Desperate situation

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

Anne Wilson wrote:
> 
> Since the data appears to be fine, with only the MBR affected, I'm going to 
> put in a large new disk tonight, and copy everything across from the old 
> drive.  After that, it would be useful to know if there is a good tool for 
> aggressively scanning the drive to see what damage exists.  Any advice on 
> that?  It will probably have to be ditched, but I'd like to test it first.
> 
> Anne
> 
Anne,
 The first test you should run is the one from the drive
manufacturer's web site or from the Ultimate Boot CD.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

You will tie up a machine while the test is running, but you
will do that with any good drive testing program. The thing
is, these tests are normally customized for the drive firmware,
so you tend to get a good test. This is especially true if you
run the destructive tests. (Write pattern to drive, read it
back, write another pattern. wipes all the data.) Depending
on the software, some will even let you low-level format the
drive. Sometimes this is enough to resurrect a drive.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!