Solved Recovering data from a dead partition

[jon777]

My wife's laptop drive died. Replaced the drive and restored a backup, so that PC is back up and running.

However, there are some files on the old drive that were created/changed after the last backup.

Plugging her drive into an external SATA mount I see the following is Windows Explorer:
E: System (nothing in it) -- I did run CHKDSK /F on it, and completed (with Bad Sectors
F: HP Tools (fully accessible)
G: Local Disk (Hangs any time I try to access, either thru Win Explorer or CMD prompt
H: Recovery (fully accessible)

Anything I can do possibly using shareware/freeware to possibly restore the data from G:? Most of the stuff I can likely get elsewhere, (e.g. outbox attachments). So not going to spend $$$ on the data recovery company or expensive software...

 

[Kaktussoft]

F disk... most likely HP drivers... you're not interested in it.
H disk... restore to factory defaults... you're not interested in it.

E disk. Is that supposed to be the old WIN& disk called C?
G disk: some data disk.

Download and install Partition Wizard Free Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online . Run it. Post screenshot so I can see E, F, G and H

 

[Kaktussoft]

E: System (nothing in it) -- I did run CHKDSK /F on it, and completed (with Bad Sectors
=> no bad sectors anymore? DIR E:\ does show the files/folders?

 

[jon777]

Screen shot of Partition Manager and CMD window

Nothing shows on the system drive...

What now?

 

[jon777]

I checked the partition explorer feature on G: (since it seems to have the right specs in terms of usage), and it looks like it can see the file structure. Not sure what the best way to grab the data? Just want to grab all of the files/folders from the Users directory at this point and bring it over to the local drive -- then I can get rid of the failing drive completely.

 

[jon777]

I used the recovery wizard (the other "half" of that software) -- worked like a charm. Filtering allowed me to just find the files in "users" that were either modified or created after 12/1 and copy them to my "real" hard drive.

THANKS!!! Great piece of software!

 

[AddRAM]

Once you get all your files off that drive, you can format it and start using it for storage and disk images, so this never happens again. Apparently the drive is fine.

Not sure why you thought it died :huh:

 

[Kaktussoft]

Screen shot of Partition Manager and CMD window

Nothing shows on the system drive...

What now?

E drive is only 199MB. No files at all on it... but totally full! All files are hidden. It is ACTIVE. It is the boot partition. Not relevant to recover.

G drive looks normal in the screenshot. What is the problem with G?
What "recovery wizard" did you run??? All partitions seem to be there already!

 

[AddRAM]

"However, there are some files on the old drive that were created/changed after the last backup"

This statement could be a clue to what caused the issue, was a backup program used ? If so what, if not, how was a backup done, and where was this backup being saved to ?

Whatever the method, it didn`t work and I would stop using it.

Just copy and paste your data, don`t rely on any program.

Please explain in detail.

 

[jon777]

Once you get all your files off that drive, you can format it and start using it for storage and disk images, so this never happens again. Apparently the drive is fine.

Not sure why you thought it died :huh:

So I had posted here earlier, and hadn't gotten a reply
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/356161-help-boot-bcd-status-0xc00000e9.html

Windows Boot Manager
File: \Boot\BCD

Status: 0xc00000e9

Info: An unexpected I/O error has occurred

Reading a few other threads, I have tried to reboot in Recovery mode (to possibly rebuild BCD), both from internal and CD ROM, but both just hang. From CD ROM, gets to the part where select Operating system to restore from but just spins there and never populates (waited about an hour)

Have gone into the HP Advanced System Diagnostics and Run Hard Disk Test

Hard Disk SMART Check: PASSED
Hard Disk Short DST: FAILED

Screen shot of Partition Manager and CMD window

Nothing shows on the system drive...

What now?

E drive is only 199MB. No files at all on it... but totally full! All files are hidden. It is ACTIVE. It is the boot partition. Not relevant to recover.

G drive looks normal in the screenshot. What is the problem with G?
What "recovery wizard" did you run??? All partitions seem to be there already!

In the partition looks fine, however if you go into Windows Explorer and click on G: it just hangs, and if you go into CMD prompt and type "G:" it also hangs. CHKDSK /F G: also just hangs.

"However, there are some files on the old drive that were created/changed after the last backup"

This statement could be a clue to what caused the issue, was a backup program used ? If so what, if not, how was a backup done, and where was this backup being saved to ?

Whatever the method, it didn`t work and I would stop using it.

Just copy and paste your data, don`t rely on any program.

Please explain in detail.

Backups were taken using windows backup to an external drive which was used to restore the laptop once a new drive was put in. ISO image was restored from the backup, since the drive didn't seem immediately accessible. The laptop is now working fine (with the new drive and ISO image restored). I now have the files recovered from the above Partitiion Manager/Recovery program.