[bobjames]

A friend of mine has asked for my help in retrieving data from her hard drive that apparently is infested with one (or multiple) virus(es). She can no longe boot her machine using this hard drive.

I took the hard drive from her eMachine (running Win 2K) and hooked it up to mine (running Win 2K) as a slave. After rebooting my system, I can see the drive, but the system tells me there are 0 bytes and I need to reformat it - which, of course, I can't do until I retrieve the data files.

The hard drive is a Maxtor, 160GB, ATA drive. Model WD1600

Is there a way to retrieve her data? Is there a software application capable of doing this, or is there a way I can repair/restore his boot sector (which I assume is corrupt)?


BTW, I am running all kinds of AV software to try and keep the viruses from infecting my machine. I had hoped to be able to read her hard drive and try to clean it using my AV software (NIS 2006).

Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

[bobjames]

After doing some more research, it seems that FDisk /mbr is one possible solution. However, after talking wth my friend I found out that the OS she was using is not 2K, but rather ME. Not sure if this matters or not.

Can anyone tell me if running Win 2K - FDisk on a hard drive set up with Win ME will cause a problem?

Anyone????

Thanks.

[DoubleHelix]

Windows ME on a 160GB hard drive??

The condition of the master boot record has nothing to do with the ability of another system to read the drive as a data drive.

[Elvandil]

There may be damaged partition tables.

Free:

Testdisk Documentation
Testdisk Download
Partition Find & Mount

Commercial:

Diskinternals Partition Recovery (Demo)
Active@ Partition Recovery
Bootmaster Partition Recovery
ZAR Partition Recovery
DIY DataRecovery DiskPatch
Partition Table Doctor


Does the drive show its correct size and parameters in your BIOS? You might also try some file recovery apps.

Free recovery applications:

1) Recuva
2) PCI File Recovery
3) Restoration
4) Free Undelete (NTFS only)
5) Softperfect File Recovery
6) ADRC Data Recovery Tools
7) Undelete Plus
8) Data Recovery
9) Recover Files
10) DriveRescue
11) Ultimate Data Recovery
12) Disk Investigator

[bobjames]

DoubleHelix - I was under the impression that if the MBR had been corrupted, the disk could not be read.

Could you please elaborate on both of your comments?

Much appreciated.

Elvandil ~

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try one or two and let you know how it comes out.

Would the "damaged partition tables" result in the drive showing up as having 0 Bytes?

[aaric]

Hi bobjames,

I understand the pain of losing data. I had a similar experience of data loss due to malware. But, thanks to the Data Recovery Software that can help you recover the lost data.

There are times when people opt for certain software for recovering. However, you should be cautious while using such tools because selecting any wrong option can overwrite on your existing data, making it impossible for you to recover your data.

I personally used Disk Doctors Instant File Recovery Software and got all my data back. See if it helps you as well.

[DoubleHelix]

Since a plain data drive doesn't even have an MBR, I can't see why you'd need a good, clean, functioning one to pull data.

[bobjames]

DH ~

Thank you for the reply.

Question: If the drive was originally the C: drive from a computer, it would have had a MBR (since the computer booted from it). That being said, although I understand a "normal" data drive would not need one, would I still need to rebuild the MBR on the drive in order to be able to read the contents?

Just trying to retrieve the files on it before I blast it.

Thanks again.

[Elvandil]

You would still need a partition table, but the MBR has nothing to do with accessing files on the drive. It is the boot sector. A faulty partition table could indicate that the drive was 0 bytes.

[bobjames]

Success!

Thank you all for your input.

After trying several recovery programs, DI Partition Recovery (thanks Elvandil) worked like a charm. The program saved the majority of the files she was looking for. Although the software is a bit expensive, for her it was worth it.

Again my thanks everyone!!!

[Elvandil]

Good news. The program may prove useful again.

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