Request for help re chkdsk corruption

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1.00/5 (1 vote)

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I am a social equality photographer (visual anthropology!) I work mainly on subjects relating to poverty and issues surrounding it I am not a programmer and although I understand it.
I have never been able to find the time to study it. I do however have great respect for those who do and put it to good use in helping others.
Recently I had a hard drive give up on me it was my back up and the heads are destroyed the day after before I had time for the replacement drive to arrive while I was out of the room chkdisk forced a start and found errors on a disk I know that there were NO errors on it was a three month old 4TB western digital Caviar and I checked it after the other died with no errors it said that it had found redundant orphan files and was replacing them it had corrupted about 20% of the disk 400GB of data almost all of which was photos and video interviews of charity work I had done in Jan-March in Vietnam & Cambodia. As soon as I realized what was happening I forced a shut-down and restarted my computer when I opened the drive everything loaded ok and then I checked my work folder again it seemed OK, but then one by one all the image icons which clearly showed the content started to disappear one by one replaced by just a bland CR2, JPG, MOV, or MTS icon.
The filename, size, and dates are all still the same and using 'Frhed' shows that there is information still there but sadly mixed up I have done some screen shots of 2 healthy files jpg and CR2 proceeded by another two taken just after 'corrupted' that I looked at using the Hex viewer.

I have the camera they were created on, is it not possible to use a compare and compile script using healthy files for a rebuild?
Anyone who could do this would be sitting on a very lucrative program.

Is there any possibility that I will ever get my files back will there ever be programs written that will be able to recognise a files original structure and be able to rebuild them?

Sorry for the long winded request but I am throwing this out hoping that out there someone may have a better answer to the one I am facing.

Thank you.

Posted 27-Oct-15 8:33am

HugoSobs

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Comments

Philippe Mori 27-Oct-15 18:47pm

If a drive is corrupted, then use recovery tools booting the system from another disk (or accessing the disk from another computer).

It might be wise to first make a backup of most important files that are not yet backuped elsewhere like recent addition or editing in case the drive completly give up before being fully recovered.

Then doing a full backup would be next best thing. Then try recovery tools (save recovered data on another hard drive).

You might also use professional recovery services but usually it is expensive and not guaranteed.

3 solutions

Solution 3

In addition to Solution 2:

Hiren is not the only bootable recovery disk available, and it might not be the best in all cases. You really need to collect a whole set. First of all, review this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_recovery_software#Bootable[^].

The remaining issue is: how to prepare bootable media? First of all, you need to check up what the BIOS or EFI of the target computer can take. Some can only boot from CD or optical, but it's better to work with those bootable from a USB drive. Not all of them can be boot from a flash drive, some will work only with USB-connected HD, or eSATA-connected HD. Sometimes, you can check it up only experimentally. Anyway, it's very useful to have some HD enclosure for emergency, but I really prefer at least two-slot HD dock. This is the device which helps me in many situations, first of all, backup and storage issues.

The best tool to make a multiboot image I ever used on Windows is YUMI: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator[^]. It can work with wide range of live or rescue images and different media.

For non-multiboot, I could also recommend Rufus: https://rufus.akeo.ie[^].

Rufus benefit is: it can also create EFI-partitioned disk, but I never tried any EFI options so far. Please see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface[^],
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_System_partition[^].

There are analogous tools on Linux. However, I find it convenient to make the rescue drive on Windows and use it on either Windows or Linux. Notably, Linux is much more suitable platform for rescue works on all systems, so many tools, even targeting Windows disks, still boot Linux.

—SA

Posted 27-Oct-15 11:11am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Updated 27-Oct-15 11:17am

v2

Comments

Maciej Los 27-Oct-15 17:48pm

Sergey, the main issue is pretty obvious. OP wants to repair hdd device and restore corrupted data. I do believe that information you provided are very helpful, but this time... they are bit off-topic. Though the statements provided in last paragraph are going in right direction. Sorry...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Oct-15 18:04pm

You know, I disagree. In some cases, you are right, but in this particular inquirer's case, it might be very important. Look at the inquirer's " I forced a shut-down and restarted my computer". Why it was so, do you thing? I suspect booting is a problem, or it could be something worlse. So, starting from bootable media is important and should be the main option.
—SA

Maciej Los 27-Oct-15 18:15pm

I got your point of view, now. Note that OP wrote that he restart the computer successfully.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Oct-15 18:23pm

I see, but I would suggest to be on safe side. :-)
—SA

Solution 2

I completely agree with Richard MacCutchan[^] opinion. But if you have got at least semi-proffesional knowledge, i'd suggest to use Hiren's Boot cd[^]. There you'll find tools to verify disk, repair errors and back-up data.
As per my experience, these tools are very good for "lightweight" errors.

[EDIT]
Assuming the discussion with Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov[^] (in the comments to the our answers)...
Hirens Boot CD contains several tools for damaged hdd drives, such as:
- partitioning / boot / MBR tools,
- recovering (back-up) tools,
- etc.

However the knowledge about creating bootable rescue disc/usb drive is very important - in case of trouble with machine's boot/load/start, BUT the main issue has been defined as: the data have been lost!
The inquirer wrote: "I forced a shut-down and restarted my computer when I opened the drive everything loaded ok". This is the reason i stated that instruction about creating bootable media is bit off-topic.

As i mentioned, if we do not have enough knowledge about computer's build, the best option is to allow recovery specialist to restore data from damaged hdd. Puting such of tools to inexperienced user can provide more trouble than benefits, with physical damage of hdd including. Changing MBR, partition size and/or partition type is the quickest way to lost data forever.

[/EDIT]

Posted 27-Oct-15 10:09am

Maciej Los

Updated 27-Oct-15 22:30pm

v2

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Oct-15 17:18pm

Good idea, but I voted 4 this time, not only because the choice of rescue image is not comprehensive, but mostly because of the lack of advice on preparation of universal rescue media.
But I've done research on the problem and can advice more comprehensive set of tools which I happened to try out; please see Solution 3.
—SA

Maciej Los 27-Oct-15 17:26pm

I wasn't focused on question: "how to prepare recovery media?". I'm not even thinking this is important...
Thank you, Sergey.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Oct-15 18:00pm

I know, but look at this from the practical side. Even if you know how to fix the problem, the broken original boot, or wrong boot which boots some viruses, or something else can prevent getting to your tool. The decent way to apply a rescue disk is to boot from it, but how? Besides, many utilities work only from fresh boot, for some important reasons, and, finally, it's good to have multi-boot rescue disk. If you did not care about having such thing, I would advise to take care now; using my experience, I can tell you that it helped me in few rare but critical cases.
—SA

Maciej Los 27-Oct-15 18:07pm

Op wrote: "it was my back up", "replacement drive". Seems damaged hdd = removable media. But i can be wrong...

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Oct-15 18:25pm

I understand. But what if a bootable drive gets damage? It's not less likely than a removable media. My point is: any advice should go beyond ad-hoc solution a bit.
—SA

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Richard MacCutchan · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-27T09:43:00

Solution 1

Your safest bet would be to find a specialist data recovery firm in your area and take the disk to them. Any advice you get here may or may not work, but will certainly not be guaranteed.

Posted 27-Oct-15 9:43am

Richard MacCutchan

Comments

Maciej Los 27-Oct-15 15:56pm

Agree, 5!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Oct-15 17:00pm

Make sense, a 5.
But please see alternative Solutions 2 and 3.
—SA