Full HDD becomes unpartioned space

[emil_t]

My 5 months old HDD, has become unpartioned space, as XP installer says.

Fearing of f-ing up, i need help

Is there anything i can do ? It really died without any warning, closed the computer the night earlier and the next day, big warning screen "BAD, Backup and Replace"

[matt2000]

Is this the system disk or a data slave? Do you backup the contents of this disk? Do you have a second OS or a bootable CD to try accessing the drive?

Just a few questions to get the ball rolling.

[CD82]

You could try Knoppix. It's a bootable Linux version that handles somewhat like Windows. Download, burn the image on cd, boot from it and see if it recognizes your missing partition. You could also try Norton Ghost, I recovered quite a few discs with that. Perhaps there is simply something wrong with the MBR (not properly indicating the partition) and as far as I know Ghost is able to fix some of these errors.

[ABxCD]

Is it a seagate drive? They recently had problems with their firmware in the 7200.11(?) series...

[Ironlord]

Originally Posted by CD82

You could try Knoppix. It's a bootable Linux version that handles somewhat like Windows.

And has probably the best opening sound ever. Maybe I've been watching The Crystal Maze too much, but I like my computer to talk to me.

While I second the use of a Linux Live CD, I find that there's one distribution out there that's utterly marvellous for recovering data from inaccessible drives; the much-derided Linspire, specifically Linspire Live 5.0. Allowing the user to run as root in such a carefree fashion as it does is usually a suicidal move, but when it comes to getting back data of a disk that Windoze can no longer read, without having to know any Unix commands to mount the drive manually, it's a marvel. Don't use it anywhere else, mind.

I should still have a copy of the .iso file to make the live CD if there's no luck with Knoppix.

[emil_t]

Originally Posted by matt2000

Is this the system disk or a data slave? Do you backup the contents of this disk? Do you have a second OS or a bootable CD to try accessing the drive?

Just a few questions to get the ball rolling.

EDIT: My HDD was on CABLE select beeing IDE was connected with the white connector.
It was a system disk, i was actually going to the next day ... didn't make it.
Don't have a sceond OS, by bootable CD you mean running Windows off the CD ? Yesterday i was trying to find a bootable cd, i just find some complicated thing for a setup CD, i even tried to install windows on an USB stick but i doubt my computer beeing >5 years old can support booting from an USB Stick.

Originally Posted by CD82

You could try Knoppix. It's a bootable Linux version that handles somewhat like Windows. Download, burn the image on cd, boot from it and see if it recognizes your missing partition. You could also try Norton Ghost, I recovered quite a few discs with that. Perhaps there is simply something wrong with the MBR (not properly indicating the partition) and as far as I know Ghost is able to fix some of these errors.

Well i think i'll start with norton ghost (after i get windows installed somewhere) seeing that you succesfully used this before. hope i don't mess up with anything

Originally Posted by ABxCD

Is it a seagate drive? They recently had problems with their firmware in the 7200.11(?) series...

Yup,
Segate Barracuda 7200.10 320 GB
FIRMWARE: 3.AAF

Originally Posted by Ironlord

And has probably the best opening sound ever. Maybe I've been watching The Crystal Maze too much, but I like my computer to talk to me.

While I second the use of a Linux Live CD, I find that there's one distribution out there that's utterly marvellous for recovering data from inaccessible drives; the much-derided Linspire, specifically Linspire Live 5.0. Allowing the user to run as root in such a carefree fashion as it does is usually a suicidal move, but when it comes to getting back data of a disk that Windoze can no longer read, without having to know any Unix commands to mount the drive manually, it's a marvel. Don't use it anywhere else, mind.

I should still have a copy of the .iso file to make the live CD if there's no luck with Knoppix.

Wich is best to try first ? Because i've heard that after running a backup program the HDD woul become ?unreadable?

What i want to save from the disk first: pictures and movies (thinking it's a new HDD i should backup some data off my cameras, well when i say backup, copy everything just in one place ...), then if possible games, programs etc.

[matt2000]

I was talking about a live CD, or the Ultimate Windows Boot CD we use at work when it all goes pear shaped. I would also recommend Acronis True Image over anything Norton, very easy to use providing you have enough free space for the image.

[emil_t]

ok now have some time so i'm trying to see if i can get live CD (haven't decided wich one) working, to see if i can ressurect this drive ... i can hear it spinning, so that's a start

WISH ME LUCK, goning to post the result friday night or saturday, that is, if everything is going to plan

btw, is that live CD a miracle worker ? can i get EVERYTHING back ? i only need the pictures and movies i stored there but still ... so is it possible ?

[Dr_Grip]

Miracles are expensive (500+ bucks). A live CD with a HD repair program (like Norton Ghost) might bring you back all your data if Windows simply messed up the partition table... but if it's either a hardware problem or serious corruption of the filesystems themselves it depends on the case at hand how much you can rescue with the tools available. If there's any really valueable data on the drive, i'd consider skipping all experiments and ship the drive out to a professional straight away, as any unsuccesful attept to recover the data might lessen the chance a professional has.

[Pug]

You might get away with an FDISK /MBR, unless the problem was caused by a virus.

See here for caveats.

[PacketCollision]

I've outlined this procedure before, but what you have to do to have the greatest chance of HD recovery is:
1) find a blank HD of the same or greater capacity. USB is fine.
2) get a linux live-cd. Knoppix will do well
3) do a sector-by-sector copy of the bad drive to the good one: (replace X and Y with your source and destination drives. If you mess this up you will almost certainly destroy a bunch of data) as root#dd bs=512 if=/dev/hdX of=/dev/hdY conv=noerror,sync
4) Turn off computer, unplug the broken drive, reboot.
5) try whatever steps you can think of to fix the drive (cfdisk /dev/hdY and check to see if there is a valid partition table, try Ghost/Acronis, look for guides online).
6) assume your old drive is toast, unless you can prove otherwise through some sort of comprehensive test.
7) Make backups this time.

[emil_t]

ok so i downloaded Knoppix, selected from nero the CD BOOT option, selected the iso image and burned, when i restrat it says fail to boot please insert ... what did do wrong ?

[viilaaja@pt cruiser]

erm i think knoppix just is iso that you only need to burn.
the cd boot needs more files, so burn it without that option, and it should work.

AND you need to select "burn iso to cd/dvd"!

[PacketCollision]

In nero, choose Burn Image, not CD Boot.

[emil_t]

yeah, i did that and i runs, problem is a get some wierd sounding questions when i boot, how can i get it to load the damn os, isn't there a toturial, it asked me something about a screen with numbers from 1-6 with 80 40, i have a hunch that it might mean 800x400 pixels but please let me know

[emil_t]

can i hook up an external HDD via USB, the hdd beeing formatted for windows

[CD82]

To... do what exactly?

[emil_t]

if i can access the borken hdd from knoppix to back it up ... but i didn't figure out how to strat it though ...

[CD82]

Should work. Perhaps you have to mount the external drive manually but the internet knows how to do this.

[thevictor390]

Personally I would just use Ubuntu for a LiveCD, it can read and write NTFS out of the box and will automatically mount.