I'm concerned that my use of Raw Copy Tool making the exact copy introduced some read problems in the target and the source disk (and run from a third HDD.)

Are there any reported problems showing an error by Windows product
called 'found generic format' or something like it?

I have multiple HDD problems just now and in the process of trying to save some data through Raw Tool clone job now find that my repair routines are not working. This may not be related. I just want to know if the moderators know of problems using the tool for cloning Win XP drives.

loninappleton,
when cloning disks, need their to unmount from system.
Not seen a utility that does it itself.

Ok well I seem to have the source drive usable yet but I think that a commercial tool like Acronis should be used for safety.

I do not many of the tools such as Clonezilla etc as they do not seem to be user friendly in the area of error checking. At least with Raw Copy tool, the source drive is removed from the list to control possible errors.

I use WinHex.
Acronis - moody and poorly predictable result.

Always good to get a new tip.
I'll see if it's freeware.

I use DMDE for imaging often.. it has freeware version, though I paid for a licence. You might be able to get a DR Lab to get an image using a Hardware imager that can give better results for a reasonable price.

Looks like a command line tool and I'm not a programmer.
In a google search the WinHex editor was mentioned in the same context.

I have not brought my drive problems in here before but it won't hurt to ask at this time.

After a botched Repair install to Windows XP I got the "asms" error and was directed to the Microsoft regedit fix. I have not attempted to do that yet.

The Repair install was to run F6 driver install for RAID/AHCI. I had my old floppy to do this and that portion of the operation seemed to be running ok. Then the "asms" error turned up requiring editing the
register.

Are these kinds of problems (where a simple F6 driver in stall was going and then produced the 'next' error0 much discussed at HDD Guru?

What is the opinion on Ultimate Boot CD for such problems? It seems that I got a whole mess of disk problems all at once beginning with the F6 driver install. I'm running out of spares for these multiple problems and a clone job using Ghost which was interrupted gave an error on a third.

Doing system upgrades and such is enjoyable only if you have enough backup to return to.

http://dmde.com/images.html



I don't understand why you think that a knowledge of programming is a prerequisite for using the command line. Plenty of non-programmers were using DOS based CLI tools before Windows came along.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Apologies,

I was looking at descriptors for the program which looked like
commands and syntax only.

I will give a closer look at this.

(Did not see a reply notification show up as mail for me previously.)

I have not posted a separate problem b/c I do not know if Windows problems are taken on at HDD guru. Please advise. I am stuck on a repair install in XP on the line giveio.sys which apparently a primitive instruction in the OS created in 1996. To that end I was looking at Parted Magic to do some sort of data recovery from outside this boot sector error if that is possible. IOW copy off the content and reformat the drive.

if you only want to copy off content:

1. have a computer with spare HDD port that works properly
2. using a tool such as R-Studio, GetDataBack or DMDE, do a data recovery job on it. The first 2 are very intuitive and DMDE is fine really as well, I would suggest buying a $20 licence if you use that because of limitations in freeware version. I licence for any of these is very useful, especially as you seem to do a bit of playing around with disks.

cloning any source that isn't 100% kosher is not a good idea, and I would be abandoning cloning.

An image of the disk though, to do DR on so as not to mess up the source until data is retrieved... that is a good idea if you can do it.

Still not getting email notifications so I am not prompt in reply.

Will one of these tools allow me to see the names of files to
salvage or will I see the partition only? who can get me through this as a noob?

Even the free trial of R-studio allows you to clone drives/partitions. You only have to pay when you want to unlock the recovery features.

Assuming that the drives don't have bad sectors, R-studio does quite well at cloning. And it logs everything on screen so you know if it was successful, or crapped out on you.

Or, if you want a really good free cloning option that can handle bad sectors, learn to use ddrescue in linux.

_________________
Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

often, unless there is corruption or data damage, you will get a proper filenames. DMDE will allow you to recover files for free, though if you decide not to pay the $20, you can recover from the current directory only, and a max of about 4,000 files at once.

GetDataBack is probably the easiest to use and I doubt you would even need help with it, a few clicks.

I will try Get Data Back. Still getting email notifications here.

I'll check the profile as well

Nothing to fix in thye profile I can fine.

GetDataBack is a pay-for program.

What is the free option

Again a few spelling errors. Too bad the editor here doesn't catch them.

At least one data recovery tool I looked at which is Linux-based showed the file system on my botched drive but I could only see any content _files_ which were on the root.

If this is an NTFS Windows XP file system, why won't a recovery program open a folder such as My Documents or Downloads? Either that or I don't know how to work these things.

Even above in the screen shots I see more of the same: folders only with no visible file content within.

After re reading here and doing an OS reinstall on a problem drive I'm here to note that Crystal Disk Info shows unrecoverable sectors and tags the HD as "caution" though it is hard to find what that denotation means: They have blue for good, Yellow for caution and maybe red for time to save your data on something more reliable. I have never seen the latter.

On the DMDE front, I found the program and loaded it from HD. It may be necessary to work with that from the CD drive similar to Parted Magic. The result I have so far is not much disk info: greyed out areas which means I can't see the content in the DMDE 'edit mode.'

I have one remaining HD which still requires data recovery-- an HD which does not complete an OS load to XP even in Safe Mode. What I see is that blue "Welcome" with no other text on screen at which point it just stalls out. Safe Mode will start, then quit at various lines of the initializing routine and never gets to the desktop or anything else.