BleepingComputer.com: Corrupt NTFS on Maxtor Internal HD, Repair File System

Last week, I had a 120GB Maxtor DiamondMax 16 internal slave single partition HD die on me. Windows and OSX say that the NFTS file system is corrupt or unreadable. The drive still spins and I don't think it's physical failure.

I used Test Disk on Windows and Salvage on OSX and have determined that all of the old files/directories are supposedly intact, but the file system is busted and preventing me from mounting the drive.

I have used CHKDSK /f and /r and it isn't able to do anything since it says the NTFS system is corrupted.

I've been able to use TestDisk/PhotoRec to recover some files and pretty much all of the files that I recovered were in good condition. This included MP3's, pics, movies, etc. It seems like nothing's been overwritten since the drive has become unbootable.

I've tried to use TestDisk to rebuild the MBR, but it seems like I'm stuck since the drive is not able to be mounted.

Are there any suggestions on how I can restore the file system so that I can make the drive bootable again? My hope is that the repair/restoration will mean that all the directories and file locations will be the same before the crash.

Veteran users of TestDisk or anyone who can run through the process of restoring NTFS systems are greatly appreciated!

IMO...wrong approach.

I would use data-recovery software...to try to reclaim from the damaged file system.

Once that was terminated...I would delete existing partition entirely...and then do a clean install.

Nothing wrong with the drive, it's the file system that's botched.

Louis

When the File System is badly damaged, the files can often be accessed from another operating system.
The other system does not care as much about the File System on the damaged drive.
There are many recovery boot cds available. I have tried several.

The Puppy Linux Boot CD I tried last month was very useful. Link
It recognized the IDE, SATA, and USB ports on the Compaq and allowed file recovery to another USB drive and a USB flash drive.
I would advise against trying to recover a damaged drive to bootable condition, partition, format and reinstall would be best.

Macrium Reflect allows an image to be made of a healthy boot partition, is free, and works pretty well.
I like it better than Ghost and even TrueImage.

This post has been edited by davidanders: 17 June 2010 - 03:42 PM

davidanders, on Jun 17 2010, 04:41 PM, said:

When you used Puppy Linux Boot CD, does it only copy and dump all the files into one directory in the destination drive or does it actually copy everything so that all the folders and file locations are still intact?