Partition recovery

[bhunta]

Hey peoples, I have a problem at the moment which I think has been caused by a corrupted partition table.

I have a 250GB SATA HDD split into 3 partitions (all NTFS), the first of which contains Windows XP. On the same partition I have a folder of documents that has started giving me access privilege-related errors when I tried to open them. Most of these are backed up but, yes, there are a few which aren't and which I need . I first went through the process of re-taking ownership of the folder with no effect.

I then tried to use MS Office-specific file repair software on the files and got an error saying the files were 0 bytes in length (when I look at the files with explorer it still reports their true size.)

Next step was to take a look at the partion with PM 8, which reported the partition was "bad".

I then ran the quick test in Western Dig's diagnostic tool which reported no errors. I haven't run a full surface scan but I'm assuming if there was any hardware problem the quick test should have found at least something wrong?

So, the drive still boots the OS fine, doesn't make any scary noises, and pretty much the only issue I've found so far is with this particular folder of files ( I'm thinking the next step is to use some disk tools (Acronis maybe?) to try to recover the partition (preferable) and, if not, go into data recovery mode. BUT! I'm aware of the potential to do irreparable damage by making the wrong move and depending on the actual problem, so I'm looking for a bit of advice before I pull the trigger.

Any help would be much appreciated, cheers!!

Oh and I'm booting from another drive atm, the other is unplugged for now.

[jaclaz]

Partition Magic cannot "repair" anything:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Partition-Table-Errors-t65337.html

Use TESTDISK:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

to check the partitions, though from what you write it seems more like a filesystem problem, possibly not fixable, if not by running CHKDISK.

Before that, you should image the partition (just in case).

And you may also want to try PHOTOREC (it comes with TESTDISK) to recover the files.

jaclaz