Serious hard drive problem

[Cybermancer]

So I tried turning on my Asus G73JH laptop today, and I got the Asus screen followed by just a black screen... it stays that way indefinitely. Tried rebooting many times without the battery to no avail. I can access bios, and already tried resetting to optimized defaults but it did nothing. So I booted up with knoppix to try and diagnose the problem... My top priority is backing up everything on my hard drive to my external one, cause I have a ton of extremely important work & school stuff on there. However it won't mount my HDD (sda2) for some reason. Here is the error I get

Error mounting system-managed device /dev/sda2: Command-line `mount "/media/sda2"' exited with non-zero exit status 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read hiberfil.sys: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details

How can I find out exactly what the problem is? Is there any way I can run a chkdsk or system restore? Can data recovery software salvage an I/O'd disk? I've been thinking about disassembling the laptop, cleaning it out, and seeing if everythings connected properly. What else can I try?

Any help is welcome

 

[jumanji]

Hi Cybermancer,

Welcome to SevenForums.

Don't try to dismantle your laptop and take out the HDD. As far as possible an attempt should me made to try non-invasive methods first.

On a google search I found this thread where the OP faisal2 had a more or less similar problem and was able to successfully enter Safe mode and copy all data using Windows Repair Disk.

[SOLVED] Can't mount HD

Of particular interest to you should be post #7 by coffeecat suggesting Windows repair using Windows Windows Repair Disk and post #7 dated 23 Sep 1013 and the Op's post #10 dated 24Sep 2013 giving a thumbs up.

Unfortunately I am not well versed in running Windows Repair Disk - I have that repair disk tucked in somewhere but had never used it - and hope someone else well-versed can go through the referenced thread and advise you if you have any further doubts on using it. What all I can understand is that the OP did a Windows Repair. Ask further questions on it if any to catch their attention.

Good luck.

 

[Cybermancer]

I can't access safemode or windows repair disk. Pressing F8 at start up does nothing.

Right now I'm considering transferring all the uncorrupted files from my HD to an external one using testdisk, lzip recovery, and ddrescue. I'm just trying to figure out exactly how this all works before I attempt anything.

Then if that's successful I might try using these geek squad recovery disk's that came with the laptop.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
What tweaking did you do exactly ?

 

[jumanji]

If you want to use ddrescue please read through this thread. http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...d-tool-cloning-failing-hdd-data-recovery.html

We have had atleast three success stories using ddrescue , Those are all referenced there and you can read those OPs' threads too.

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/374612-external-hard-disk-unaccessible.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...ow-system-file-record-segment-unreadable.html

 

[Cybermancer]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
What tweaking did you do exactly ?

I've never touched the hardware or messed with overclocking if that's what you mean.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi
Well all you originally say is you "tuned your asus computer" so please elaborate on what exactly you did ?

 

[jumanji]

He said "turning on"

 

[Cybermancer]

If you want to use ddrescue please read through this thread. http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...d-tool-cloning-failing-hdd-data-recovery.html

We have had atleast three success stories using ddrescue , Those are all referenced there and you can read those OPs' threads too.

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/374612-external-hard-disk-unaccessible.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...ow-system-file-record-segment-unreadable.html

Thanks, looking over them right now.

 

[Cybermancer]

Ok I opened a terminal on the ddrescue folder and after rooting entered ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sda2 /dev/sdc1 recovery.log

So is this pretty much all there is to it?

 

[Cybermancer]

Dammit, I didn't know ddrescue would overwrite or delete files on the external hard drive I was transferring to... or is it just on a different partition? Is there any way to undelete them or undo all of this? This is worse than losing my laptops hard drive! Those files were irreplaceable!

 

[jumanji]

When using ddrescue you must use a blank empty drive as destination drive.. This is a basic and fundamental requirement. ddrescue writes a sector to sector copy of the drive being cloned. If you had used a drive that was not empty as the destination drive then you had lost all original data in it. Since fresh data from the cloned drive has been overwritten on it there is absolutely no possibility of recovering it.

