Member Avatar for cyburai

Hey there, I was wondering if anyone can help me with this problem.

Before I state the problem I'll list my system setup. I'm running an 80GB IDE HDD as my main drive (C:\) with Windows XP installed and a second 200GB SATA drive (D:\) setup as a storage drive.

Recently I left my computer to degrag the second drive (D:\) and when I came back it had a message on the screen saying something like "D:\$MFT could not be saved bla bla bla" with only an OK option. After I clicked that another message came up saying the same thing about the root (D:\$.).

After that I noticed a decrease in the computer's performance and I could no longer access the secondary drive (D:\). Now I'm frustrated because I have valuable work files from the past few months on that drive that I never backed up. I absolutely need those files back and I hope I'm not lost here. Not to mention it would be nice to get back everything I haven't backed up in the past few months.

In Windows Explorer/My Computer the drive still shows up but no longer has a name (I named it before) and will also freeze the computer if I try to access it. The BIOS reads it fine but appications like Disk Manager or when I choose to open a file, the D:\ drive will not show up. CHKDSK does not solve anything nor do a few free data recovery programs. They do long scans and have errors reading almost every second sector with no results of recovered files.

I'm wondering is there any way to recover these files off this drive, any way to restore the index MFT? If I format this drive is there still a way to recoverd lost files or is this hard drive pooched?

I hope supplied enough information. I would really appreciate if anyone could help.

Thanks,
Tim

  • 5 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 542 Views
  • 3 Months Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by collar

Dani AI

Generated

Short, practical summary for : the messages about D:\$MFT point to NTFS Master File Table corruption — the MFT is the filesystem’s primary index and holds the metadata needed to list files. That, combined with Explorer freezes and many read errors during scans, means the problem is either severe logical corruption or failing media. Stop using the drive right now — do not run more repairs or format the disk; further writes will make recovery harder. (learn.microsoft.com)

Safe next steps (in order): remove the drive and attach it as a non-boot secondary to another machine (as suggested), but prevent the OS from auto-mounting or auto-repairing it. Make a sector-by-sector image of the whole disk to a different physical drive (don’t save the image on the same disk). Use a tool that handles read errors and keeps a recovery log/mapfile so you can resume later; example commands (replace device and paths as appropriate):

# first fast pass (copy good areas only)
ddrescue -n /dev/sdX /path/to/drive-image.img /path/to/disk.log

# retry bad sectors a few times (slower, optional)
ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /path/to/drive-image.img /path/to/disk.log

Run all recovery work against the image, never the original disk. Detailed guidance on safe imaging and mapfiles is in the ddrescue manual. (gnu.org)

After you have a good image, use file-system-aware recovery tools that attempt to rebuild NTFS metadata (some can use the MFT mirror). If that fails, a file-carving tool can extract file contents from the raw image but will not recover original filenames or folder structure — carving is a last resort. (learn.microsoft.com)

If imaging reports many unreadable sectors or aborts, the drive likely has physical problems; stop and contact a professional data-recovery lab rather than running more repairs (CHKDSK/format) yourself — those actions often make things worse. Ignore Windows-system-file fixes proposed earlier for this case; they won’t help a corrupt data-volume index. (datarecoverynj.com)

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for J_Search

cyburai,

Do you still require help? Forget Windows tools, you're wasting your time. I don't know much about how Windows controls hard drives so I don’t know how to fix the problem, but it's worth a shot to replace any corrupt Windows system files.

To do this, insert your Windows CD into the CD-ROM drive. GO to the Windows command prompt, and type: sfc /scannow.

If that doesn't work, you'll need to get your hands on some recovery software. I recommend GETDATABACK, but there are plenty of options out there.

J_

Member Avatar for goldeagle2005

Try attaching the HDD in another computer and see if you can access your files there...

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.