winxp Windows XP with chkdsk fail - need data rescue

[Class]

Hello neowinians,

 

I'm looking for help, in a strange matter, well, not so strange, I've had this once before, long-long-time ago. (10+years)

 

I was fixing a hardware issue, I had to replace the PSU, coz the vent was old and very noise. (<--this has prolly nothing to do with the issue)

 

So, after starting up, I had to reset once and do 2 restart, coz I've heavent started the PC since 2-3 weeks, that's long it took me to replace a fan. Also, I had to update a bunch of stuff on it, and ofcource I had to set time, because the battery on the Mobo was empty and no PSU attached that time. Reset due to avast killing my PC, made XP frozen.

 

SUM: 2 restart 1 reset

 

Boot up after...

 

After GRUB loading XP, no sing of booting, PC just restarts after 2-3s of black screen. No message nothing. Again. So I've starter the backup OS, Xubuntu, running just because of "windows 5ucking" hard sometimes and I don't have to search for my liveCD-s.

 

In Xubuntu, I saw the windows xp (C:) drive, but i've to the message I can't access it, coz some1 else is using it. This ofcourse happens sometimes when windows wasn't properly shutdown. Since there is no option to shut down properly, I saw there must be a way around this, and I've done such think once, 10 years or so ago, the question is, how can I access my (C:) drive, without having to solve the windows XP issue.

 

*Sidenote, there a secondary partition beside (C:), with is accessable perfectly, every data is visible and recoverable. Partitions are ofcourse NTFS and not FAT.

 

Meanwhile, back to the windows XP, I was thinking, to boot up a windows xp install disc, to try to solve or restore windows maybe. I've booted into DOS. And started with the a common CHKDSK. And there kinda stopped everything. It took about ages. (2-3 hours) to go a certain percent, and then it sad:

 

"The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems"

 

Also if I try to access the drive, normally, dir /p

 

"An error occured during directory enumeration"

 

What's the matter with this partitions, does anyone had this before?

1. Is there anyhow I can access the drive to save my data?

2. Is XP dead for good? No chance to restore, by using restore point or whatever?

[Athlonite]

the second msg tells you that there is no directory with the name C:\P therefor it cannot enumerate it 

 

the first msg tells you your hdd is probably on it's way out if chkdsk is finding bad sectors it means your hdd has run out of spares to use so it's now showing up where as normally you wouldn't see them.Time to get a new HDD 

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Back up your data as soon as possible before the drive dies.

[spaceelf]

After GRUB loading XP, no sing of booting, PC just restarts after 2-3s of black screen. No message nothing. Again. So I've starter the backup OS, Xubuntu, running just because of "windows 5ucking" hard sometimes and I don't have to search for my liveCD-s.

Windows XP certainly sucks hard :huh: But it tends to be a lot worse with damaged drives.

 

You might see what TestDisk can do, not sure what else Linux has for recovery.

[Class]

the second msg tells you that there is no directory with the name C:\P therefor it cannot enumerate it 

 

the first msg tells you your hdd is probably on it's way out if chkdsk is finding bad sectors it means your hdd has run out of spares to use so it's now showing up where as normally you wouldn't see them.Time to get a new HDD 

 

Oh, thanks, polly I inserted "/" instad or "\". Haven't used DOS command in a while, but before that I've got the same result if I just simply inserted "dir". So, does that also mean, my (C:) there is nothing?

 

Sure. I know that I need a fresh HDD or redo the HDD. But still doesn't help me to rescue data. ;)

 

Back up your data as soon as possible before the drive dies.

 

That's the quest. Thanks.

 

Windows XP certainly sucks hard :huh: But it tends to be a lot worse with damaged drives.

 

You might see what TestDisk can do, not sure what else Linux has for recovery.

 

Nope, since I have no possible way to boot into windows, therefore no TestDisk can be performed. 1st I need to access (C:). That's the 1st step.

[spaceelf]

Nope, since I have no possible way to boot into windows, therefore no TestDisk can be performed. 1st I need to access (C:). That's the 1st step.

