hello all,

i have a big problem: my 250GB drive is dieing on me

what happened: i have many electrical power outages, with some tension fluctuations...which i suspect lead to this disaster
my configuration was this:
primary master hdd maxtor 250G (C: 20GB, D: 212GB), P-ATA
secondary slave hdd maxtor 80GB (G: 80GB), this one had some bad in the past which i repaired with HDD regenerator 1.5 or 1.7 i think
and on USB i have a 1 TB Samsung drice (H:,I:,J:)

now for the repair proces i only use the 250GB drive connected as primary master

the BIOS S.M.A.R.T. detects that the 250GB and 80GB have bad sectors...

im more concerned for the 250GB hdd, as it has my OS and also on the other partition i have some important files ...which i need to get back, the good think i guess is that i still manage to boot from this HDD in my windows XP system.

I used the HDAT2 program, from a bootable cd.
It detected that the bad sectors are at the end of the disk, so i think after i recover my data i can format the HDD and exclude the last 5GB, i wont use it no more as a OS disk nor for sensitive data.
HDAT2 didn't manage to repair them (i think it trow some CRC and ECR errors), and it also broke my MBR/partition table, and i had to use some other tools to manage to boot back on my windows

Then i tried the latest HDD regenerator 2011, full version, also from a bootable CD.
This one managed to repair some bad sectors but started to give back some delays detected errors (more then 20), and finally it stopped... telling me to reboot the machine and start again with the scan, lol its a 250GB, i kept trying to scan/regenerate only the last part of the hdd which i new had the bads/delays... it keeps trowing me the same error: to reboot and rescan

The bad sector part with the delays begins from 235.000 MB till the end (i think its something 238000, nut sure)

Should i try something else to repair the HDD?
If not what are the next best options to recover my data? clone/image of my hdd, and then recovery software (which ones are best, recommended).

Thank you for any advice

Stop you will kill your drive for sure. Never try and repair a HDD in this condition if it contains data that you want on it. Clone this using ddrescue right now to another HDD. See what you get from the clone. Normally you should be able to see the drive and get off your data.

If you value your data you will stop all this mess now.

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Iorana Haraharaini

ok, thanks for the advice
I stopped as i don't have any other solution ... thats why i turned to you guys
yes, i was also on the way to try the clone and recover step, but here im stuck
I'm not sure which tools to use...
should i use the ATI? or some freeware tools?
I see u suggested the ddrescue, but as im more of a windows guy ... whats the alternative?

First i need to do a clone/image (sector-by-sector, or ignoring the bad sectors) of the hdd, save that on my 1TB USB HDD, and then ... try to zero-format the 250GB HDD, repartition and leave the 5 GB of bad sectors out, use this hdd only for non-essential stuff

PS: i can see the drive, i can even boot windows xp from it, no problem, i can access my files
i just wanted to repair it... but as it seams its unrepairable ... so im thinking to clone/recover my data the safe way
but i need some guidance

so please have a litle patiance and recomand some apps and the right steps to do it
thank you

Nothing is guaranteed to be "safe". DIY recovery attempts have risks, especially the use of HDD Regenerator which you have already done. Have you really decided to take the risks of attempting DIY recovery, even though you might make the situation worse, or (in the worst case) even make data recovery impossible?

If you decide to take that risk because the value of the data is small and you don't mind losing it, then search the forum for "clone" and "cloning" to see suggestions about cloning utilities for Windows (since you don't know Linux to use ddrescue) - this has been discussed many times. ATI (Acronis True Image), which you mentioned, is not designed for cloning a disk with unreadable sectors.

from what i understand the cloning sector by sector of bad hdds needs a spare/new hdd which i dont have
so i think i can only save a image file of the bad disk to my 1TB USB HDD

im i right?

The target of a clone (i.e. the place where the clone is created and saved) can either be a raw device (meaning that you need an unused disk of the same size or larger, as the source disk which you are cloning); or the target can be a filesystem (meaning that you need at least as much empty space in a filesystem, as the source disk which you are cloning).

For most (though not all) cloning software, that filesystem needs to be able to hold the clone target in one file - so I hope that your 1TB disk is formatted using NTFS. If it is formatted using FAT32 then this is likely to cause you a problem.

There can be other issues with using a USB-attached target for the clone, but I have seen those with Linux and at least some don't apply when cloning with Windows - you have a greater chance of other (IMHO worse) problems instead.

