[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] Data recovery from crashed hard disk

ed@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Ed Friedman) (12/01/90)

We have a 30 Mb Seagate RLL hard disk which has a blown track 0 on it.
Does anyone know of any way to recover the data from this drive?

Thanks in advance,
Ed Friedman

INTERNET:  ed@zaphod.uchicago.edu
BITNET:    friedman@uchicago.bitnet

ted@helios.ucsc.edu (Ted Cantrall) (12/04/90)

>We have a 30 Mb Seagate RLL hard disk which has a blown track 0 on it.
>Does anyone know of any way to recover the data from this drive?
------------------------------------
Boot from a floppy.
 1)  Probably the first thing to do if you can boot from a floppy, is to
     back up. It may be a chore from a floppy drive, but not as bad as 
     restoring your data from what you remember if other methods fail.
 2)  From your original DOS diskette, do a SYS C: in an attempt to resore
     the trashed system files. Then copy COMMAND.COM back onto C: Back up.
 3)  If you can get a copy of Spinrite or Nortons, either one may be able to
     recover the bad sectors or to move the data. Then back up.
That's all I can think of.....		-ted- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ted@helios.ucsc.edu |"He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the
W (408)459-2110     |Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness
H (408)423-2444     |and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (RSV)

jcburt@no1sun.larc.nasa.gov (John Burton) (12/04/90)

In article <9687@darkstar.ucsc.edu> ted@helios.ucsc.edu (Ted Cantrall) writes:
>>We have a 30 Mb Seagate RLL hard disk which has a blown track 0 on it.
>>Does anyone know of any way to recover the data from this drive?
>------------------------------------
>Boot from a floppy.
> 1)  Probably the first thing to do if you can boot from a floppy, is to
>     back up. It may be a chore from a floppy drive, but not as bad as 
>     restoring your data from what you remember if other methods fail.
> 2)  From your original DOS diskette, do a SYS C: in an attempt to resore
>     the trashed system files. Then copy COMMAND.COM back onto C: Back up.
> 3)  If you can get a copy of Spinrite or Nortons, either one may be able to
>     recover the bad sectors or to move the data. Then back up.
>That's all I can think of.....		-ted- 
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>ted@helios.ucsc.edu |"He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the
>W (408)459-2110     |Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness
>H (408)423-2444     |and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (RSV)

I'm not so sure this will work properly...Track 0 on a hard disk contains
the partition table and (i think) part of the FAT...problem is without
the partition table & FAT (or with flakey versions of them) the computer
doesn't know where to look for the files on your hard disk. The files themselves
are probably okay, but the partitioning/allocation info is probably corrupt.
In short, the data is there, you just can't get to it...

You could try booting off the floppy and then running Norton's Disk Doctor
to try to fix it...It *might* work...can't make any promises tho...depends
on how bad (and which) data on track 0 is trashed...

Doing a SYS C: WILL NOT work since those hidden files actually reside
on track 1 (if they are in the first partition)...

hope this helps...

John Burton
(jcburt@cs.wm.edu)