand to get them to get the data off.

UPDATE: I couldn't get any of the Linux methods to work - for some reason the drive just wouldn't show. I used GetDataBack and it seriously looks like I got EVERYTHING back in pristine condition. At least the pictures and the documents were great...I'll find out about the MP3's later this evening.

Thanks all for your help!