Windows asking to format HD

[samir_aguiar]

Hello there,

I have a HP Pavilion DV4-2040BR running Windows 7. As any Windows-based system, after some time it started to show lag problems, but due to a burner drive issue I was postponing the formating thing. But one day it became critical so I created 25 GB of backup files and tried to transfer them to the iPhone through wi-fi. In the middle of the process I realized I had forgotten to backup some files so I tried to cancel the whole thing but my computer ended up crashing. So I turned it off by holding the power button and the problems started: Windows wouldn't boot anymore and the BIOS hard drive diagnostic utility kept gaving me a "replace the hard disk" message.

So I called HP support and they told me to remove the HD and do a backup myself because they wouldn't. I brought an external hard drive and as it was the same as my laptop HD, I switched them, used a flash drive to install Windows on the new one and using the old as external HD I searched for ways to recover the files.
Enough of history, I can't get this to work. When I try R-Studio it never finishes the job and keeps giving "Read disk X at position nnnnn failed after 1 attemp. CRC error or something" and Getmydataback gave lots of error messages too.

What can/should I do? I think that at this point taking the HD to a professional lab would be very expensive, am I right?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Samir

[poehere]

There is one Linux based software that you can use to clone this drive with. R Studio what are you doning copy HDD, Make an Image, or are you trying file recovery in this one.

Make a copy of the HDD first using a cloning software. Then you can work from the clone and find all your data on this HDD.

Copy R you can try this one too.

[samir_aguiar]

Well, I just opened R-Studio and told it to scan the faulty HD and all those messages appeared...

And about Copy R, you mean HD Duplicator? I downloaded that and it won't work without floppy... is there any other good tool? I heard about True Image and one from EASEUS, but I don't know if they'd work for me.

Also, what if I try HDD Regenerator, do you think it'd help?

Thanks.

[poehere]

No HDD Regenerator is a drive killer. You are better off using dd_rescue on this one. You have to clone your drive and not scan it. You can not work from this drive you have to work from a copy of your drive.

[pclab]

Hi

You can also use DMDE to clone the disk.

[samir_aguiar]

DMDE froze... :S

I'm running Ubuntu, used gparted to list the drives and it said it couldn't access sdc, which is probably the USB bad drive.

I tried the following command:
sudo dd_rescue /dev/sdc1 /dev/sda1/backup.img
and it returned
dd_rescue: (fatal): open "/dev/sda1/backup.img" failed: Not a directory

What's wrong? Thanks.

[DrFaustus]

is it Western digital drive, remove the PCB & inspect for dirty contacts where the heads connect to the PCB

[samir_aguiar]

No, it's a Seagate drive, can I do this without warranty void?

[Vulcan]

I'm running Ubuntu, used gparted to list the drives and it said it couldn't access sdc, which is probably the USB bad drive. [my emphasis]

Do NOT guess! If you get the dd / dd_rescue / etc. command wrong, you could overwite your original drive (or overwrite an unintended part of the "target" drive). Stay calm; check; and be sure that you understand which disk, is using which Linux device node name.

I tried the following command:
sudo dd_rescue /dev/sdc1 /dev/sda1/backup.img
and it returned
dd_rescue: (fatal): open "/dev/sda1/backup.img" failed: Not a directory

What's wrong? Thanks.

I don't know what's wrong - I can't see your system from here

Your attempted dd_rescue command line looks suspicious to me - I don't use Ubuntu, but if you are trying to create a file (backup.img) as the target of your clone, then you need to be writing it to a mounted filesystem (and /dev/sda1 is not what I would expect to see as the device node for a mounted filesystem - is that really correct for Ubuntu?). Alternatively if you are trying to create a clone onto a new blank disk (and therefore overwite everything else on that disk / partition), then you would not be specifying a filename. It all depends on what you are trying to do, and what your system configuration is...

Are you sure that you know enough about Linux and about your system configuration, to be attempting to do this? As I said above, if you get this wrong, then you could lose data.

P.S. Personally I'd suggest you attempt to clone the whole disk, and not just a partition (as your command suggests), but it's your choice. Just as long as you understand that your command won't copy the MBR, and it'll only try to clone the 1st partition from the source.

[samir_aguiar]

Well, actually you're right, I'm not familiar with Linux systems. What can I do to be sure which is my bad drive and which is not? I don't really know the commands, if you can guide me or if I need to install another Linux it would be fine.

I just wanted to recover some files which were on partition D:\, but I think the drive lost its partition information... Also, both drives (the working one and the bad one) are 500 GB, would that make it harder to create a clone?

What's the difference between that command and using Norton Ghost, for example? Do the second can damange the disc and the other don't?

Thanks a lot.

[Vulcan]

Well, actually you're right, I'm not familiar with Linux systems.

In that case, you have been very lucky that your guess of dd_rescue command just failed, instead of doing something that would overwrite your data. As I said before, this is not the sort of work where guessing is a good idea, if you care about your data.

What can I do to be sure which is my bad drive and which is not?

