[comp.sys.ibm.pc] how do i recover a harddisk zero track?

kuehn@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jeffery A. Kuehn) (04/21/88)

our problem is this:  a certain poorly behaved word processor (which shall
remain nameless) has scribbled all over the zero track of a 20meg hard disk.
(other areas may or may not be damaged, but let's assume they're okay) so far
we have tried the following with no luck:
	chkdsk
	recover
	norton v 3.10
	pc diagnostics  (which told us the zero track was bad)
also, it should be noted that there is no surface damage, only bad data on 
this track.  we haven't tried 'format' and we don't really want to, since
the guy has his last six months worth of work on the disk.  (yep, it's another
"do-your-weekly-backups horror story")

the question is:  is there any utility (commercial/shareware/freeware/anyware)
that will help us recover the data on this disk???  please no lectures on the
importance of backups, since (a) it's not my machine, (b) i've already given 
the owner the standard backup lecture, (c) i'm just the poor grad student told
to fix the damn thing.

ANY help or comments will be appreciated.  

thanks,

Jeffery A. Kuehn
kuehn@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Colorado, Boulder
Boulder, Colorado

kevinc@auvax.UUCP (Kevin "autark" Crocker) (04/22/88)

In article <5533@sigi.Colorado.EDU>, kuehn@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jeffery A. Kuehn) writes:
> our problem is this:  a certain poorly behaved word processor (which shall
> remain nameless) has scribbled all over the zero track of a 20meg hard disk.
> Jeffery A. Kuehn

Jeffery, I can understand why you would want to keep the word processor
a secret but I think that if this activity is really being caused by a
poorly behaved word processor then the public should be warned.
CAVEAT--- only warn us if it is really the wp that is causing the
problem and you are very sure of it.

ihnp4!alberta!auvax!kevinc (Kevin Crocker Athabasca University)

ritzenth@bgsuvax.UUCP (Phil Ritzenthaler) (04/23/88)

In article <5533@sigi.Colorado.EDU>, kuehn@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jeffery A. Kuehn) writes:
> the question is: is there any utility (commercial/shareware/freeware/anyware)
> that will help us recover the data on this disk???

Luckly I've never had to use this (yet), but try Mace Utilities.  They 'say' 
that they have a utility (I don't know if it is in the regular package of the
'special' HD package) that will try to recreate the FAT table from a disk such
as yours . . .

Caveat Emptor (sp?) . . .

-- 
Phil Ritzenthaler    UUCP :.!cbosgd!osu-cis!bgsuvax!ritzenth 
                     ARPA : ritzenth@andy.bgsu.edu   

"Remember, OPRAH spelled backwards is HARPO (toot-toot)!" -- Anonymous