Hello All - hope this is not premature, just trying to work ahead before data recovery equipment arrives.
1. System - Dell desktop, winXP, dual raid_1 (mirrored) internal drives.
2. computer hit by lightning, immediate blue screen "malfunction, system halted."
3. computer would not boot in "regular" mode.
4. computer would boot safe-mode approx. 1 out every 5 attempts.
5. in safe mode, all HD files appeared fine via browsing "File Explorer" for 2-hours.
6. ran "chkdsk" - scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, completed "successfully", no errors indicated (unless written to a log somewhere).
7. after chkdsk, computer would not boot at all, even in safe-mode.
8. new external raid "enclosure" on its way, and new computer on its way.
9. recovery plan is to insert old hard-drives in new enclosure, and hope and pray.

In the meantime, my question to you-all is "Is it possible that chkdsk marked a lot of sectors as "bad", and therefore my recovery plan will be unsuccessful?

Thanks very much.

WEll ,
If the new system is fundamentally different means like motherboard etc different ,you will need to pray hard as the Os will Mostly Never Load

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Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

Checkdisk is never a good idea on a known bad drive. At least if you want to get your data back.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Ambarhir, I think there's a good chance his new PC will have the OS pre-loaded, and the enclosure is external.

Philman, chkdsk.exe would've told you if there were bad sectors found, and if it tried to to repair them. It doesn't usually create a log file.

It's probably not a good idea to boot from the HDD at all if you can avoid it (even Safe Mode).

Wait until the enclosure comes, and use it on a machine that you're sure doesn't have any hardware issues, that way you can recover the data.

I would also recommend buying a good quality surge protector if you haven't done so already. It will prevent the same thing from happening the next time a storm comes around.

Zeldaman, thanks VERY much for your info. Yes, the new Dell desktop is coming w/OS loaded, so my goal is simply to retrieve some data files from the old hard-drives.
Re: surge protector, yes I had invested in a large Belkin battery-backup surge protector (larger than the desktop even), but the spike came in thru 2 coax cables from the HughesNet satellite dish, which the installer had not grounded. Unfortunately, the Belkin does not have coax-inputs. While I was trying to figure out how to ground the dish myself, I would disconnect those 2 cables and separate them by at least 12-inches anytime lighting nearby. When the lightning hit - loud "pop" and electrical ARC between those 2 cables (12-inches apart), one of which must have been barely touching the Dell desktop case.

chkdsk probably reallocated bad sectors, that's why you don't have access to your data.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Final Resolution - Zeldaman was correct. All HDD files survived 100-percent and successfully recovered. Thanks All!