TestDisk is an app for pretty much every OS out there.

[Arachno 1D]

If all your trying to do it retrieve data and not rescue the system then plug the drive into another PC via a USB adaptor  and access data or repair the partitions from there

[+BudMan MVC]

"doesn't help me to rescue data."

 

I never understand why this is an issue - were you in the middle of working on a file when it shutdown the first time?  What could possible be on that disk that needs recovery?  Do you not have your critical files backed up?  The number 1 lesson you should take from this is BACKUP your ######!!!

 

Anything of critical nature (can not be recreated) to you, pictures, home videos - files you created (homework, thesis needed for graduation, etc.) needs to be backed up!  There should be nothing in need of rescue when a disk dies..  If there is - your backup plan is in need of work!

 

As to test disk, you can boot that off anything.  You could connect the disk to another system and run it there.  I would run the tools from the maker of the hard drive and see if passes its test, short and long - there is normally some repair features in there.  But I would either connect the drive to another machine, or boot a live CD and pull your files off you want/need if they are still good.

 

The next thing you need to do is work out a backup plan so that if ever a disk fails again its not a problem since your critical stuff is backed up correctly!!

[Praetor]

If all your trying to do it retrieve data and not rescue the system then plug the drive into another PC via a USB adaptor  and access data or repair the partitions from there

 

Or just boot any LiveCD, fire up Testdisk and see if you can recover anything at all (and if the files are valid, because recovering isn't just enough; the files must be 100% valid, not corrupt).

 

And yeah, that's one of the problems of fixing others peoples stuff: it can die any time, so I always ask if there's any backup of the data (so the person knows that it can die while I'm fixing, therefore it's not my responsibility for recovering stuff); if there isn't a valid backup then i just do a backup before even fixing whatever it needs to be fixed.

[Arachno 1D]

Additionally I get the impression from the original post that the master boot record or Grub install could have been corrupted ergo the inability to recognize partition data or boundaries.

 

 

*Sidenote, there a secondary partition beside (C:), with is accessable perfectly, every data is visible and recoverable. Partitions are ofcourse NTFS and not FAT.

Please define more clearly the number of drives in the system ,the partitioning and the types thanks.If you installed it on another PC you could used drive manager to give a clearer understanding of whats going on i.e. which partition were visable etc

[Class]

Additionally I get the impression from the original post that the master boot record or Grub install could have been corrupted ergo the inability to recognize partition data or boundaries.

 

Please define more clearly the number of drives in the system ,the partitioning and the types thanks.If you installed it on another PC you could used drive manager to give a clearer understanding of whats going on i.e. which partition were visable etc

 

Sure. Give me a sec....

 

It's pretty much a classic partition table for dual boot, I don't have the sizes exactly. But it's something like:

20GB NTFS Primary MBR (XP system)

40GB NTFS Primary

 

Rest is about 500MB of a swap partition and rest of the 80GB drive in primary ext3 with the xub.

 

In GRUB there are a bunch of Xub loads, because every kernel update got his little entry + the famous "recovery mode". I think it was around 8 xubuntu entries and on the bottom the windows entry. (generaly was made automatically on the Xub install, it recognized the OS and made and entry, I just adjusted to boot up XP automatically and not Xub, and shortened the delay to 3s)

 

To me, it looks like to correctly go to XP on the boot, because there is a lot of black screen, but I will fire up the GRUB bootlist, and copy paste it. But I'm pretty sure XP is the rotten apple here. As sad, just before the it worked, but I really noticed serious lag, high CPU load, and ofcourse space was running low, etc. I even start a virus scan, coz I tought maybe some virus is the coz. Also anti-malwere. Then, I had to do the reset during the scan. Because it simply got stuck and stayed in 1 place for 1 night. Didn't even bother to restart for overload, etc. No mouse. No key. No HDD led sign, so I thought.

 

 

Or just boot any LiveCD, fire up Testdisk and see if you can recover anything at all (and if the files are valid, because recovering isn't just enough; the files must be 100% valid, not corrupt).

