Repair corrupt MFT (and new user feedback)

A forum on data recovery using the professional data recovery software R-STUDIO.
GreggIrwin
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:16 pm

Repair corrupt MFT (and new user feedback)

Post by GreggIrwin » Tue Jun 08, 2010 4:09 pm

Environment and background

- R-Studio demo version
- Recent Windows updates caused system to hang and my system now reports that the $MFT is corrupt at times. Print jobs also can't start, so some spool and system related file area seems suspect. Event log shows NTFS event code 55 when the errors occur. Other than that, no known data loss of corruption at this time.
- Drive in question is a RAID1 set.
- System boots and runs fine, but CHKDSK can't fix the problem.
- TestDisk reports that MFT and mirror look OK, but don't match.

New user thoughts

- R-Studio looks great, and inspires confidence from the start. I read a lot of the manual, and looked in the forum, but didn't find anything related to my exact issue (Windows saying $MFT is corrupt or unreadable). While not common, I'm certainly not the first to hit it and if there's a path in R-Studio to deal with this issue, you should definitely point it out for marketing purposes.

- Opening files for the drive enumerates them, but aborts. The message is: "[FileId: 13200] MFT record child's claimed parent mismatch, aborting" The catch is that I can't use that information to find the file by its ID, or locate it, or help it to resolve that problem. It took me a bit to find the option under Find/Mark->Advanced options, but I did. While a context menu entry saying "Find this file" would be great, at least it can be done. If I then select View/Edit, I can see the sector number. I don't know how to use that number to reconcile against the scan results, or if that is even the path I'm looking for.

The file in question is a deleted file. Recovery is not the goal. The main goal is still to repair the MFT. At this point I don't know what to do next, so I'll go back and read the manual again.

I hope this helps. R-Studio looks very nice, and complete. I just need to find the right features to apply for this case, if they exist.

GreggIrwin
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:16 pm

Re: Repair corrupt MFT (and new user feedback)

Post by GreggIrwin » Tue Jun 08, 2010 4:14 pm

Addendum:

I just reopened the files for the drive, and while the same error and file ID appear in the log, it points to a different file now, which just happens to be the Local State file for Chrome, which I used to post my previous message.

And now the enumeration completes, it does not abort. Will, it says "Aborting", but previously it didn't say the enumeration completed after that, and now it does.

GreggIrwin
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:16 pm

Re: Repair corrupt MFT (and new user feedback)

Post by GreggIrwin » Tue Jun 08, 2010 4:34 pm

Each time I reopen the files for the drive. The enumeration shows the same error and FileId in the log, but each time I search for that file ID after reopening the files it points to a different file. It always seems to be one that was written recently (so far anyway).

Alt
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Re: Repair corrupt MFT (and new user feedback)

Post by Alt » Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:35 am

R-Studio does not fix problems like mismatching $MFT files. It merely copies deleted and existing files to some other palce, even when the file system of the original disk is corrupted.
There are other programs on the market that may (or may not) fix the problem, but it's a good idea to backup all important data before using them.
File ID is an internal file ID, which may vary from one run to another, depending on many various conditions.

GreggIrwin
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:16 pm

Re: Repair corrupt MFT (and new user feedback)

Post by GreggIrwin » Wed Jun 09, 2010 12:06 pm

Thanks. At least now I know. I'm backed up and prepping for a reformat.

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