 

[Cybermancer]

Well this is a complete disaster. So there is no possible way of undoing any of this damage? What about Photorec?

 

[jumanji]

Sorry to say no way if ddrescue had completed cloning..

My post No: 12 :in http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...d-tool-cloning-failing-hdd-data-recovery.html

"2. Boot your computer with that pen drive with your source disk (your failing disk) and a destination disk (formatted empty disk of capacity not less than that of your source disk) plugged in."

You must always give a thorough reading and understand the process.

 

[Cybermancer]

It didn't complete cloning, I interrupted it as soon as I realized what it was doing to my EHD

rescued: 24702 MB, errsize: 65536 B, current rate: 0 B/s
ipos: 24702 MB, errors: 1, average rate: 23526 kB/s
opos: 24702 MB, run time: 17.50 m, successful read: 1.16 m ago
Copying non-tried blocks... Pass 1 (forwards)^C
Interrupted by user

 

[jumanji]

Well, from a distance it is not possible to assess the damage done.

If you have another PC from which you can run PhotoRec, install TestDisk and run PhotoRec in it and see whether it can reconstruct anything from your external drive..

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/193467-guide-using-photorec-recovery-software.html

Before running PhotoRec plug in another external drive with adequate space to copy the files recovered. Create a folder named Recovery in it. Show this drive and folder as the destination to copy the files.

Go to the topic under Recovery in that thread. (Omit what is stated above that topic which only says how I formatted the drive to test PhotoRec and recovered the lost files )

Please go through all documentation on PhotoRec in TestDisk website. PhotoRec - Digital Picture and File Recovery

I really do not know how far it will be successful in this case.

 

[Cybermancer]

I find it hard to believe entire TB's of data were overwritten during the few minutes of the cloning process. It's like all the data was wiped or something. Also knoppix is detecting the new cloned partition (OS) as well as SDC1 (original name of the external HD. However, it won't let me mount the latter.

Error opening '/dev/sdc1': No such device or address
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc1': No such device or address
Either the device is missing or it's powered down, or you have
SoftRAID hardware and must use an activated, different device under
/dev/mapper/, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1) to mount NTFS.
Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for help.

I will try recovering the lost files with photorec and recuva on another laptop with working windows.

If that doesn't work, I may look into forensic software like EnCase, Foremost, or OCFA

 

[Baddog22556]

Schofield's Second Law of Computing states that data doesn't really exist unless you have at least two copies of it. Kinda goes along with Murphy's Law if anything can go wrong, it will.
What a pickle.

 

[jumanji]

Yes, you may be right when you say that "I find it hard to believe entire TB's of data were overwritten during the few minutes of the cloning process" By the same token it may not be able to wipe the HDD also completely.

Just for the record please post a screenshot of how your external drive looks like in Windows Disk Management.

Your statement also made me think that perhaps you should try GetDataback Simple straightaway. If the MFT (Master File Table) has not been overwritten, it may perhaps find most of the files if any left. Also the author of TestDisk says when PhotoRec fails try GetDataback or Zero Assumption Recovery.

So do this first. Download the trial version of GetDataback Simple and scan your external drive. GetDataback Simple does not write anything to the drive and so it is absolutely safe like PhotoRec. If Getdataback Simple shows the files which you can preview also and assess the integrity, well and good.

With the Trial version you can't copy the files. You have to buy the license for it.

If it is successful in atleast showing most or some of the files with intact integrity, then try PhotoRec which is free. You can consider buying GetDataback after that.

It is already late for me ( to go to bed ) and so I shall comeback only after another 8 to 10 hours.

Getdataback Simple: https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

 

[jumanji]

Schofield's Second Law of Computing states that data doesn't really exist unless you have at least two copies of it. Kinda goes along with Murphy's Law if anything can go wrong, it will.
What a pickle.

Clap, clap, clap. I enjoyed it. Even with all the precautions things can go wrong if destined.