So provided that you accept the slower speed of the USB-attached disk, and provided that you have at least 250GB of free space in the filesystem on that disk (I do not recommend using the compression option of any cloning software), then you can consider that option of saving the clone of your 250GB disk, to a 250GB file on your 1TB disk - if you are accepting the risks of your DIY recovery attempts... It has to be your decision whether to risk your data or not, by attempting this.

I don't use Windows for this type of DIY recovery in my (non-DR) day job, but you've said you want to use Windows, so I wish you good luck with your decision!

you are right- "i have a big problem: my 250GB drive is dieing on me"- get some $ (DRIVES ARE CHEAP!) and buy a new drive while rescue is relativly easy.

dude where do you live?
after the flooding in Asia all the HDD prices are high ... for a 320-500GB HDD i have to pay more then $100, and taking into account that my monthly salary is less then $300

now is it really that cheap?
never-mind i dont even know why i asked for help, anyway you all send me to a professional ... lol

use google and search online.... http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... lid=628335 etc. ..... I suggest you invest in a drive. Search for the best deal.

@kaynix,


Give your evidence - prove that we have "all" done this. You are the first person I can find in this thread, to mention the word "professional"!

You've been given both important warnings & good advice, if you choose to go ahead - and all for free! Ignoring that help and then twisting the facts, is not going to make people want to help you in future, is it? Very disappointing...

no, no ... you only mentioned, risk in relation with DIY ... what alternative am i left with if i dont DIY? bring the drive to a professional... right?
im disappointed, cause im in the mess, with no help... chkdsk utility doesnt detects any bad sectors

its easy to say, clone the drive, and there are hundreds of software out there... what am i suppose to do, test all of them?
second, the concept of cloning is simple, yet describing the process, and the steps some will need to take is not that simple when u have so many applications that do it... with different options ...
thats why i was asking for the steps, or for a specific recommended software.

my problem is i dont have the extra drive... what can i do? i have extra space on the 1TB HDD, so i can make room and have a 290GB partition totally free
but i dont want to end up that after the cloning process my 1TB USB HDD, is left unformated or something and i loose all my data on that 1TB HDD
i would go with the linux tool, i think there is some bootcd that has the mentioned tool, but can i use it also in my case, when i dont have a spare HDD, only a partition?

i saw that ATI has some option to ignore the bad-sectors, i think i saw also that they say they do also a raw-copy.... dont remember now exactly
but this is not the only tool out there for windows, there is also DriveImage XML is it any good or HDClone?


after the cloning, could i reformat the drive and repartition it so that it wont include the sector range with the bad/delays stuff?
so i can put there stuff not so important ...

Unfortunately you have made several incorrect assumptions / misunderstandings.

However, since you criticised (and laughed at) the previous replies, I'm not going to waste any more of my time on this, just so that you can criticise and laugh at me again.

Perhaps someone else will help you, even after seeing that you laughed at people who gave you help so far - if you are lucky...

Dude, it seems to me you misunderstand what you read.
You have given solid advice as to how to proceed, and the mention of risks with DIY was a warning for your own sake.
There are two options for you;
a) Go DIY and ACCEPT THE RISKS THAT COME WITH IT (but hey, it's free!)
b) Go to a professional, but it's not free.

Your data, your choice. Criticising people that tried to help you (and disturbing the facts) will not help you further.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Will send you a PM as a one time favor solely because I am familiar with the struggling lifestyle out there.

Stop powering the drive on.

In order to resolve the cloning situation with regard to a healthy destination drive, maybe you can talk to a friend or acquitance from who you can borrow a healthy drive from (250GB or higher) for a much smaller amount of money or favor, maybe you can trade something, etc. Just for temporary use, like renting the drive so to speak.

It is critical that the person you obtain the drive from understands that they will lose the data on their drive.

Not sure if it is affordable and even available in your area, or if the bandwith rate is reasonable, but another temporary alternative would be to store your data online and then when you are back to normal, cut the subscription.

Or you can sacrifice some non-important data and back up your critical data only to DVDs, which are cheap.

There could be many creative ways to get around this, but something has to be sacrificed when resources are scarce.

Lastly, be aware that drives are not immortal, and they will fail. Most of the time it happens unpredictably.

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

Sent PM

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Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts