Replies

Thank bbearren,

Yes I’ve been previously warned about that and am prepared for it. Considering chkdsk /f (not even /r) takes 10 days on this drive, we may even be talking months for SpinRite . Now that I have a backup, I will have the patience to see it through without worrying about it every day.

I won’t be getting around to SpinRite for about 10 days though, since the manual says to run chkdsk before running spinrite.

 

Cheers

Dave

Excellent, thank you Ron. And good news since I think I would be fairly challenged figuring out how to install my old floppy into a laptop.

Should I burn the disk as bootable?  (I know that’s a rookie question, it’s something I do fairly infrequently these days).

Cheers,

Dave

Hi anonymous.

I just saw your reply here. Gosh nested forums is a pain in the behind.

I mentioned in my last post that I have purchased SpinRite which seams to have some of the functionality you are looking for. I think I will start a new thread dedicated to SpinRite, and maybe put in some screenshots from the manual if it doesn’t go against any copyrights.

The one I recall was PCtools, which may or may not have been a precursor to Norton Disk Doctor. I seem to have a vague memory that it is the same company but PCTools was the DOS and windows 3.1 days, so my memory is extremely fuzzy on it. I may even have the name wrong.

Anyway, apparently SpinRite can actually fill in some missing data as well by interpolation. But I can’t imagine it could do this for anything other that photo files. I could be very wrong though.

Dave

 

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woody

As a follow-up to my chkdsk excercise, my drive has reverted back to it’s raw state. This may or may not be related to one of the following two things:

-firefox files (I was trying to recover old open tabs from these profiles at the time)

-Windows 10

I have had this drive attached to windows 7 for years, with never an issue.  These problems seem to have started when I replaced my windows 8.1 install with windows 10 on this dual boot machine.  This time for sure I know I was in windows 10 when the drive was corrupted.

Thankfully I had already made a full backup of all the files onto another drive which I won’t touch until I can make yet another backup onto a new drive I ordered yesterday.  In the mean time I have started running chkdsk /f again on the same drive again. Looks like it’s going to run the full 10 days again.

Based on some comments here, and what I have read online, I sprung the $89 US (ouch) for the SpinRite software.  I hope I get some value out of it by running it on some old paperweights I have in a box.

I started perusing the manual for SpinRite last night, and yikes!  I didn’t thing I would ever have to write config.sys and batch files again! And am I going to have to find my old floppy drives??? . Ick! .  And which version of windows left DOS behind? Anyway, I’m sure everything will work out, but if anyone has any tips for starting SpinRite in a more modern manner, I would be appreciative.  The manual they provide is a bit dated and for the last major release (5.0), not the current release (6.0).

Thanks,

Dave

Thanks Steve for the rundown. There is some good info and warnings there. I’ve been caught by backup software that required you use it to restore a backup, which is my main reason for avoiding backup software that creates volumes where the data is stored.

I use to have a backup program that left everything in it’s original directory structure making restoring files later very easy and software independent. It did all the incremental, full, etc. backups you would hope for.  I haven’t used it in years. I know it is on one of my old backup drives somewhere, and if I find it I will post it’s name here.

Hi Steve,

I am referring to their data recovery software (Data Recovery Wizard).  Most people on line seem to just say EaseUS, so I assume the data recovery is what they’re mainly known for.

I’m inclined to agree with you about the firefox profile files.  I’ve had numerous bluescreens in windows 10 whenever I try to manipulate them in the hidden directory (copy, etc.).  I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not. The only other common activity I’ve been involved with during blue screens is AskWoody, so maybe Woody has a mean streak

 

Hi skeptamistic, glad you got yourself out of the woods.

Curious, how is your imaged drive working. Any slow downs or hickups?

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks Bertram,

I’ve put myself behind on several other tasks so I will need to take my concentration away from the data recovery for a while to get other things back on track.  I will try and remember to get in touch with you next month some time. If you don’t hear from me, please don’t take it personally. Fall gets very busy for me with yard and house maintenance, Halloween, etc.  If we don’t touch base in a reasonable amount of time, feel free to give me a little nudge in pm. It’s likely I just lost sight of one of the 20 balls I’m juggling.

And again, thanks for all your suggestions and assist. It really was your initial comment on the chkdsk thread that settled my mind and allowed me to be patient through the rest of the process. Without your assurances about privileges, I think I probably would have force stopped the operation and started all over with elevated privileges.

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks anonymous. Yes indeed I had missed those!

