Many files broken/corrupt after windows re-install....need help!!

Ok,

I decided to do a reinstall of windows today. Everything was going fine until i restart my computer for the 2nd time after having just finished installing windows 2k. Now i had a 200gb drive sitting on the primary IDE channel set to slave (this had been no problem in the past) but part way thru booting up, windows said one of the disks need to be checked, so i let it run thru. It have a lot of listing for file links and orphaned files or something along those lines. Just pages and pages of text scrolling up. From what i could see as if flew past it had files names JPG's, AVI's, MAX's, EXE"s etc...

Well i thought that was pretty odd, so i disabled that drive and continued the windows installed, updates, more drives..you know the usual. And now that everything is up and running normally, i re-enabled the drive, and now i find that some of the movies and episodes dont work, some exes wont run and a few images dont open. Still most files seem ok, but a fair bit seem messed up. Even some of the movies when played, play part of other movies.

So it looks like the FAT tables or NTFS equivilent have been messed up when the 200gb drive was run when windows wasnt updaed enough to know how to properly handly 200gb (needs to be atleast sp3 or something). Is this a possible explaination?? and is there anyway (or any program) to get my files back in the working order they were in before?

Thanks heaps.

 

This is worth a try. Go to command prompt. Type in chkdsk /r (trouble drive letter unless C): If your running on C drive you will have to say yes and then reboot. If on another drive it will start to run. This will take a long time So you may want to eat lunch or something. This old dos command will fix many drive problems including many FAT problems as well as some boot problems.

If that does not do it then right click "My computer" and select manage. Go to "Disk management" Look at the numbers for the trouble drive. See if they are strange, free space way to high, smaller drive than should be, total disk space way to high, etc... If you see stuff like that then get out of disk management and go into your event viewer. Go into the system logs. Look for a red circle X for "Disk" as the source. If so then double click it to see what information you get.

Good luck
-Del

 

Hey Mate,

Ok, just out disk management and everything is ok there, drive is showing up as it should with the right amount of space free/used etc..
Event log only show one thing.
[bold]The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume D:[/bold] and thats like the 3rd entry so that was just after the 1st or 2nd restart. Drive D was what the problem 200gb was before I removed the drive letter and changed it to V (which is what it is now)
So im guess that on the fresh instlal windows was like....[bold]WTF a drive bigger than 137gb...mmmm better try make it a 137gb drive and see how that goes...destroy files[/bold]
Anyway after that i disabled the V drive and continued the install.

As for the dos command. What will that do? is there any change that it will make anything worse? as at the moent alot of files still work , but also a lot dont.

Thanks for you help dude ;-)

 

The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume D: This is your error. It is telling you to run CHKDSK on the problem drive. Sounds like your still installing. Complete the install without that drive then reconnect the drive. Now run the CHDK /R Command. It is Check Disk, The /R tells it to repair. Lets say the problem drive is D, You would enter just like this-----> c:\chkdsk /r d: And then hit enter. No it will not tear anything up or make anything worse. Windows is even telling you to run it.

-Del

 

Just tried to run it and got this

[bold]Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk /r v:
The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.


C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>[/bold]

What now?

EDIT
Ahh shit, just checking in my computer, drive is there but it says its unformatedd now...what is going on?!??!

It was fine before i restarted. Now that i have restarted it reckon my disk has nothing on it..not good. (restarted before i ran chkdsk)

 

RAW means its empty. Look in your log again and see if it says anything about the drive. Why is it not seeing anything on it anymore. Has me scratching my head. There is something wrong on that drive. Your stuff may still be there. Will be a while before I post again, Its late.

-Del

 

only log was this
[bold]The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume V:[/bold] Same as before, but that was just before or after i restarted (cant be sure of timing)

Apart from that...nothing. I will try attaching the drive to my IDE controller and see if that makes any difference.

Otherwise got any other ideas who to get my 180gb's of stuff back **Insert crying smiley**

 

If that (V) drive is bootable then you can try this. Only attach that drive to the computer.

-Boot off the install CD.
-After it is finished booting hit R. This will take you to the recovery console. It may go directly to a prompt or might ask you to select the install you wish to fix. If it asks you it will also ask for a password. If there is none just hit enter.
-At the prompt type in the command we have been trying to run on the disk. CHKDSK /R then enter (no drive letter)

If that (v) drive is not bootable then the above will not work.

-Del

 

hmmm wont that only fix it if windows is installed on that drive??
The V drive was only for storage. And as of last night since it said it wasnt formatted, i have just disabled it until i get a chance tomorrow to run it off my IDE controller card.

Any other suggestions?

 

Thats what I meat about bootable. So no it will not work for this drive. There should be a utility that can help. I will see if I can find one.

-Del

 

ahh k, thats what i thought.

Awesome, thanks dude

 

Apparnetly this could do the trick.
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

Trying to look for a MFT rebuilding program. any thoughts?

 

Yes I do keep running across that while searching for an answer. I have yet to find some software that you can use without spending tons of money. I am still looking.

-Del

 

Yeah seems to be the choice of the masses so far. The other option i see is using linux to possibly fix the problem. I have spoken to our linux nerds here at work and they are not 100% confident that it will be fixable in my case.

I have found a few other pages of info that could be helpfull which i will try out tomorrow. I can post them here if your interested.

Thanks for persisting with this

 

hey i have a very similar problem. i went on a trip to florida and brought my 200gb external hd with me. on the way back i got selected for an extra security check. during which they took my hd and ipod and put them through a seperate high intensity x-ray machine. now when i got home a few days ago most of my files are corrupt or just missing altogether. i get one of three errors. (I/O error, file missing, or file corrupt) any help would be greatly appreciated. i am trying to find more info on that software "getdataback" or anything similar. if i find anything out i'll post it here.

 

oh yah one more thing. my ipod is now junk as well. thanks tsa!! airport security sucks!

 

Hey Mate,

Geez, thats bad luck. You should write a letter of complaint, you may get your items replaced.

Have a look at this page.
It seems to be mostly relevant to my problem but could be somewhat relevant to yours.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6255-5029761-11.html
Check the post by Tim Payne.
However i think your issue is different to mine. My data is all still intack its just the MFT is corrupt and thus the files are crosslinked...etc. Your data sounds like it may have been erased partially or the drive it self could be messed up.

What brand drive is it? If its a Western Digital like mine i suggest you go and download the diagnostic tools for window from their webside www.wdc.com It can tell you if there is anything wrong with the actual drive. Or if its just a software/data issue. If its not a WD then most other drive manufactorers have similar software.

Also getdataback seems like a pretty decent program and certainly worth trying the demo out and seeing what it says.

Good luck

 

i called the tsa offices and they said they dont cover laptops, hd's, ipods, cameras... basically anything that cost a bit of money they dont cover. anyways i tried getdataback last night and the results were good and bad. i had a ton of bad sectors or scrambled sectors, but i did recover quite a few pricless photos and about 98% of my music and movies. i was truely amazed. the $80 was well worth it for me. i am still missing a ton of software programs and documents but at least i recovered what i did. one other bad things is that the file names are just scrambled letters and numbers. so i have my work cut out for me through the next few days or weeks!! i have to rename and id3 tag about 5000 files, but at least i have my data back! thanks for the help. i appreciate it.