R-Studio Data Recovery of Bad Sector Files

A forum on data recovery using the professional data recovery software R-STUDIO.
fletchersdad

R-Studio Data Recovery of Bad Sector Files

Post by fletchersdad » Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:15 pm

I am trying to recover just a few important files from a suspected failed laptop Seagate 40GB drive. Here is a quick history on the problem and troubleshooting to date:

1) Started getting Windows blue screen with "Kernel Inpage Error" which eventually led to "Unmountable Boot Volume Error".
2) Used SeaTools for DOS bootdisk to check drive. SeaTools found 5 bad sectors and appeared to fix them, but after reboot the same sector errors showed up.
3) Removed hard drive and used USB enclosure to connect to another computer to attempt copy of files. Drive spins up and makes repetitive read/write sound. After a few minutes, shows up as E: drive in Disk Management but can't access files on drive (it just hangs when trying). When disconnecting the USB cable, sometimes it will briefly flash the directory contents on the screen and then disappears since I disconnected the drive.
4) Used R-Studio Emergency boot disk which shows the drive and partition. When using demo version, I got excited to see all my directories/files. Purchased the license key to recover the files, but my excitement turned to disappointment when it said the files had bad sectors and could not be recovered. I copied the files to USB drive and pulled up on another computer and sure enough they do not open (PDF file gives corruption error).

I tried using the recovery on R-Studio several times hoping some of the files would work, but so far no luck. Is it possible that all the files are truly corrupt beyond repair? I also want to note I did not do the scan, but went right to "Open Drive Files" on the partition and then proceeded to try "Recover". I'm not sure if it will make any difference, but I am now running the scan on the partition which is estimated to take about 18 hours (right now I'm 16% complete) and hoping this will somehow improve my chances of recovery, but I'm not feeling optimistic at this point. My question is does the scan improve chances of recovering files afterward? Also, are there any other tips or tricks I can try using R-Studio to recover these files? I appreciate any advice from the seasoned data recovery folks on here.

Alt
Site Moderator
Posts: 3129
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:13 pm
Contact:

Re: R-Studio Data Recovery of Bad Sector Files

Post by Alt » Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:07 pm

IMMEDIATELY STOP THE SCAN!!!
Your drive has physical problems beyond repairing under Do It Yourself, and needs attentions of a reputable data recovery pro. Any further tampering with it seriously reduces successful file recovery even by a professional with a required equipment.
You see, R-Studio (and any other purely software data recovery program) works with data received from the hard drive. If it yields garbage, nothing can be done about it.
Data recovery professionals has a special equipment and experience required in your case. Expect, alas, serious prices for their work.

Post Reply