You would need to learn some Linux - start with reading about "dmesg"

I don't really know the commands, if you can guide me or if I need to install another Linux it would be fine.

Unfortunately for you, I am too busy with paid work, to give the level of help which you would need for free. IMHO you will have to find someone else who is less busy to help you, or pay for professional help.

Your system configuration is also unclear to me, from your description - I think you have the "problem" disk now in a USB case (that is not usually the best configuration - direct SATA attach for a failing disk gives more control over retries etc.), and you say you have bought another disk of the same size (500GB) as the "problem" disk. However it seems you have installed Windows onto that replacement disk. Therefore you cannot clone the whole "problem" disk onto the replacement disk and also keep any data which is now on the replacement disk.

As Ana (poehere) also explained, the cloning process is just the first stage (and often you need to have some skills with your cloning tool to get the best result: it is not necessarily a "press and go" technique). After that has been done, you need more spare disk space (at least the size of the disk space actually used for files on the "problem disk"), to hold the recovered files after you run (your choice of) data recovery software (like R-Studio etc. etc.) on the clone image.

So although your system configuration is not clear to me, it seems to me that you don't have enough empty (scratch) disk space to complete this process. As always, doing DIY recovery has risks, and using professional disk imaging equipment may be more successful than using DIY tools - it's your data, so it's your choice.

I just wanted to recover some files which were on partition D:\, but I think the drive lost its partition information... Also, both drives (the working one and the bad one) are 500 GB, would that make it harder to create a clone?

As I said, your full system config now (e.g. what is installed on the replacement disk, and whether you have more spare disks etc.) is not clear to me. Read my comments above - they might answer your question. To make things simple for you, I would definitely suggest that you clone the whole disk, and not just one partition.

What's the difference between that command and using Norton Ghost, for example?

Norton Ghost is not designed to cope with any unreadable sectors - no extra retries are done, no change of block size, no option for reverse copy (at least not in the versions I have seen). I think some versions can be told to ignore sectors with CRC errors (instead of aborting the copy, which is the default behaviour I've seen in the past), but Ghost will still give a worse result on any flaky disk, than even primitive software like dd_rescue etc.

I'm glad I was able to answer some of your questions, but you have now received all the time which I can spend on this issue at the moment. Good luck.

[samir_aguiar]

Thanks a lot for your help, although the data is import is not as much important for me to pay a lot to get it back, so I'd rather keep on trying for a couple of days and if it doesn't work I'll just format the drive.

Again, thanks for the help.

Cheers,
Samir

[Vulcan]

if it doesn't work I'll just format the drive.

You won't be able to do that. In fact the drive does not need formatting for the reason which Windows expects - i.e. it expects there is no filesystem on the disk.

In fact the reason why Windows thinks there is no filesystem is because of read errors when Windows tries to read the filesystem metadata (e.g. boot sector or other metadata). We know that some sectors are unreadable, because of the CRC error messages which you reported.

Therefore the disk is faulty - it will not become normal again just by formatting it (as I said, this will likely not be successful, even if you did try - and I do not recommend that you try).

Again, thanks for the help.

You're welcome - unfortunately I only had time to answer some of your questions, but not to guide you through the whole cloning & recovery process. If you can get some local Linux help, then that might be enough for you to make progress (but beware of the risks of DIY recovery). FYI first you need a totally empty 500GB disk to be the target for the clone of your "problem" (source) 500GB disk...

Good luck...

[samir_aguiar]

So you mean that there's no way to make it good again? I mean, I just have to get the data back and then it's trash?

[craig6928]

CRC error means hard drive is bad

and the worse part is that your information is on the bad sectors of your hard drive

[Vulcan]

I agree with craig6928 but just to add a couple of comments...

So you mean that there's no way to make it good again?

It would cost you more (perhaps much more) to pay to try to make it "good again", than to just buy a new drive. So I'm not saying that there is "no way to make it good again"; I am saying that it would not be economically sensible to try to repair the old drive to make it perfect again, with symptoms like you describe, which suggest a problem in the HDA.

I mean, I just have to get the data back

In fact you do not know, yet, if you can get the data back, until you have the knowledge & equipment to clone the part(s) of the disk surface which hold the data that you want to recover. It is possible that perhaps either (a) you, or (b) anyone else, cannot recover the data. Until this is tried, in the correct way, no-one knows for sure... And, depending on what the real fault is (inside the disk), any attempts to recover the data might be doing more damage inside - this is one of the risks

and then it's trash?

Realistically, yes. After data recovery (if that is possible), that drive is almost certainly beyond economic repair (because new disk drives are so cheap, compared to the labour & business costs of repairing faulty disk drives (in most cases)).

Depending on your HP warranty (e.g. age of equipment, length of HP warranty, your local laws etc.), then you may have a valid claim to get a replacement disk drive from them, but as they said to you, they would not pay (or be responsible for) recovering the data from the original disk drive.

I hope that helps to explain the situation to you. Good luck...