Anyone knows a good disaster recovery tool?

[andrew818]

Hi people, I have a computer that was working very well, but lately when I was working on a important project, there was a power fluctuation for a couple of times (I thought that was normal) but after the last power fluctuation my computer refused to boot up. There seems to be a failure of some kind…..but I need to get the projects back that are still in that disk.

I would be thankful if you could suggest any good tools to get the files and documents back.

[djr33]

It really depends on what is fried.
I'd say take the harddrive out and try to put it in a new machine before risking that the actual data gets messed up while fixing it.

[jscheuer1]

This looks promising (I have no experience with it):

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

However, one should be very careful. You don't want to make a bad situation worse. It may or may not be impossible to fix everything. But as long as you don't overwrite the data on disk, important files can be recovered as long as they are not already damaged beyond all recognition. If this is very important, seek out a professional data recovery service.

[seekhelp]

Hi people, I have a computer that was working very well, but lately when I was working on a important project, there was a power fluctuation for a couple of times (I thought that was normal) but after the last power fluctuation my computer refused to boot up. There seems to be a failure of some kind…..but I need to get the projects back that are still in that disk.

I would be thankful if you could suggest any good tools to get the files and documents back.

Are your BIOS able to detect your hard drive, if so then its the case of logical crash. You can attach your hard drive as a slave on different computer then can copy the data from the infected hard drive to the working one. If it doesn't help then can try some data recovery software, it will help you in retrieving your data.

If your hard drive is not detect in BIOS then your hard drive has suffered a physical crash and you to consult data recovery service lab to help you in recovering your data.

[kuau]

Dear Seekhelp: I had a similar problem a while ago -- hard drive suddenly refused to boot -- so I tried it in another couple of computers as a slave. The BIOS could see it but interpreted it as unformatted and my only option seemed to be to format the drive. As I need the data on it, I did nothing. I started to use Spinrite to try to boot with a DOS 6.22 disk but then I got sidetracked and didn't go any further. I was hoping Spinrite could repair track 0 or somehow restore whatever you call the FAT tables in NTFS. Anyone had any experience with Spinrite?

Still hoping to get my data back, erin

[tfit]

kuau,

I don't know spinrite, but I know if you use a dos 6.22 disk on a ntfs partition your data surely will be lost as dos dosn't understand ntfs. If you only need to repair your bootrecord you might want to try testdisk.

[kuau]

Dear tfit:

I read about testdisk and it sounds like the perfect solution. Thanks very much!

[andres]

kuau,
If you don't have any luck with testdisk, pop in your windows disc and install recovery console.
When you boot from recovery console you can type
fixmbr - repairs master boot record
fixboot - writes a new startup sector

just make sure not to install windows over your old partition when you are installing recovery console, i've seen people do this on accident

[kuau]

Dear Andres: I didn't know you could do that. Should I do it with the dead drive as the master or the slave? I gave away my ATX (20pin) power supply from my old computer so first I have to replace the PS and I have only a new one with a 24pin connector. Not sure which side to hang the extra over.. don't want to fry the MB while I'm at it.

Thanks! e