Repair Bad Sectors, HELP!

[slim142]

I need to know of the best program out there that lets you repair bad sectors on hard drives. I have already tried HDD Regenerator 1.51 and SeaTools but they couldnt help at all.

Is there anything better?

 

[slim142]

please is really important!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[slim142]

Just any good program that fixes bad sectors with all the hopes from the world...

 

[Shadow703793]

Download UBCD, then use the "HDD Options" and select the appropriate manufacture, do a low level format. YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA!!!!

 

[Fleelex]

You could try Spinrite 6 http://www.grc.com/sr/testimonials.htm

Good Luck!

 

[Shadow703793]

Like i said before download UBCD and do a low level for mat of the drive. If it is a Seagate drive you can use SeaTools (DOS) to do the formating.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

[slim142]

I need something that will repair it without making me lose my data! I cant format, is there any solution? SeaTools already repaired the errors it found but I still cant access the HDD.

Will try that Spinrite 6 but I really need something that will do its best to bring back my HDD without losing any data!

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[slim142]

any other help is still welcome

 

[boner]

have you try the scandisk???

 

[ejay]

Fleelex is right on target. Spinrite 6.0 will do a non-destructive overlay of your hard drive and in many instances will allow you to recover any valuable data you have on the drive.

Edit: Spinrite 6.0 will allow you to create a boot CD to accomplish this task.

Good Luck!

 

[slim142]

Well, when I turn the computer on, it says Chkdsk needs to check drive D and it starts the counter, after it it says the following

MFT is damaged, scan aborted...

And Chkdsk in WxP is not the same one as win98, remember how u opened scandisk and it was like a program, in xp is a DOS window so I dont really know how to use it that way.

I need to recuperate the data in this drive otherwise I dont know what im gonna do.

 

[bc4]

ntsf.com I've used some of their software before and it will scan and rebuild your boot record and let you transfer the data (that is recoverable) off of the failing drive.

I'm not sure the exact version I used but it did recover most of my files. Took about 7 hours for a 200 gb drive in a usb 2.0 enclosure

Good luck. Let us know if it works and BACK UP.

 

[slim142]

Thanks bc, that sounds like a good program.

Also I have to mention, there is a certain point in which HDD Regenerator and Spinrite slow down (like at 68%), there is this weird sound coming from the HDD that repeats itself and the programs start going super slow. I dont know why it slows down the checking.

Gonna try ntsf.com asap, thanks

 

[praeses]

After you do manage to recover the data you may want to take a peak at the drive itself to see if it is indeed corrupted as it may provide a window to why it occured.

You cannot really "fix" bad sectors, although sometimes they sectors are marked bad due to logical or software problems, rather than physical problems. DBAN is a great piece of free software that is designed to wipe your harddrive but scans it thoroughly on the way. If there is physical problems though, it will thrash it pretty bad. Its included in a self booting iso available from sysresccd.org. You can get it on its own but that cd image comes with a plethora of valuable tools.

Hit the F1-X keys for more information at the boot: prompt.

 

[Shadow703793]

Thats why you need to have a back copy of your files

 

[o0RaidR0o]

Hey slim142, HDD Regen. 151 more then likely repaired your bad sectors, but only to the point that you can access the data by slaving it and not booting off of it. I've used HDD reg. 151 many of times and find in a worst case scenario where it it effective you have to slave it to access and recover and data.

 

[Zorg]

I don't know if this is of any value, but it looks like the MFT is mirrored on the disk and may be recoverable. This assumes the drive isn't failing completely.

ntfsdoc.pdf

4.2. Notes
4.2.1. Other information
Everything is a file in NTFS. The index to these files is the Master File Table (MFT). The MFT lists the
Boot Sector file ($Boot), located at the beginning of the disk. $Boot also lists where to find the MFT.
The MFT also lists itself.
Located in the centre of the disk, we find some more Metadata files. The interesting ones are:
$MFTMirr and $LogFile. The MFT Mirror is an exact copy of the first 4 records of the MFT. If the
MFT is damaged, then the volume could be recovered by finding the mirror. The LogFile is journal of
all the events waiting to be written to disk. If the machine crashes, then the LogFile is used to return the
disk to a sensible state.
Hidden at the end of the volume, is a copy of the boot sector (cluster 0). The only Metadata file that
makes reference to it is $Bitmap, and that only says that the cluster is in use.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

There is a difference between bad sectors and data corruption. If Windows CHKDSK is saying that the MFT is damaged, that's not necessarily indicative of bad sectors.

What you need to do is recover the readable files on the drive without trying to mess with the drive in it's current state, in case it really is going bad.

GetDataBack for NTFS is the proper tool to use for this recovery. It will recover as much information from your drive as is possible. Until you can use this, STOP using the drive and attempting to use other tools on it - you'll likely only make the data harder to recover.

GetDataBack is a free download, but not a free program. It will run in free mode and show you what it can recover. You can then pay, register it, and activate the recovery. At $79, it's far cheaper than professional data recovery services.

