em1

After a reformat, it started up fine and then my computer shut down and gives me a "disk read error ctlr+alt+delete".

I was getting this before the reformat also. Any help would be appreciated.

kev1952

There are a few things that could cause this. One would be errors on the hard drive itself. Boot your system from your XP CD and, at the first screen asking for input, press "R" to enter the recovery console. You will be asked which installation you want to log into (usually only the one) and then asked for an admin password (if you have one enter it otherwise just press enter). Once in the recovery console type (without quotes) "chkdsk /r" and press enter. This will invoke ChkDsk and tells it to scan and fix any errors it finds. Once done reboot into Windows and see if the problem is gone.

Another thing it could be is a loose or faulty data cable (IDE or SATA depending on your hardware). Open the cover of the computer and check that the cable hasn't worked itself loose. Press firmly on the connectors at each end of the cable (IDE cable) and make sure they are properly seated. Test. If this doesn't work then try a different cable.

You could also download the manufacturer's diagnostic programs and get a thorough report on the condition of the drive. This will give you the most accurate information on the particular drive. This would be my preferred way to proceed.

em1

I ran check disk and it gave me the disk space and "the volume appears to have one or more unrecoverable problems."

I have an 80gb western digital that is basically brand new. Can I pop this one in and install windows and use this bad one as an external since it still has my files?

em1

I opened it up and it is a sata hard drive with smaller data and power cables than my other hard drive. Do they sell converting wires?

em1

Sorry for another post but I couldn't edit.

So to take my sata and use it in my external hd enclosure I will need one of these:
http://www.satacables.com/html/sata_to_ide_adapter.html

But to connect my IDE Hard Drive onto my comp I need an adapter that will convert it into sata plugs. Are these pretty common at electronic stores (fry's)?

wiseleo

If CHKDSK didn't make a mess, your data should still be there. Otherwise, your data may still be there, but it may also be corrupted.

You need to clone the bad drive into an image, and copy the files from that image. If you simply clone the current drive to a new one, there is a high likelihood that it will simply boot up as if nothing happened. Because of high risk of failure, which will make recovering your data extremely expensive, please do not take shortcuts. My process is designed to work with failing drives, so we should be able to get a clean image before it finally dies.

I wish people would stop using CHKDSK /R as a diagnostic tool. It does cause damage when running on faulty drives. It can't fix this kind of errors.

kev1952

I assume you have reliable data to back this up? I've used CHKDSK and it's earlier siblings from Win 95 on and it has worked perfectly for me every time. Lost count of how many hard disks I've repaired this way.

wiseleo

Yes. CHKDSK can get confused by a malfunctioning controller or problem with the heads or the preamp and cause massive damage.

We have special equipment to see that kind of stuff. It's one thing to get a corrupt disk image that can't be used and realize that it's because of faulty heads and give a lab a chance to work with the unchanged original disk. CHKDSK may interpret the malfunctions as a file system problem and attempt to fix it by changing the original disk for which there is no backup. With malfunctioning hardware, as you can see, that is simply impossible.

I used to use CHKDSK as well, but there are multiple problems with that method.

First of all, it's ridiculously slow. Secondly, if in the process you have far too many dead files, it will tell you out of space. Well, that's technically not correct. You don't have any control over the process. You can't stop it in the middle of the process and resume later. Have you ever seen Phase 3 restart several times? If the power dies, you are probably done for good. It can make the files appear complete, yet comprised on multiple files inside. In other words, you would double-click on a Word doc, an MP3, or a picture, and get an error message. All that can be avoided.

Unlike data recovery tools, CHKDSK will continually try to read the bad sector without giving up. To a semi-dead drive, that brute force can be fatal.

When you perform data recovery, the first rule of the business is to not write anything to the target disk unless you have a sector-level backup of the device. What does CHKDSK do? It attempts to "fix" problems with no oversight. It's a "run and hope it works" utility. Well, what if it does not work? Can you go back and undo the damage? Testdisk is better in this regard, but running rebuild BS or MFT on a dead drive can be dangerous as well.

We have recovered drives for clients who ran CHKDSK before bringing it to us. We'd make the drive run again and get a perfect image from it only to discover that the data was corrupt before it reached our lab. Well, the client is still billed a physical recovery fee, which is very high, as we did our job, but the data that could be recovered 100% is now only partially recoverable.

My method requires a user to obtain a complete backup of the system before attempting anything else. While it may look like overkill, drives are cheap. The user was supposed to have made this investment long time ago. We charge more for doing the simplest things than what two new drives would cost. Attempting to take shortcuts forces the users to accept risk of variable magnitude. They are usually not even aware of the risk. Why not maximize chances of success with a much lower risk solution?

Once a sector-level backup is available, then be my guest to run CHKDSK and other utilities on the healthy drive after you clone the image to it. As they don't have to fight with the drive, the process will complete very quickly.

Hopefully, it was indeed overkill. However, you may find that you'd be able to recover more data with no corruption from a disk image using a professional data recovery tool. When I have some time, I'll run some experiments with some corrupt disk images I have on my temporary array. In the course of the experiment, each file would have its checksum computed. Basically, standard forensic process. I will post how many discrepancies occur.

Let's put it this way, if you clone a failing drive before running CHKDSK, chances are quite high that it will simply boot as if nothing happened. As the boot process changes the drive, we need ability to undo that. That's why we have the disk image file to be able to experiment with various data recovery techniques safely. :)

kev1952

Very well explained. Thanks for taking the time.