[Thinkpad] RE: [OT] HD/File Recovery Tools

Aryeh,

Aryeh Goretsky wrote:
>
> I have had good luck recovering data from damaged FAT- and
> NTFS-formatted hard disk drive volumes using Runtime Software's
> GetDataBack line of data recovery programs for Windows.

As a quick update for those who are following my tale of woe, I've used a
copy of GetDataBack FAT to recover approx. 75% of what was on the HD.
Unfortunately that percentage didn't include the most important files to the
owner, i.e. all of his email and many (most) of his MS Office docs,
including some end of year XLS and DOC reports for the IRS to continue his
501(c)3 non-profit entitlement.

GetDataBack took almost 24 hours to finish rebuilding as much of the HD as
it was able, a lengthy and nerve wracking process, especially as the subject
HD was prone to emit the most horrific grinding noises from time to time.

(I've seen more than my fair share of HDs crap out over the years, but trust
me when I tell you that this one's diaper was FULL!)

> If the data recovery programs are unsuccessful you can always try a
> sector editor to search the disk.

I wound up running WinHEX on the HD and have managed to recover as much as
possible of his files, but this took an additional 48 hours to accomplish.

Maxtor came through with the warranty replacement HD which arrived Friday,
so I'm now in the process of rebuiding his desktop machine and we'll see how
things progress. Just because WinHEX says that it's recovered a file doesn't
necessarily mean that the file will be readable by the original program!

(For the record, while I've never been a fan of Maxtor HDs, I have to say
that the several times I've dealt with them in the past three years for
warranty replacements the process has been relatively easy. That being said,
I've had to replace about 8 HDs under warranty during that period, said
failure rate being a bit high IMHO.)

> I have used Acronis Disk Editor
> and Kevin Solway's Disk Investigator to do this in the past, in order
> to get portions of a file back such as the body of text from a Word
> document, but it is not very practical to do and is a time-consuming
> process.

I've got Acronis Disk Editor available as part of my Acronis suite of
programs and I've still got the bad HD attached to my shop desktop just in
case I have to use it to better recover some files. But, as you say, it's
VERY time consuming and I might just wind up sending the (now very
chastened!) client on his way with what I've been able to recover so far.
Needless to say the client is now firmly committed to performing backups on
a regular basis, daily not being too often as far as he's concerned.

Sigh.......... I've simply GOT to get some clients with deeper pockets. I
actually felt guilty when I asked the client to pay for a GetDataBack
license (~$70) knowing his limited resources.

Regards,

James

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Received on Sun Jan 9 13:02:51 2005