 

[rodney_ws]

Hardware problems generally require hardware solutions. If it's that important you should seriously consider a professional recovery service and be prepared to cough up around $1000 with no guarantee that anything will be recovered.

 

[slim142]

Thanks everybody for the help. Really appreciate. And yes next time Im doing backups, this thing is making me go crazy.

Well after going to ntfs.com I concluded that Active@ File Recovery might be the right solution. Unfortunately for me, my RAM died the day I was scanning the drive (it was at 15%), got an BSoD and turned out that my RAM was defectvive. Im glad it happened there and not later because while recovering my data it would have been worse.

Anyways, Im planning to RMA my RAM and then start the SuperScan from File Recovery and see if it recovers anything.

If for any reason it fails, then I will use GetDataBack for NTFS. After that, the only thing to do is to send it to Seagate Recovery File Service to see what they can do. Then Im screwed.

Something I learned from this

1)Always have backups
2)As soon as you find a bad sector, stop using the drive
3)Fixing the bad sectors doesnt mean continue using the drive

4 and Most importantly, Seagate is not getting my money for their drives anymore. Looking towards Samsung.

 

[taughannock]

First off buy a USB enclosure. Take the drive out and put it in the enclosure. It will be easier to deal with data recovery If you don't have to boot that disk. Then I recommend Acronis Disk Director because you can retrieve data from earlier restore points.

 

[AutomaticCoding]

I need something that will repair it without making me lose my data! I cant format, is there any solution? SeaTools already repaired the errors it found but I still cant access the HDD.

Will try that Spinrite 6 but I really need something that will do its best to bring back my HDD without losing any data!

Thanks for the help guys!

Thanks everybody for the help. Really appreciate. And yes next time Im doing backups, this thing is making me go crazy.

Well after going to ntfs.com I concluded that Active@ File Recovery might be the right solution. Unfortunately for me, my RAM died the day I was scanning the drive (it was at 15%), got an BSoD and turned out that my RAM was defectvive. Im glad it happened there and not later because while recovering my data it would have been worse.

Anyways, Im planning to RMA my RAM and then start the SuperScan from File Recovery and see if it recovers anything.

If for any reason it fails, then I will use GetDataBack for NTFS. After that, the only thing to do is to send it to Seagate Recovery File Service to see what they can do. Then Im screwed.

Something I learned from this

1)Always have backups
2)As soon as you find a bad sector, stop using the drive
3)Fixing the bad sectors doesnt mean continue using the drive

4 and Most importantly, Seagate is not getting my money for their drives anymore. Looking towards Samsung.

1. Magnetic drives have never been secure, why raid 1 & 10 is popular.
2. Eh, personally, I wouldn't, considering the bad sector is only going to corrupt the data that's being written to that singular sector, I'll just copy the data off and do a few scrubs of the drive
3. That's really up to you, a single bad sector is far from enough to RMA the drive, I'd continue using it myself, but, refer to 1.

 

[AutomaticCoding]

First off buy a USB enclosure. Take the drive out and put it in the enclosure. It will be easier to deal with data recovery If you don't have to boot that disk. Then I recommend Acronis Disk Director because you can retrieve data from earlier restore points.

What? USB or SATA (or whatever else) makes zero difference on 'booting' from a disk. I run windows 7 off my SATA 3 SSD and I install windows (E.G. boot the install 'disk') off my USB 2 flash drive. Point? If anything it'll make everything slow as hell with zero added benefit, it'll also waste a bunch of cache buying the SATA <--> USB cabling.

Oh, and, aren't USB write blockers like $300?

Although, I do completely concur that he shouldn't be booting from a disk that he's trying to do tests on, although, I have no idea where the USB socket comes into play.

 

[TenPc]

If there is a noise coming from the hdd then there are no bad sectors, the drive arm or the mounting bracket inside the hdd is broken or become loose. The more tests you do on that hdd, the worse it will get untill all you will hear are clicking noises and a whirrr.

You have to remove the hdd from the PC , use in an enclosure or a usb to hdd connector (with external power supply cable) and copy the files you want to keep. Best to do it when the hdd is cold.

(Also, every time I read your posts, all I could hear in my head was Stewies voice hahaha).

 

[AutomaticCoding]

If there is a noise coming from the hdd then there are no bad sectors, the drive arm or the mounting bracket inside the hdd is broken or become loose. The more tests you do on that hdd, the worse it will get untill all you will hear are clicking noises and a whirrr.

You have to remove the hdd from the PC , use in an enclosure or a usb to hdd connector (with external power supply cable) and copy the files you want to keep. Best to do it when the hdd is cold.

(Also, every time I read your posts, all I could hear in my head was Stewies voice hahaha).

Last I checked sectors mark which sector they are to stop broken heads thinking it's a broken disk, if the head reads that the sector its going over isn't the one it thinks it is, it'll know it's broken, not the sector.

At-least, that's what Wikipedia said when I read it ~ a month ago.