Trying to rescue a hard disk -- weired feedback??

[max bianco]

On Jan 18, 2008 12:12 PM, max bianco <maximilianbianco at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Jan 18, 2008 11:59 AM, William Case <billlinux at rogers.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi;
> >
> > I have never been a tech support person.  But I can see why some of them
> > go crazy.
> >
> > On Sun, 2008-01-13 at 16:07 -0500, William Case wrote:
> > > Hi;
> > >
> > > I have a hard disk that seems broken but I am trying to save -- or at
> > > least save the data on it.
> > >
> > > The broken hard disk is a dual boot SCSI disk that worked.
> > >       * BIOS says that the disk is present and accounted for i.e.
> > right
> > >         name and size even after swapping in and out other harddisks.
> > >       * Using Fedora rescue disk, parted /dev/sda says can't read sda.
> > >       * Using Fedora rescue disk, fdisk /dev/sda says can't read sda.
> > >       * Using Fedora rescue disk, chroot /mnt/sysimage can't mount
> > >         sysimage.
> > >       * fdisk /mbr says can't fix mbr.  ( I am not sure whether this
> > >         message means that nothing is wrong with the mbr or that it is
> > >         beyond repair )
> > >
> > > I would like to do any of the following:
> > >       * get the hard disk working again, or,
> > >       * view the data on the disk, and/or,
> > >       * rescue the data on the disk.
> > >
> > > What should I try next?
> >
> > My friend just told me that his drive 'broke' while he was trying to
> > increase the size of his WindowXP partition while in Fedora using
> > 'parted'.  His description "Everything was working fine then 'parted'
> > burped and didn't finish moving files and the disk hasn't worked since".
> >
> > It sounds like he has lost all his partitions.  He can't re-install the
> > Windows part.  He bought his re-furbished computer that included
> > WindowsXP Pro from a reputable dealer.  He failed to get an installation
> > disk.  I assume the .cab files have been stored in the Windows
> > partition.
> >
> > As unlikely as it seems, can anyone suggest a way to find a bootable
> > partition, Fedora or Windows.  If I can get to Fedora, there is a chance
> > I can rescue his Fedora files, and perhaps mount the Windows partition
> > to save some of his Windows files.  If not, I will tell him to phone the
> >
> > dealer and see if they can help.
> >
> > Although the situation is not desperate, desperate (i.e. only personal
> > and household data are on his files) I am regarding this as a learning
> > challenge that contains some bragging rights.  Any suggestions
> > gratefully received.
> >
> > --
> >
>
> Assuming you can mount the drive . Try some of the data recovery tools in
> the repos
> testdisk has worked for me in the past, dd_rescue is another and  there
> are more but my experience with data recovery is limited. Always read the
> man pages before you use the tools.
>
> -Max
>
> I wasn't very clear. Hook the drive up to a working  Linux box. Most of
the data recovery tools are there for most of the distributions. There are
some live cd's that contain such tools but i can't for the life of me think
of one right now.

-Max
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