First ~150 Mb on drive is erased, need to restore other data

[Moorindal]

Hi everybody.
I've got following problems with my hdd (Partition C - 50 Gb/Partition D - The rest 450 Gb or so):
1. My hdd stopped to work properly - at first it crashed my system and then it refused to boot.
2. I tried to use MHDD utility to scan surface and it showed me that there's lots of errors.
3. I tried to fix my drive by using advice from here (Q: How can I fix delays on my HDD (red and brown blocks in MHDD)?). I was unable to erase the device - the utility stopped after 140 Mb or so and asked if I have broken drive (well thanks a lot for the diagnosis).
4. Then I remembered that I didn't backup some of my data from partition D.

So. My mission is to restore my data and maybe fix the hdd. Any suggestions/comments?

[colanco]

seagate, WD, Samsung.... ,cual es??

[HaQue]

try partition find and mount, a free util to mount partitions.

[Moorindal]

seagate, WD, Samsung.... ,cual es??

WD if that matters.

try partition find and mount, a free util to mount partitions.

Let's say I've got my data back... Do you have any ideas how can I fix the hdd?

[labtech]

With many bad sectors the scan will likely hang.
May want to image/clone the drive first. And with software tools won't be easy.

[MindMergepk]

you can upload the s.m.a.r.t status of the drive here, so someone can advise you accordingly.

if your drive has errors/bad sectors, you must clone this drive to another drive or create image file and run software against the clone/image.

if only the first 150 mb is erased, there are very good chances to restore data from D partition.

approximate position of partition (Windows 7)
C Partition @ Sector 2048 (already gone)
D Partition @ Sector 104857600 +/-

good luck

[Moorindal]

Alright, I must make it clear that I'm completely ignorant in the matters of working with hdd. A newbie, that's it.

With many bad sectors the scan will likely hang.
May want to image/clone the drive first. And with software tools won't be easy.

So I need 500 Gb of free space on some drive, right? Or will it copy only data from the hdd?

you can upload the s.m.a.r.t status of the drive here, so someone can advise you accordingly.

if your drive has errors/bad sectors, you must clone this drive to another drive or create image file and run software against the clone/image.

if only the first 150 mb is erased, there are very good chances to restore data from D partition.

approximate position of partition (Windows 7)
C Partition @ Sector 2048 (already gone)
D Partition @ Sector 104857600 +/-

good luck

How do I get s.m.a.r.t. status?
Yes, drive have over 600 errors accordingly to MHDD scan.
And thank you.

P.S. Partition Find and Mount failed to find any partitions.

[Moorindal]

[Sorry for doubleposting]
Update: I managed to recover my data with Paragon HD Manager 12. Then I erased former C partition (area ~50 Gb in the beginning of the disk) and tried to launch MHDD SCAN. It have even gone a bunch of sectors before everything got full of ! ABRT symbols. I rebooted and looked to BIOS just to see that the hdd is gone and the computer can't recognize it. I decided to bring it to a service center when I've got the opportunity. Meanwhile I'd be glad to try to fix it myself. Any suggestions?

[labtech]

Update: I managed to recover my data with Paragon HD Manager 12.

Interesting... have you tested the recovered files? No corruption?

Any suggestions?

Can obtain SMART values by pressing F8 in MHDD.
People can't really provide good suggestions as we do not not what is wrong with the drive. Is a firmware issue? Or head? or just Bad sectors? Not enough testing to determine so.
Use the search function here a bit with keywords such as "WD firmware", "firmware tools", etc.
Also, if your intent is to only fix it, then there may be a high change that the cost of "repair" is nearly as high as a new drive. So, it may not be worth it.

[Moorindal]

Interesting... have you tested the recovered files? No corruption?

Haven't test it yet. All seems fine to me though. And why should it be otherwise? I didn't damage that part of hdd.

Also, if your intent is to only fix it, then there may be a high change that the cost of "repair" is nearly as high as a new drive. So, it may not be worth it.

I know. If it will be cheaper to buy a new one, I'll do exactly that.

[Moorindal]

So they told me over 600 bad blocks is far too much and they can't repair it. They also said that quantity of damaged sectors will only increase with time no matter what I do. Is that true? What if I just leave all damaged area alone outside partition table?

[digitalferret]

Likely true.
They don't actually repair bad sectors. The system marks them as bad on a list and avoids them.
The list is finite. once it runs over there are more potholes than flags.

why risk losing more on an already failing drive when new, versus a data recovery job in a future fail, is comparitively cheap.