Thread: Repairing damaged hard disks

Repairing damaged hard disks

TOOLS

Test Disk this is a difficult task for most recovery tools. Let's say that a partition on the test 250 GB hard disk goes missing. The reason for it could be anything a system crash or a delete command. Recovering it is a job for the Open Source tool Test Disk It always comes to the rescue, whether a partition table has been ruined or the boot sectors are damaged. This application doesn't need to be installed and can be run from a USB stick or a CD. Open up the command prompt from 'Start I Run I cmd.exe', browse to the directory location of the executable file and enter the command 'testdisk_win.exe' which is the filename. You needn't be intimidated by the primitive interface of the program, since it doesn't require you to know the source code or have programming skills. Simply use the cursor keys for navigation and execute the commands with the [Enter} key.



Here is how it works. If you would like to know more about the analysis and its results, create a Log file through the 'Create' command. But, it is not essential for the recovery process, so instead, select 'No Log'. Then, the program searches
and displays the hard disks found, after which you need to 'Proceed' to the next step. If you are a PC user, select 'Intel' and then 'Analyze' to find the lost partition. Confirm the selection with 'Quick Scan' and then indicate whether the disk has been partitioned under Windows Vista. This should bring up all the logical drives, and if there is anything unusual about the storage disk, the utility will display it here When the tool finds all the logical drives, you can retrieve them with 'Write'.

However, if a part of the hard disk is still missing, you can further locate more partitions with 'Deeper Search'. This search lasts longer and if the partition
is yet to be discovered, TestDisk will definitely find it. If the search results display the complete disk along with the missing parts,then rewrite the hard disk structure with 'Write'. If the partition is still missing, then the situation is bad since this means that the data is missing. In case of defective boot sectors, the partition will most likely be displayed twice, this can be repaired. The utility will display the defective boot sectors in the following screen. You can repair the damaged areas with 'Back-up BS'. Restart your machine, and the hard disk will be ready, and your lost data retrieved.