onlit4regs

ok, will try that sorry for not understanding this approach I've just read the post indicated, I just have a question about reassembling the different parts ? how to do that ? it says to create an empty file (with which tool ?) of the size of the disk and then merge all parts. thanks

Try having a look at the "my500GB.img" with dmde: http://softdm.com/ even if it is a tool that is not ( like TESTDISK) suitable to be used with a less then advanced knowledge of the NTFS filesystem, you should be able to understand if there is an issue with the $MFT or with the actual filesystem contents. Another thing that you could do is to extrract some sectors starting from 6,291,519 and use on them this tool: http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8010/ http://code.google.com/p/mft2csv/ just to understand if the $MFT contains valid data or if it is "the issue". If this latter is the case, PHOTOREC may still be able to find many files.... jaclaz softdm shows me all the files and directories of my hard drive, but trying to recover a dozen of files results with unreadable files. I tried making a new image with ddrescue, with direct SATA connection in my PC. it started faster than the previous one on USB, but it is still running, since 72 hours !!! only 24,5Go done .... so much errors: "unable to satisfy request because of an I/O error". I have stopped the process. about the last thing you asked, I'm not sure to understand what you really want me to do. Extract how many sectors from 6291519 ? and then, mft decode ? or mft2csv ? thanks a lot for your help. I'm getting less and less hope to recover anything

Try having a look at the "my500GB.img" with dmde: http://softdm.com/ even if it is a tool that is not ( like TESTDISK) suitable to be used with a less then advanced knowledge of the NTFS filesystem, you should be able to understand if there is an issue with the $MFT or with the actual filesystem contents. Another thing that you could do is to extrract some sectors starting from 6,291,519 and use on them this tool: http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8010/ http://code.google.com/p/mft2csv/ just to understand if the $MFT contains valid data or if it is "the issue". If this latter is the case, PHOTOREC may still be able to find many files.... jaclaz softdm shows me all the files and directories of my hard drive, but trying to recover a dozen of files results with unreadable files. I tried making a new image with ddrescue, with direct SATA connection in my PC. it started faster than the previous one on USB, but it is still running, since 72 hours !!! only 24,5Go done .... so much errors: "unable to satisfy request because of an I/O error". I have stopped the process. about the last thing you asked, I'm not sure to understand what you really want me to do. Extract how many sectors from 6291519 ? and then, mft decode ? or mft2csv ? thanks a lot for your help. I'm getting less and less hope to recover anything

hi, thanks for your reply and your time ! testdisk have seen the NTFS partition of 500Go, said structure OK. when pressing "P", there is only one directory displayed, and when entering it, it's empty .... I think I'll try again the image processing of the hard drive this week-end, I've done it with USB connexion, but I'll try with direct SATA connexion, to see if it can go up to 500gb image. I'll tell you what. thanks again

hello jaclaz ok the image is done, it took a long time, a lot of I/O errors. the image is only 136Go what should I do next, you were talking about something with testdisk, can you tell me more please ? thanks a lot

hmmm, $MFT begins with the good code "File0". the problem is $MFT mirror, impossible to access : "System Error: Code 1117 " and in french something like: I/O error, unable to satisfy query.

At first sight there is nothing "wrong" in them. BUT how exactly (under which OS, with which tools) was the disk partitioned originally? The sectors you posted seems like a "normal" XP partitioned (French), single NTFS: #0 07 80 0 1 1 1023 254 63 63 976768002 The data in the bootsector is as well "standard": 3 0003 OEM String: NTFS 11 000B Bytes per sector: 0200 512 21 0015 Media type: F8 248 24 0018 Sectors per Head: 003F 63 26 001A Number of Heads: 00FF 255 28 001C Sectors Before: 0000003F 63 40 0028 Total Sectors: 000000003A384C01 976768001 48 0030 LCN for $MFT:: 00000000000C0000 786432 56 0038 LCN for $MFTMirr:: 0000000003A384C0 61048000 64 0040 Clusters per $MFT record: 000000F6 246 68 0044 Clusters per Index record: 00000001 1 72 0048 Volume Serial: 6424B80A24B7DD6C Which OS are you running/can run? Ideally you should try imaging the disk on a (larger) device as a file, first thing, do you have (or can buy) a 640 or 750 Gb disk? You could check with a disk viewer/editor the presence at the designed addresses of the $MFT and of it's mirror. $MFT is at 63+786432*8=sector 6,291,519 $MFT Mirror is at 63+61048000*8=sector 488,384,063 The first sector of both should begin with "File0" or in hex "46494C4530". jaclaz thanks a lot for your message jaclaz. it was originally parted in windows XP (French), with standard XP storage manager. I have a 1Tb hard drive available for imaging, and I am running actually Win 7 Pro x64, but I can also plug it again on my win XP. I'll try to give a look at the MFT with disk editor and I'll tell you.

hi, My 500Gb Seagate 7200.11 had the famous bug of BSY state, it wasn't seen in BIOS. I have successfully made the unbrick trick with serial cable, hyper terminal and so on. Now the drive is seen in the BIOS (and with the right size). But Windows see a RAW partition on it. I've tried easus recovery, it has seen all my files, but any restore of any file results in an unreadable file. (nothing was writen on the faulty disk at the moment) I've tried testdisk, it has seen the partition, I have made "WRITE PARTITION TABLE" to the faulty disk, and reboot. same thing under windows. so now, what can I do ? I attach the HDHACKER first sector of logical drive and first sector of physical drive, if this can help. thanks a lot for your help HDHACKER.zip

Hmmm. The general idea is to ask for help BEFORE writing anything TO the disk. There are no "magic ideas" , there are only a few "common ideas" , that are actually procedures to attempt recovering the data . Mind you it is very possible that by using an UNsuitable tool in an UNsuitable way, even if the firmware unbricking procedure was successful you effectively corrupted the disk contents beyond any possible recovery . What you should do now would be: STOP fiddling with the disk make a dd-like image of it start a new thread asking for assistance in the recovery An example of the procedure involved is given here (and links within): jaclaz thanks a lot for your answer jaclaz, I'll do what you suggest, see you in another thread ! it's quite encouraging that you didn't write the disk was totally unrecoverable

hi all, first of all, thanks a lot for this thread and the information about fixing this hard drive issue. I have a Seagate Barracuda 500GB, and I've done what was explained , and the operation was finished without errors. My hard drive is now seen in my BIOS (and with right size) BUT, Windows see no partition on it and don't display its size. I've tried in order: - easus data recovery FREE edition: it has seen all my files with right size, but when restoring files, they are unreadable - I tried testdisk: it has seen the partition , I've done a WRITE partition table, reboot, and nothing better in Windows - I tried booting in knoopix, but It can't see the disk also. anybody has a magic idea ??? thanks a lot