No, I Will Not Fix Your #@$!! Computer → [Windows] Help resurrect NTFS disk!

Greetings -- I have an external disk that I've been using to back things up. --Formatted as NTFS. Worked fine the last time I used it. When I tried to mount it just now, Windows says, "Does not contain a valid file system, do you want to format this disk?"

Bringing it up with the Linux partition editor, "GPartD" showed that it was an "Unknown Volume" Then, bringing it up with Linux "fdisk" showed it had a valid NTFS partition. So, I selected "W", to write this to disk, but no beneficial effect.

I've got 800GB on this 1TB disk that I'd like to access. The data is there, but somehow the partition table is toast. Does anyone know how to resurrect??? Thanks in advance!

Considering it's a backup disk, the first step would be to get a new disc and redo your backup ASAP. After that, you can experiment with the bad disc as much as you want without worrying about losing any data.

The only thing that comes to mind is to rebuild the partition table exactly as it was previously set up WITHOUT performing a full disc format. There should be a tool out there that can rebuild a partition table based on the data found on the disc itself. However, it's been a very long time since I've had to do anything remotely close to this, so I don't know which tools are currently available to perform such a task.

Partition Magic (trial version) should be able to rebuild the partition for you.

If you're feeling lucky, and know what you're doing, you can always use WinHEX to add the correct NTFS code to the start of the partition (a 512 byte sector of the correct NTFS code should be at the end of the partition if the entire partition isn't hosed).

Is it in an external enclosure with it's own controller? Try pulling the drive and hooking up directly. I've had a controller go bad and do strange things.

OP here: I'll try swapping the physical drive into another enclosure (I have three identical enclosures) Then I'll try PartitionMagic. Thanks for the ideas!

Also of note: This disk holds disk images (backups of PCs in the house) The disk only spins when I'm recording images, so the entire run-time of the drive is probably only 30 hours. --Hopefully I won't have bad blocks; plus the drive was fine the last time I used it, then it sat in a box for a while, and now things are hosed somehow...

--Just tried to DL the free version of PartitionMagic (8.0), and all the CAB files are from 2002. It won't install on Win7 - "Partition Magic is incompatible with this version of Windows, click here to exit..." ---the Readme file gives pointers for making it work on Windows95

AARRRRRRGGGGG! Symantec stopped manufacturing PartitionMagic in 2009. The last-produced version is not compatible with anything newer than WinXP. Wikipedia says you have to somehow obtain a bootable CD image and boot that CD for it to work properly. Doesn't anyone have partition issues anymore? What free / COTS product is available for people with my problems? This is turning into a massive headache that will suck up hours....

Easeus.com has some free versions of their software, but you may need the paid version to get all data back. NTFS is a file system that needs to be unmounted first, and if you after backing up a PC just pull the USB plug out, you do run the risk of corruption. Often the only way to rebuild the NTFS file tables, is to scan the drive sector by sector and scan for data on it. Through USB this may take many hours, and potentially longer then a full day.

I have done a 500 GB disk before and it took 16-18 hours for it to complete. But it did work in the end.

What type of disk is it?
I've used this before too: »www.paragon-software.com ··· ersonal/

If you can't get it resolved and you don't nuke it trying to, send me a PM if you run out of options.

OP here: I'm afraid I must say "AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGG" again. I downloaded easeus.com's data-recovery software, and it wanted to examine the drive for 5 hours, so I let it run overnight. Little did I know that the power settings of my machine caused it to go to sleep shortly after *I* did last night. I resumed, and it finially finished, but it gave me all sorts of confusing info after using the 'manual' option, which is for experts. Plus, it looked like it was combining files from my laptop's boot drive with the partitions it thought it saw on my failed drive. I restarted in 'automatic' mode this time, and it wants to scan the drive for another 10 hours. I don't have that kind of time for the rest of today, or tonight. Sure I can let it run overnight, but at the end of that 10hour thing, it will want to do something else for 10 hours etc etc...

The drive now has a partition table, and Windows doesn't tell me it wants to format it anymore, but the drive appears 'empty'. --I know, this is because the listing of files was not written into the new File Table (that's the 2nd 10-hour operation...)

