Solved Help Restoring Windows 7 or Recovering Data from Failing HDD?

[randorandorando]

jumanji Here's where I'm at. So I'm doing the first one, Backup BS, because it confirmed the boot sector is bad but the backup is ok and can therefore be used to copy over it, correct?






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Okay, it said it couldn't write over it. Should I then try to Rebuild the sector instead?



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I'm attempting to copy my files off before I try rebuild.

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File copy is going well so far. No fails yet and relatively quick depending on file size/number. I hid alternate streams before selecting and I'm focused on the essential documents that can't be replaced first. Fingers always crossed too!

Question: I have some mp4 video files that need to be copied as well but noticed unlike my other docs, the name of the same mp4 file appears multiple times. Is that just how the data for that format is broken up so I have to copy all instances of that name for the entire thing to be recovered?

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Trying to copy all instances of the same file name for an mp4 slowed the process down. I stopped and tried only copying the first instance of each file name that has a number next to it instead of just 0 to see if the copied file would be complete.

They seem fine so far. Resuming file copy this way. Once I'm done backing up all of the important files, I'll go back to the Rebuild boot sector to post screenshots of that again.

 

[jumanji]

The backup of the boot sector in that partition is OK. If TestDisk fails to write it to the start sector that confirms that it is a bad sector. As I presumed that HDD seems to have developed too many bad sectors. Bad sectors cannot be repaired. Nothing can be done about it. You have to discard that drive. While TestDisk can rebuild the boot sector from the partition table at sector 0, it will not be able to write it into the bad start sector of that partition. It is clear as a crystal glass.

Anyway, I am glad that TestDisk listed the files and you are copying those. COPY important files first and the rest later. Just make sure you have enough space in the destination drive to copy all data. Data in bad sectors is already corrupted/unreadable. So some files in the bad sectors can be corrupt. You should be happy with whatever you recovered.

As for mp4 files, you are the best judge. ( I am not a data recovery professional, neither I was at anytime. I only analyse each and every case starting from scratch and work on it. I had never practiced it as a profession and so not a routine )

 

[randorandorando]

Hey jumanji! I saw after trying to rebuild earlier that the issue of not being able to write to the sector was the same so I already figured it meant the sector is damaged and stopped messing with it. All I've been doing since is confirming that the files I copied over aren't corrupt and that I didn't miss any.

Unfortunately, my Win 10 drive isn't big enough to install all of my work software on it plus the files we use and I don't trust its performance either, even if it does go back to normal after taking out the damaged one.

But I have money coming in next month from something that was delayed. I needed it for bills but I'll be using it to purchase a new pc. I'll just keep my files safe on an external drive until then and use Win 10 lightly.

Thanks so much to you and SIW2 for all of your help that allowed me to recover anything at all. It was a life saver!

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Also I didn't realize there were limits on pressing "thanks" at the bottom of posts. Seems I could only do it for the two of you once.

 

[jumanji]

 

[randorandorando]

Hey SIW2? Do you know how to get the thumb drive I used to install your booter to be recognized by Windows as a thumb drive again? It keeps treating it like a USB hard drive.

I tried formatting it but that didn't help. No big deal if there's no quick way to fix that. I did see there's software for it but I don't want to install anything at this point, so if there's no built in way to revert the device type back, that's fine. As long as it still works. Thanks!

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Actually nevermind, I seem to have fixed it lol Thanks.