Is my drive dead?

[CefiroZ]

Okay, I've got a hard drive that has an old install of Windows on it that I never boot up. It does contain a lot of data that I use though, and it has always showed up in Linux and (my current install of) Windows as a valid drive. Yesterday I clicked on it in Windows and it told me the drive wasn't formatted. Crap. I had been messing around in my case so I figured maybe a cord was loose. I unplugged and replugged everything and still the same problem. Linux will not mount the drive say it isn't connected and if I try to boot from it in BIOS it says it can't find an OS. Is the drive toast or is there something I can do?

Assuming it is dead, anyone know a way that I can get at my data to put it onto another one of my drives?

Thanks!

 

[davidlem]

If it shows in BIOS it isn't wrecked. Maybe try using some software to find your lost partition.

 

[CefiroZ]

Okay I'm using the TestDisk program but the documentation is leaving me a little foggy. I run it, select the proper disk, select Intel/PC type, then Analyse. The result is this:

Disk /dev/sdb - 80GB / 74 GiB -- CHS 9729 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 9727 254 63 153280257
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 9727 254 63 153280257

Why two of the same partition? My only option here is to proceed or backup in a log, so I proceed. The next screen lists

Disk /dev/sdb - 80GB / 74 GiB -- CHS 9729 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
* Linux 0 1 1 9350 254 63 150223752 [/]

What's the deal here, why's it changing it to Linux all of a sudden? The drive definitely doesn't have any linux partitions on it, I keep my Windows and Linux on separate drives.

Can anyone offer some advice on what I need to do?

 

[davidlem]

I advise you to not hit *Apply* because it will wipe out your NTFS partition LOL

Get the PC running on another Windows boot drive then try Easy Recovery software demo to see if it finds your stuff.

 

[CefiroZ]

I would rather fix the drive in place, but file recovery and reformat is fine since the drive wasn't serving much purpose at the moment other than holding on to some old files that I hadn't moved yet.

Get the PC running on another Windows boot drive then try Easy Recovery software demo to see if it finds your stuff.

There are lots of "Easy Recovery" programs that turned up after a search. Which particular one do you speak of? If that isn't free, does anyone know of any free or open source programs that do the same?

I ran a chkdsk and it reported that the drive was RAW so it couldn't do a check. I read somewhere that Knoppix would read a RAW drive, but Knoppix5 didn't seem to find it.

Thanks again!

 

[Xilikon]

I would rather fix the drive in place, but file recovery and reformat is fine since the drive wasn't serving much purpose at the moment other than holding on to some old files that I hadn't moved yet.



There are lots of "Easy Recovery" programs that turned up after a search. Which particular one do you speak of? If that isn't free, does anyone know of any free or open source programs that do the same?

I ran a chkdsk and it reported that the drive was RAW so it couldn't do a check. I read somewhere that Knoppix would read a RAW drive, but Knoppix5 didn't seem to find it.

Thanks again!

The Ontrack Easy Recovery is the real deal, others are clones and possibly spyware

 

[davidlem]

The above post is correct, Ontrack Easy Recovery. Other's use GetDataBack and a slew of other titles to do the same. Nothing 'free' is going to be 'good' for your purposes. And PLEASE stop trying to run Chkdsk people! It does nothing but damage what might be otherwise a recoverable situation.