Repair a Windows 10 installation offline

[sosrecup]

Hello,

I have a customer who had an issue with his hard drive. I could image all the drive except for 4000 sectors.

When I use the newly imaged drive to start the PC, it tries to start and then stop.

I tried all the solutions to restore Windows 10:
1 - From a previous backup (the client didn't have a backup)
2 - Using the command line (CHKDISK /R, DISM tool...)
..

Is there a tool that can restore Windows 10 offline (by replacing damaged files...)

Thanks in advance

[Setlec]

What kind of drive is it? HDD or SSD?
Make and model will help.
What happened to the device? did it fall? did it receive a shock?
What tool or software did you use to image.
DID you clone the device or image into a file?
Did you check the image with DMDE or R-studio to check that nothing isn't out of order?
I would recover any personal and/or work related files and do a fresh install of windows.

[WebClaw]

Do you know what files / records those 4000 unimaged sectors pertain too?

[fzabkar]

Which tool did you use to clone the drive?

You may be able to use ddrutility to identify those files that were affected by bad sectors.

https://sourceforge.net/p/ddrutility/wiki/Home/

[sosrecup]

@Setlec

What kind of drive is it? HDD or SSD?
Make and model will help.
What happened to the device? did it fall? did it receive a shock?
What tool or software did you use to image.

HDD, Toshiba 2.5
I used PC3000 to image the drive. for the unread sectors, I tried to:

Use hardware retries
Retry 5 times
Use the utility to read sectors

But without success

@WebClaw

Do you know what files / records those 4000 unimaged sectors pertain too?

I can figure out what files are affected.

@fzabkar

Which tool did you use to clone the drive?
You may be able to use ddrutility to identify those files that were affected by bad sectors.

I used PC3000 to image the drive. and I can figure out what files are affected.

[LarrySabo]

Is there a tool that can restore Windows 10 offline (by replacing damaged files...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEBy4STXhLM
https://www.minitool.com/news/dism-offl ... ws-10.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PINnUnbeBmY&t=690s

[sosrecup]

@LarrySabo I have already tested all these solutions, but unfortunately, no success.

@Spildit This is the first thing I did, the repair didn't succeed

[fzabkar]

If the missing files are Windows system files, why not just extract them from a working Windows system or a Windows installation package, and then write them to the cloned drive? In fact, I don't understand why your client doesn't just reinstall Windows. :-?

[sosrecup]

That's what I'm going to try

In fact, I don't understand why your client doesn't just reinstall Windows.

Because he has an old version of software that costs, and the provider wants him to upgrade to the new version for more than 50000 USD

[Setlec]

err...are you kidding me? I would not do have much work for a client. Limit yourself to extract all required files the client asks and let him deal with whatever else.

[sosrecup]

@Setlec, the client is not looking to recover data. he wants to get the whole HDD image. this is the deal.

[Lardman]

sosrecup, This should be a straightforward fix assuming you have the machine, just do as Spildit suggest create a new windows install on it and bring it up to the same version as the failed drive. Run a report on files within damaged blocks from pc3000, Mount the image file and then copy them from your new windows install into the image. Burn the image to drive and be done.

The only issue I can see is if there was damage to the mft and you can't recover a full file list for the corrupt data.

[sosrecup]

@Lardman
That's exactly what I did, but unfortunately, it didn't work

[sosrecup]

Maybe the Windows 10 installation was corrupt before, the client tried a solution on the internet then the drive had a physical issue, and the client didn't tell me all the details.

Thank you for your help.

[Setlec]

@sosrecup, didn't he mention what he has done prior bringing the device to you? That's a big issue, try to extract a file and check if it is working fine or not.

[Lardman]

@Lardman
That's exactly what I did, but unfortunately, it didn't work

And you're running the exact same hardware? I've had problems in the past with intel raid/SATA drivers when using different makes of drive.

[suricate.ch]

Can you try running that img in an emulator ?

[Arch Stanton]

@Lardman
That's exactly what I did, but unfortunately, it didn't work

That's hardly informative.