basic questions...

[whatBackup]

Sorry to be such a lunch box...

1. does chkdsk damage my filesystem? by this I mean if I let chkdsk run through on a secondary drive so I can boot my system will it rewrite the file system with its results therefore making my data inaccessable through windows without a 3rd party recovery tool?

2. mhdd is awesome but what does a "scan" do? by this I mean the instructions say it is a scan and repair. I have 22 UNC blocks with red x's. I assume these are completely dead spots. so where does the repair come in? and will I be able to boot into windows with no chkdsk run after running mhdd?

3. I think the majority of my data is there. mhdd shows only 22 bad blocks. I have 406 at <150ms and 67 <500ms. I just want to get my data off and wait for my buffalo t-byte nas to get here.

edit----add comments

I starting running with remap on but quickly started reporting many more bad blocks....same fear arose. so I stopped.

tried normally booting and chkdsk started running again.

[pepe]

Hi,

1: definitely. never start chkdsk
2: MHDD uses 'verify' command to scan the surface, this is good for diagnosis, but if U have data on the drive, I would not recommend remapping...
3: create an image of your drive as soon as possible, then U can proceed with logical recovery, otherwise all your chances may fade away as this drive is apparently dying...

pepe

[pepe]

Hi,

don't let chkdsk run on the image either. NEVER trust chkdsk!
it is much safer to use a logical recovery SW to restore the data, because in case there is some file system damage on the drive, chkdsk may cause more, and U cannot control its behaviour.
just an example of mine: I am always telling people not to use scandisk or chkdsk if they suspect FS problems, however once I had encountered a damaged folder name on a FAT32 partition and I thought it wouldn't be a big challenge to scandisk, so I gave it a try.
it scanned and checked things, then a red window came up, I answered yes - to remove the affected folder (I thought). Then some more red windows... I began to get suspicious.
I quited scandisk and found that the main folder that contained the bad one had lost its files and many of its subfolders
The damaged one was still there so I begun to hit my head into the wall... then started some long data recovery of my precious FW collection.

regards,
pepe

[pepe]

No.

There is more risk than gain.
for example in a FAT FS scandisk or chkdsk can do irrevertible damages, that's for sure.
What do U mean U only have chkdisk?
If your car gets broken down because of various engine problems, do U start repairing it with a hammer just because u happen to have a hammer?
If U care about your car U will get proper tools or give it to one with proper tools and knowledge, right?
I think it would be nice U thought twice before giving advices...
Basically no tool is advisable that ever writes or modifies the original data source, chkdsk does, so draw the conclusion, please.

regards,
pepe

[whatBackup]

I am going to duck out on this thread because my problem is solved.

I used a few different methods to determine what was on the drive exactly. Once I found out it was not mission critical data and that I could afford to lose some data.
So I let chkdsk run and left the room so I wouldn't think about it.

It must have cleaned the dirty parts because when I came back my desktop was back.

I am sure I lost some data. What data I don't know. But I knew that going in and once I knew exactly what was on the drive I made the choice.

Thanks for the answers. They allowed me to make an educated choice.

[pepe]

So, in what cases would you use chkdsk ?

Lets say that you have a PC that reports incorrect free space on windows disk manager .... what would you do ?

shortly: never.
Never before important data is saved to another drive. Only after that.

pepe

[prodata]

For ME..

Same with pepe.

NEVER TRUST SCANDISK/CHKDSK.

[coffeebean]

chkdsk and scandisk are the most malicious viriii you can get.
and they not even for free.