Cheers,

Dave

[DaveYVR]

I’m uncertain of the cause of bootloader failing to load in these situations. I’ve had many dual OS boot scenarios get confused depending on the order and method used to install various operating systems.  I know just enough to be dangerous

In the bios, as I am sure you are aware, you can change the order of the bootloaders and drives accessed during boot up.  On my current computer I have three operating systems running right now. Two of them will load properly when I directly select their drives to boot (i.e., not the boot loader).  One will start only when I load the “windows boot loader” located on that particular drive.  I can only suggest playing around trying different boots from bios. You can do this without changing the order, and once you know which are working properly, edit the order to match.

Finally, there are utilities you can use which can edit boot loaders and make it so you can select the right operating systems on a dual boot system at start up. The one I’ve used in the past is EasyBCD. But I don’t think you need to go down that road just to get one drive up and running. And I would avoid it until you have exhausted your other options. Things can get confusing quickly with EasyBCD, and might even make matters worse.

I’m sorry my advice lead to a new problem. . I didn’t think you would switch over to the image unless your current drive actually failed. Hope some of the advice above helps and doesn’t make issues worse.  I would wait for suggestions from others before proceeding.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by DaveYVR.

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skeptamistic

Thanks Jim,

Finally I did not need to go down that Linux disro road. I’m not sure what that windows error was pertaining to, however the restrictions on the directory were fixed when I adjusted the security settings for the folder. I was able to access it afterwards. And now everything is right as rain. I retrieved the files I needed directly through windows without using any data recovery software.  Thanks very much PKCano for pointing out my 22 inch error and ultimately giving me the means to recover all the data I need.

In any case, I think the topic is still relevant. I would like, for the future, to have peoples opinions on Data Recovery software since it appears many people here have experience in dealing with drive errors and corruption.

Have a nice weekend all.

[DaveYVR]

Thanks PKCano,

That is actually the first thing I tried, but I went back to make sure I had shown system files. Sometimes I miss that one.

I had enabled it fortunately, and nothing related to these files or directories reported by EaseUS was shown in the windows directory structure. So some how these are hidden from windows and only revealed by a deeper scan.

Oh lord, strike that!  You might have well have asked me if my computer was plugged in.  I got my checkmarks reversed.  I actually had it checked so that it would hide system files. Rookie mistake.

In any case, I can now see the found.000 directory, however it is not accessible. I must need some elevated permissions. Will look into that.

Cheers,

Dave

 

Edit: looked into it….sigh

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by DaveYVR.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by DaveYVR.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by DaveYVR.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by DaveYVR.

Thanks for your assist. However, I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re driving at.

If I understand correctly, your stating that the files chkdsk moved into this folder for corrupt files are essentially corrupt and unusable, and that a text editor may be able to help identify files whose filename and properties were not retained?

Thx

Alex5723 wrote:

skeptamistic wrote:

Hmmm: do I need to check the SSD for errors? Which utility or tool do I use for that?

Chkdsk.

I would agree with this to a point.

Not to be too alarmist, but every time I’ve have had a slow startup and loading of programs on a computer, it has preceded a full disk failure.  I’ve had this happen a couple times, including once on an OCZ solid state drive.

I did the same as you. Looked at everything but a bad disk drive. Drivers, space utilization, Bluetooth adapters (disabling), and more. Then one day, *clunk*, and my drive could not be read by the computer, or any other computer I attached it to using an external sata adaptor.

SMART has never given me any warning. And the quick drive checking tools don’t show anything.

So I would suggest some form of chkdsk /r where /r is looking for bad sectors on the disk.

A couple caveats:

-this process could take a very long time (hours, possibly even days)

-I would get advice from others if there are any better alternatives than chkdsk at this point.

-I would image the drive using macrium reflect, if you have it, before running chkdsk. I won’t suggest Acronis since I am one of the lucky few where Acronis actually bricked one of my operating systems, and the follow up technical support from Acronis was lacking to say the least.

Good luck

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skeptamistic

So the patience paid off.

Yesterday afternoon the Chkdsk ran to completion and the directory structure looks intact.  If I recall correctly, that is about 10 days to repair an 8TB 5400rpm drive for anyone else who goes down this road.

A review of the project files looks fine.

There was a small group of Mozila profile backup files in a folder in the root directory. Those seem to have disappeared, but when I re-scan the drive with EaseUS they are found in a directory called dir0000.chk which I assume is a directory that chkdsk created for orphan/corrupted files.

In any case, I’m pleased with the results and on first review the files seem intact.

Also, EaseUS looks to be $20 off today (now $70), so I may just bite the bullet and purchase it. I’ve come across a lot of good comments regarding this software.

Thanks all for your help. Especially Bertram and Anonymous who belayed my fears that I was going to need to start all over with an elevated command prompt.

satrow, it was nice passing the time with you discussing computer builds and driver maintenance.

Thanks again all.  On to my next problem…