On Jan 18, 2008 12:12 PM, max bianco <maximilianbianco@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I wasn't very clear. Hook the drive up to a working Linux box. Most of the data recovery tools are there for most of the distributions. There are some live cd's that contain such tools but i can't for the life of me think of one right now.
On Jan 18, 2008 11:59 AM, William Case <billlinux@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Hi;
I have never been a tech support person. But I can see why some of them
go crazy.My friend just told me that his drive 'broke' while he was trying to
On Sun, 2008-01-13 at 16:07 -0500, William Case wrote:
> Hi;
>
> I have a hard disk that seems broken but I am trying to save -- or at
> least save the data on it.
>
> The broken hard disk is a dual boot SCSI disk that worked.
> * BIOS says that the disk is present and accounted for i.e. right
> name and size even after swapping in and out other harddisks.
> * Using Fedora rescue disk, parted /dev/sda says can't read sda.
> * Using Fedora rescue disk, fdisk /dev/sda says can't read sda.
> * Using Fedora rescue disk, chroot /mnt/sysimage can't mount
> sysimage.
> * fdisk /mbr says can't fix mbr. ( I am not sure whether this
> message means that nothing is wrong with the mbr or that it is
> beyond repair )
>
> I would like to do any of the following:
> * get the hard disk working again, or,
> * view the data on the disk, and/or,
> * rescue the data on the disk.
>
> What should I try next?
increase the size of his WindowXP partition while in Fedora using
'parted'. His description "Everything was working fine then 'parted'
burped and didn't finish moving files and the disk hasn't worked since".
It sounds like he has lost all his partitions. He can't re-install the
Windows part. He bought his re-furbished computer that included
WindowsXP Pro from a reputable dealer. He failed to get an installation
disk. I assume the .cab files have been stored in the Windows
partition.
As unlikely as it seems, can anyone suggest a way to find a bootable
partition, Fedora or Windows. If I can get to Fedora, there is a chance
I can rescue his Fedora files, and perhaps mount the Windows partition
to save some of his Windows files. If not, I will tell him to phone the
dealer and see if they can help.
Although the situation is not desperate, desperate (i.e. only personal
and household data are on his files) I am regarding this as a learning
challenge that contains some bragging rights. Any suggestions
gratefully received.
--
Assuming you can mount the drive . Try some of the data recovery tools in the repos
testdisk has worked for me in the past, dd_rescue is another and there are more but my experience with data recovery is limited. Always read the man pages before you use the tools.
-Max
-Max
