Ran chkdsk, now only see 8% of HD

[borcjs11]

Hello,
I recently was working on my computer when I got the blue screen of death. I didn't copy the code, rather just shut down the computer for a fresh restart. I restarted the computer and the hard drive did not boot. I removed the hard drive (samsung 320 gig) and checked it through my laptop.

The device letter (f showed up in my computer. When I clicked it, the message 'drive is corrupted and unreadable' was shown. So, first I ran chkdsk /f then chkdsk /r. After which the drive was accessable. However, the drive was only reqongized as a 26 gig drive? I went into divice manager and the hard drive is displayed as 320 gig functioning properly. However, as stated, when I look into it from 'my computer' it shows it as only a 26 gig drive.

Further exploration shows that all that is shown is the basic windows files. It is as if the hard drive was partitioned, 284 gig on one (invisible and unaccessable) partition, and another partition of 26 gigs with a fresh instal of windows. As a kicker, if I try to put the hard drive back into the computer, it will not boot.

 

[borcjs11]

My question, if not implied is how do access the remaining 286 gigs? I have tried a recovery program Recuva, and recovered about 500 pictures, but, I have about 5,000 more pictures unaccounted for. More than likely on the invisable and unaccessable partition...

Any ideas??

 

[nehaljwani]

Give http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk a try... Maybe your partition is lost. TestDisk will try to recover it.

 

[fzabkar]

@borcjs11, your drive probably has bad media. CHKDSK will often make a terrible mess of a file system if you allow it to "repair" your drive under such circumstances.

If I were approaching this problem, I would first investigate the extent of the damage with a disc editor in readonly mode. For example, you could use DMDE to search for backup copies of your original boot sector(s). Select Tools -> Search For Special Sectors.

DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery):
http://softdm.com/download.html

I could help you with this.

Otherwise, I would clone your drive with a tool (eg ddrescue) that understands how to work around bad media, and then use data recovery software on the clone. I would prefer a manual repair because automatic repair tools can't always be trusted, as you have witnessed firsthand.