 

And yeah, that's one of the problems of fixing others peoples stuff: it can die any time, so I always ask if there's any backup of the data (so the person knows that it can die while I'm fixing, therefore it's not my responsibility for recovering stuff); if there isn't a valid backup then i just do a backup before even fixing whatever it needs to be fixed.

 

Which live version has testdisk pre-built?

 

"doesn't help me to rescue data."

 

I never understand why this is an issue - were you in the middle of working on a file when it shutdown the first time?  What could possible be on that disk that needs recovery?  Do you not have your critical files backed up?  The number 1 lesson you should take from this is BACKUP your ######!!!

 

Anything of critical nature (can not be recreated) to you, pictures, home videos - files you created (homework, thesis needed for graduation, etc.) needs to be backed up!  There should be nothing in need of rescue when a disk dies..  If there is - your backup plan is in need of work!

 

As to test disk, you can boot that off anything.  You could connect the disk to another system and run it there.  I would run the tools from the maker of the hard drive and see if passes its test, short and long - there is normally some repair features in there.  But I would either connect the drive to another machine, or boot a live CD and pull your files off you want/need if they are still good.

 

The next thing you need to do is work out a backup plan so that if ever a disk fails again its not a problem since your critical stuff is backed up correctly!!

 

True. It's important to back it up, but if you use old "metal" and outdated application, then it makes "on the fly" backup very difficult. But to name some stuff: docs, xls, accounting data, etc. Since the secondery partition the drive is fully in tact, some data is instantly saved. So yeah, this wasn't really planed, that XP will sink down. -_-

 

But I'm not sure. I've used TestDisk recently to restore a lost partition on one of my external HDD's. So did I get you right, system rescue is not possible by any means?! :/

 

If all your trying to do it retrieve data and not rescue the system then plug the drive into another PC via a USB adaptor  and access data or repair the partitions from there

 

Actually, that's not to bad of an idea, but I had in mind, that I prolly still won't be able to access then partition. But YES, definitely worth a try. Will get a PATA 2 USB hub then shortly.

 

TestDisk is an app for pretty much every OS out there.

 

Oh, I didn't know that. Will take a second look at the application then.

[+Warwagon MVC]

This sounds like a job for spinrite!

 

Here is also a guide I wrote on the subject

 

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1137536-recover-data-from-a-hard-drive-with-massive-uncorrectable-bad-sectors/

[Praetor]

Knoppix used to have Testdisk prebuilt in, not sure if it's true today.

[Arachno 1D]

As its stuck booting Windows did you try safe mode to shortcut some of the possible start up issues?

[+BudMan MVC]

Where did I say system rescue wasn't possible?  Why bother is the question?  Your spinning cycles for what?  What is on that that is so important.. If you would of just checked the disk for issues from the maker and if passed redone it you would already be working again.

 

What does it matter the age of the system when it comes to backup of  your critical files??  That is a non sequitur

[Class]

As its stuck booting Windows did you try safe mode to shortcut some of the possible start up issues?

 

How do you mean? What do I need to add in grub to make XP start safe mode?

[Arachno 1D]

Press F8 as windows XP starts to boot it should go in to safe mode

[Class]

Press F8 as windows XP starts to boot it should go in to safe mode

 

Did try it, but might give it another try, but I doubt XP is not getting even to that point of safe boot.

[Class]

Status: No solutions yet to rescue WinXP

 

Windows on that HDD was completely dead. F8 safe boot options and restore last knows good setting resulted the same, simple restart on boot up.

 

Status: Rescue Data

 

TestDisk, once again saved my ass and all the files, apart from a couple. Hooked up HDD to an external adaptor. Secondery drive was accessable easily. Primary, windows needed time (about 20-30minutes) then it showed up in the drives and could access everything except "Docs and Setting". For that I used TestDisk. Slowly, but could access everything through there.

 

Question: I this HDD completely useless or would a total format, etc help it?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Toss the HDD - it's on its way out.