Bad NTFS master table -- how to recover

[Cytherian]

I hope it's OK to post about this problem here, as it's more of an NTFS problem than Vista or XP. The host computer runs Windows XP and has several hard drives installed.

The short history is that I had some peculiar issues with this system (an old Dell), when installing new slave drives. Although I'm intelligent and diligent enough to know what jumpers to set and how to do it, I found that one pesky Maxtor drive would become unreadable to the OS and would require a complete reformat.

Anyway, this happened again (about 2 years ago) and I didn't want to reformat it because it has data on it that I'd rather not lose. At the time, I had downloaded a number of diagnostic and corrective programs that are supposed to be a breeze to restore master tables and recover lost files on a drive. I ran a couple of them that couldn't do anything, then ran one that did... and spent over an hour supposedly restructuring the file system. But in the end, it didn't work and probably made things worse. I left it alone... until recently, when I came across the computer and remembered the problem. Now I'm hoping after a couple of years I might have better luck with more recently available recovery software.

I have an adapter that allows connecting an IDE drive externally to a computer via USB, so I could effectively perform the recovery tasks using my Vista OS laptop.

So... all I'm asking at this point is some recommendations for a very good and reasonably priced (or free) NTFS disk recovery utility that runs on Vista. There are many of them out there these days and so choosing one is a daunting task. I figured that since VistaForums has such knowledgeable people on board, someone here might be able to recommend one or two disk recovery utilities that they've used and had good success.

Some that I've been looking at are Virtual Labs, Arax Disk Doctor, EaseUS, and DirectorySnoop.

Thanks!

 

[roy69]

Try panda recovery. It works with ntfs drives and is free, use google to find it.

 

[Cytherian]

Yes, I've now come across Panda, Roy. Have you used it at all?

 

[roy69]

A little just to try it out for a friend, it worked ok for me.

 

[SIW2]

You could give http://www.z-a-recovery.com/download.htm a go.

If it looks like it finds what you want - you might decide to pay for it to get the full features.

There are the following limitations in the demo version of ZAR 9.1:

1. Only (up to) four folders can be recovered in the demo version of our data recovery software.
2. The demo version is unable to load the scan result file. However, it does save these files to avoid having to rescan the disk when you got the full version.
3. In digital image recovery mode program operates as freeware with no functional limitations. List of known compatible digital camera models and image formats is available at the known camera compatibility list.

I have used the digital image recovery function ( that bit is free ) - it worked extremely well.

 

[usasma]

An excellent free program is PC Inspector - but it's very difficult to use. It's located at: http://www.pcinspector.de/Default.htm?language=1

I prefer to use GetDataBack from Data Recovery - Data Recovery Software - RAID Recovery - NAS Data Recovery It's recovered data for me on many occasions - data that I'd thought was permanently lost! It's easy to understand and easy to use. As with other pay-for programs, it has a free tool to see what you'll be able to recover first. Then you're free to decide to pay for it or not. The cost is $80 (US) - but it's well worth it IMO.

 

[Cytherian]

SIW2 and usasma, thanks for the software suggestions. These look like much more robust tools than is typically found on CNET downloads. It's good to see that some of them will at least be able to scan for files independent of the internal file indexing system. This is a low priority project, so it'll be a while before I give this a shot, but I'll try to remember to report back here with results. Thanks!