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[SFan00]

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Edited May 10, 2007 by SFan00

[Delprat]

911cd.net ?

thanks god, you're on FAT...

+

[SFan00]

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Edited May 10, 2007 by SFan00

[oscardog]

As well as 911 already mentioned, grc.com spinrite is a life saver in these circumstances

[MDGx]

FAT = File Allocation Table:

refers to disk structure implemented thru formatting an HD/partition with either FAT16 or FAT32

LFNs = Long File Names:

refers to how many characters the OS supports for files + folders names + extensions.

LFN = supports total 255 characters in M$ Windows OSes

SFN [short File Name] = supports total 11 chars: 8.3 [MS-DOS style = 8 for name + 3 for extension]

911cd.net:

http://www.911cd.net/

is a known web site where you can download emergency/boot/rescue CD [Compact Disc] images [iSOs] you can "burn" into a CDR [Compact Disc Recordable] and make it "bootable", so you can boot from it, and that way try to restore [some of] your data, if any was lost.

Long list of boot CDs/floppies/images + rescue tools:

http://www.mdgx.com/drv.htm#CDR

HTH [Hope This Helps]

_________________________________

BTW:

SpinRite is shareware [pay $$ after trial limited time over].

911cd.net + other similar sites provide rescue CDs/ISOs/floppies/IMGs for free [please see URL above].

If you're looking for backup, restore, formatting + fdisk software, please see this long list of free(ware) tools:

http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm#FDPT

HTH

Edited October 26, 2006 by MDGx

[eidenk]

However how do I recover the contents of the supposedly invalid directories, and fix the drive as Scandisc it seems made whatever corruption worse.

If scandisk fixes something else than simple misreported directory size or lost file fragments it usually makes things worst unless you knew exactly what to choose in the possible actions it prompted you with. It is better to skip repairs and backup the data when it comes to "exotic" errors. And attempt a repair after having done that only.

I still don't know why the machine froze unexpectedly although strongly worded emails will be sent to AOL(Winamp was running when the system jammed

Gigabyte and Via technologies (Windows protection errors normally being related to badly written dirver code.)

It could be a nasty virus also. Or a physical error on the disk due to age...

Complaing to Microfot will of course be pointless as Win9x is of course officaly unsupported,

not much conslation when you have potentialy lost nearly 7 YEARS of work and

archived mail!

Buy a new drive, install it in your computer and set it as master drive. Set your old drive as slave. Install windows on your new drive and then try to see if you can simply recover your data using explorer as it may be intact and accessible.

If it's not those free tools might help you :

Drive Rescue : http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/driverescue19d.html

Unstoppable Copier : http://www.roadkil.net/unstopcp.html

Sector Editor : http://www.roadkil.net/Sectedit.html

Edited October 26, 2006 by eidenk

[SFan00]

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Edited May 10, 2007 by SFan00

[eidenk]

Buy a new drive, install it in your computer and set it as master drive. Set your old drive as slave. Install windows on your new drive and then try to see if you can simply recover your data using explorer as it may be intact and accessible.

Not with 'Invalid directory' errors it won't :-(

Thats the problem, I am sure the data is fine...

Have you tried ?

[LLXX]

I'm quite sure your hard drive is dying.

Obviously your first priority is to make an image of the drive onto another drive, then run some diagnostics on the drive to determine if it really is dying. You should be able to recover data with any of the numerous free data recovery utilities:

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/ - for diagnostics

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm - one free file recovery utility