Installed old drive in new computer and only partitions show up, but no data

[scottlpz]

My brother's computer got a virus, and since I recently upgraded my own computer, I decided to just transfer his drives over to my old one, which is running on an EVGA 132-CK-NF79-TR nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard (I'm 99% sure it's running the latest BIOS revision, but I can't check at the moment). I had an older 150 GB WD Raptor sitting around that I wasn't using, and it was a substantial upgrade from his previous boot drive, so I went ahead and wiped the drive using the Windows 7 setup disc, then performed a clean install of Windows 7 Professional x64.

Realizing that his drive may very well still have an active virus on it, I went ahead and performed all available Windows Updates (SP1, IE10, etc.), and also installed Norton Internet Security 2013, ran a full scan, then deleted all previous restore points and created a new one with just the AV, chipset and graphics drivers, and updates installed (I would have preferred to have made an image instead, but he was understandably impatient, as I've been slow getting around to setting everything up.)

So, after all that, I hook up his old drive (which was also the boot drive in his previous computer), only to find that Windows recognized the partitions (although they show up as "New Volume," not what they were previously named), but shows no data at all. The partitions show up as 99% free space in My Computer/Disk Management. The drive is a 250 GB SATA Hitachi (don't have the model # handy at the moment). I've done this several times before (transferred an older drive into a new system) without any issues, so I'm not sure what's going on.

I asked him if he remembered what OS he was using previously, and he told me that he thinks he was running Windows XP. I've read several other threads that are similar, but nothing that specifically addresses this issue (that I've found). I did download DMDE (it was recommended in many of the other threads) and it does show all of his partitions, correctly named. I ran the NTFS search and it definitely appears that the data is still there. I'm hesitant to do much of anything else with the program, as I'm not familiar with it and I don't want to accidentally make the data unrecoverable. I have not run any other recovery utilities on the drive.

At this point I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do, or what could be causing the issue. Should I use DMDE to save the sector 0 info and upload it? I grabbed the following instructions from another thread:

Anyway, to save the requested sectors, launch DMDE.

In the Select Device/Disk tab, select the Physical Drive, choose the Physical Devices radio button, uncheck the Show Partitions box, and click OK.

You should now see LBA 0 (sector 0) of your drive.

Now select Tools -> Copy Sectors

Start Sector -> 0
Number of Sectors -> 3

In the Destination pane, select File.

You will be offered a filename of lba_0_3.bin

Click Save, OK, etc.

Are these instructions accurate? Do I even need to do this or is there something simple that I'm missing? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[popatim]

He already has a new boot drive thanks to you, why not just recover his important files and then wipe the old drive and virus out of existence?

 

[scottlpz]

He already has a new boot drive thanks to you, why not just recover his important files and then wipe the old drive and virus out of existence?

Well that was the plan, but the problem is that I can't access the data. I'm hesitant to use any kind of recovery software since I don't know why Windows isn't showing the data in the first place. Surely if it is showing the correct partition sizes then it is at least partially recognizing the drive and its contents, but I don't know how to proceed to extract the data.

 

[popatim]

Viruses, such as StonedMoneky for example, can encrypt the partition table.
Recovery software typically skips the partition table and file tables and examines the drive directly. As for how to use the tool your using, there are probably hundreds of guides out there and google is your know it all friend.

Maybe he didnt have a virus and just corrupted the partition.
Try a partition recovery tool such as this one.
http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Partition-Recovery/3000-2248_4-75279786.html

 

[scottlpz]

Interesting. I hadn't thought of the possibility of the virus (if he even had one to begin with; that's what he told me, but he's not as computer saavy as I am) affecting the partitions.

I also realized that I broke the cardinal forum rule: read the stickies first! I installed Recuva and ran a deep scan on the partition that has his data per the instructions in the sticky. I let it run overnight so we'll see if anything shows up when I get off work.

If not (or even if it does), I think I will try EaseUS Partition Recovery as you suggested. It definitely appears to me to be an issue with the partition table. Regarding not knowing how to use "x" software, it's not really that I'm looking for someone to hand-hold me through the process, I just want to make sure I'm using the right tool for the job so that I don't do more harm than good.

I appreciate your help, and I will let everyone know how this plays out in case someone runs into this issue in the future.

 

[popatim]

Its definitely better to play it safe and I apologize for misinterpreting your intent. Disk Editors are very powerful and thus very dangerous at the same time.

 

[scottlpz]

Well, neither EaseUS nor Recuva were able to detect anything more than about 15-20 basic Windows XML files. EaseUS did find about 20 or so previous partitions, but even using the "deep search" options I was unable to find any meaningful data (which was odd, because when it was performing the "intelligent search," it was showing upwards of 500 files found). It's still bothering me that I can see the correct partitions in DMDE (I know they're the right ones, because it shows the names of the drives, not just "New Volume").

I may just have to do some in-depth reading on how to utilize DMDE this weekend. My brother does have a backup drive, but it's not as current, and from what he's told me, he would lose quite a bit of data. It's also possible that whatever is causing this drive not to work may affect the other one. I just don't know...

Any other ideas/suggestions?

 

[scottlpz]

Its definitely better to play it safe and I apologize for misinterpreting your intent. Disk Editors are very powerful and thus very dangerous at the same time.

No apology necessary; after reading my reply it's clear that I came off as a bit defensive, which was not my intent. You were just trying to be helpful and I overreacted. If anyone should be apologizing, it's me. I really appreciate your help with this.

 

[scottlpz]

Well, I downloaded some more Partition / File Recovery software and will give that a try. Hopefully I get lucky and one of them works.

 

[scottlpz]

Well, I ended up getting frustrated with this whole thing and just decided to go for it. I tried a "Full Scan" using MiniTool Partition Recovery, which appears to function very much like DMDE, except that it uses a wizard-based interface as opposed to the much more utilitarian interface that DMDE uses. Just like EaseUS Partition Recovery and DMDE, the partition with the correct label (in this case "Ryan") was found, but when I explored it, there were no files. This has been the case for all of the partition recovery tools I've used.

At that point, it didn't seem like there was much to lose by restoring the partition anyway (I've explored all of the partitions found by DMDE, EaseUS, and MiniTool, and none of them have data in them), so I went ahead and proceeded to restore the labeled partition. As I feared, it is still completely empty.

I'm starting to think that this drive may have physically failed (that's what he gets for buying a Hitachi). I downloaded MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition and MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition, and I still have Recuva and EaseUS installed, so I'm going to try and see if I can recover something. If not, I guess my brother is just going to have to live with what's on his backup drive unless he wants to shell out a ridiculous amount of money to take the drive to Data Doctors or something.