I'm out of hard drives, so I'll just to buy another 1TB drive to put my backups on, then work on this when I have the time. --I don't have a catalog of waht was on the drive, so I don't know if I have anything irreplaceable or not on the drive. I've never corrupted a drive like this before; I"m not sure how it happened. This sure his a multi-hour, multi-day headache.

And this is why I don't bother "rescuing" expendable hard drives anymore. Takes a lot less time just to get a new drive.

These kind of problems are actually the reason I use Carbonite and I recommend that to everyone. Yes it is $60 a year per computer, but if you accumulate all backups on one computer you can select that folder to be included in the online backup and you never have to worry about losing it again. It has saved 2 people I recommended it to already because their hard drives crashed.

I've used GetDataBack for NTFS in a similar situation with 100% success. IRC it was pretty intuitive to set up and use.

Luckily I haven't had to use it for a couple of years. I do remember the empty feeling in the pit of your stomach when this kind of situation occurs . . .

Good Luck

I am also being drug kicking & screaming to the point where I must admit that online data back-up is necessary. For personal use, $60 a year might be steep, but it's nothing for a business compared to the loss of the data, or messing with failed hard drives (like the OP) and configuration issues. Also, Carbonite is not the only game in town, in fact it might not be good enough for some situations. I am in process of researching online data backup, and I've found one service that installs a small program on the computer, and uses that software to encrypt the data before it's uploaded to the cloud storage.

So it's encrypted during transmission, in case anyone is sniffing packets, etc... and it's encrypted on the cloud storage medium, in case the service provider's security is compromised. The idea of online storage data encryption is new to me, and it may be something that others have not thought about, but should.

To the OP: The 1st thing I would do is remove the HD from it's enclosure and install it on a dedicated, repair-only desktop. Then find a generous professional on an online forum (hello) to hold my hand and walk me through the steps required to fix the HD, if possible. It's not always possible, and there are about 5 different repairable ways that a HD can go bad, with 5 different repair options, and innumerable ways to perform each of them. Meaning, there is no magic bullet anywhere, and some of the advice here borders on the irresponsible. It is not a good idea for a person that knows that they do not know what they are doing to take computer repair advice from someone that does NOT know that they do not know what they are doing. It's the blind following the stupid, who also happens to be blind. This will probably aggravate the person(s) these comments are directly aimed at, as they should, because what they have done is both wrong and stupid. People that know what they are doing know better than to throw "one size fits all" solutions at people that do not know what they are doing. The fact that someone has given you such a suggestion is my proof that they have no business giving advice on computer repair.

Next, we might see the always-present forum dipstick that says "Urkgt! It's hopeless. The only thing left to do is format and reinstall." Understand who I am. I am the guy that the client calls after THAT guy formats her hard drive and she discovers that he's installed a pirated copy of "Windows Black" that quit working after the 1st week. And usually, depending on the density of the data on the HD, I can recover everything and more. No guarantees here, but one time a client called mortified because after receiving her computer back, with all of it's recovered data, she finds that in the large pile of recovered data were several "nudie" photos that had been previously deleted.

I lied and told her I hadn't seen them, had no idea what they were, or of who, etc... and that I had merely recovered and undeleted "everything", and left it to her to decide what to keep and what to re-delete.

The truth was that I had in fact seen them while casually taking a look at what had been recovered, in order to get some sense of recovered data quality, quantity, location, etc... She was not attractive, even with clothes on. In the name of preserving her dignity, and our professional relationship, I made the easy decision to lie and deny knowledge of what her private parts looked like . She hasn't called me since, which is expected. That's how life is in Data Recovery. One minute you are a computer genius and data recovery God, and the next minute you are a leering pervert with a sick fascination of other people's privates, and someone normal people need to get far away from. The down-side of being good at Data Recovery, lol.

In situations like these, where one-on-one help is needed, I work via IM on Skype only, and while I am glad to help others as time allows, this last point is non-negotiable and is a deal-breaker. I've actually had people expect me to help them (for free) using a means of communication that is most convenient to THEM, lol. Oi Vei! The chutzpah!

I've used Active File Recovery with lots of luck getting my files back. They also have a partition version (which combines both iirc).

Any time I have a disk issue I use testdisk for first analysis. Not real user friendly GUI type tool but extremely functional.

»www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/ ··· Download