2 Days ago i couldn't start my computer up at all without going through the windows xp blue screen saying that it needs to perform a CHKDSK, it wouldn't even give me the option to bypass. Anyway it's running by itself through a raid controller (i forgot which) and the "1 of 3" steps had about 30+ "File Record Segment xxx is Unreadable". I turned off and did a quick browse on internet with someone recommending hirens 9.9 bootcd along with hdd regenerator. I ran hdd regenerator and it scans for a while but a message comes up saying "Hard drive is not ready". So i reset and tried again but same thing. After more googling someone on this forum experienced the same problem and found out hdd regenerator is rubbish ARGHH.

Ok so i need to know what course of action should i take now? Try to repair or recover? I just bought a new w10eads 1tb western digital and want to clone anything that is readable from the wd4000yr. Are there any tools useful here http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd ? Or would you recommend another software? I read "r-studio" is good.

I also disconnected the sata connection of the raid controller and tried a SATA port from the motherboard and the O/S boots up fine however the hard disk is not readable in the drive management tools. So i don't know how it's possible to run software like r-studio unless it can be bootable. Please help! I leave overseas in 1 more night and i also have a uni exam to study for the day i leave. Ahh so much stress

If you need your data you are going to have to take an image of the defective drive as step 1. If the drive is suffering from bad sectors the software needs to be capable of bypassing read errors. The tools I am going to recommend for this are over $10000 dollars. If your data is not important I can recommend some free tools and some tools that are less than $100.

Please read this article before you ask us for further advice though: results-the-yourself-solutions-t11912.html?hilit=diy

Read it carefully and then please feel free to ask further questions.

Oh and please do not use this drive anymore. Switch it off completely as playing with Chkdsk, Hirens, Hdd Regenerator, whatever you find is going to make it a lot harder for even professionals to recover your data.

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

In the data recovery field this is known as commiting an act of murder. You may have just killed your drive!
I would suggest as you don't know what you are doing, to stop messing right now and find somebody who really does know.

Well i can't remember if there was anything essential in there. I know there were a lot of disposable files that i could get again, however i can't remember which essential files i had on that drive. I normally backup but my method is manual and unorganised so i can't tell if some essential files were actually backed up. Even if i can see an index listing of the names of files in the directories would be a great way to decide whether recovery is critical.

If that's not possible i will immediately take an image. If there is a software that can do what i described above then great. If not any software that isn't in the thousands would be good. I had no idea software could be that expensive. But i'll have to postpone this or at least get step one done before i'm on holidays for a month. Is there any tools in hirens that would do an image capture well?

**there's something wrong with posting in firefox. I try to reply but it keeps asking to login, and it says i've succesfully login, i try to post and it comes up again.

Hi Solotak,

hdd_degenerator could break your drive in a flash, just like that !

Urgent ? do zip, do nothing, - enjoy your holiday and come back wiser
with a better chance of getting your data.

Hello Solotak, Good to see you have read the guide 'Results of the D.I.Y solutions' and are now ready to perform DIY data recovery. I'm assuming then that you want to perform this exercise with tools that you don't have to pay for or are free? If so, Hirens does not have imaging tools at the raw level. However Norton Ghost is one, if you don't want to pay for this you could try torrents for it otherwise if you want purely free and are good with unix you can try an old favourite of mine called dd. If you want to see an index of the drives file system you would need to find its mft. I think you mentioned rstudio earlier as this program is capable of finding that for you.
I think GetDataBack from hirens can also do this, but I am a professional and don't use these tools for my work so maybe another amatuer here could assist.
Good luck my friend.

_________________
Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

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My goodness this guy, ZA you think if you can afford and have a set of UDMA you are a Pro now? Be humble my friend, many gurus here dont even dare to call themself a "PRO" yet to call yourself a "PRO"...ummmmm.....are you?

Having a UDMA doesn't qualify, as having a Ferrari doesn't mean you drive like Schumacher...

Hi guys, i'm back from my holiday and now i am in a relaxed mode to get this done with much patience.

So i'm only after tools (software) and get the best software to acheive a recovery onto the new hdd.

As i understand, i first need to make a raw image of the entire disk.

Step 1) Use Norton Ghost. Is this best software of its calibre? Also how would i go about cloning, when the disk is not recognised in xp sp3?

Step 2) Use R-Studio to obtain a index listing of the hdd directory. Assess whether i have essential files need recovering.

Step 3) Depends if files are essential, i will either go professional OR go software based.

So basically i need to ensure step 1 & 2 will offer the best insurance in the realm of software. What do you guys think?

I guess i only have one shot at this so i want to make sure my chances of success are high as possible without paying . Can anyone confirm the above steps to be the best way to go about this?