Thinkpads Forum

I tried searching back a couple of years but didn't find anything.

Are there any favorite (free or paid) utilities that will restore a hard drive that fails to initialize, or which refuses to boot even after doing FIXBOOT, FIXMBR, CHKDSK, and even a Factory Restore?

Most of the disks involved seem to have files on them (I can read them on an adapter or a Linux CD machine) but when I try to do a format or an install they crash.

One disk had my working setup on it and now it refuses to be recognized. I'd really like to recover this guy by rebuilding the master tables (again, FIXMBR, FIXBOOT, et al. didn't work).

Any help and endorsements welcomed.

Rather than restore, IMO it's better to back up the files, then wipe the first 50MB of the drive with a secure erase tool. Now, if you're still having problems formatting it afterward, then the HDD itself is malfunctioning.

Bruce Guttman wrote:Are there any favorite (free or paid) utilities that will restore a hard drive that fails to initialize, or which refuses to boot even after doing FIXBOOT, FIXMBR, CHKDSK, and even a Factory Restore?

A broken disk is broken and should be replaced by a known good working one, on which you then restore the latest backup of the broken disk. Anything else is a waste of time, IMHO.

If disk is still seen by BIOS:

Connect same or bigger drive to computer (laptop via USB adapter or eSATA, desktop via SATA).
Boot from knoppix or other pen-drive / CD linux.
use fdisk -l and hdparm -i to determine which drive is which

Copy bad drive to good drive via dd_rescue /dev/sdx /dev/sdy wait hours to days (this is why doing it on 2ndary or desktop is good, time depends on how badly the drive has been damaged. Longest I saw was 5 days but it is usually done withn 5-8 hours).

Then connect cloned drive to working windows PC and do chkdsk /B. If drive is not badly damaged it should boot in original system. If it's been badly damaged, recover any files using file recovery utilities.

If disk is not seen by BIOS you can send it to ontrack or similar where it will cost several 100 EUR (once I was given a quote for 600).

Another option is to try freezer trick. You can use external 12V PSU from SATA USB adapter and long sata cable to put drive in freezer. Then power on the computer and copy and data from the drive quickly.


To do just what you want you can zero the drive using Darik's boot and nuke CD or just use linux and do dd if=/dev/zero of=dev/sdx bs=1M count=1

This will erase 1st Megabyte of the drive, wiping partition table. x is your drive (use fdisk -l and hdparm -i to determine which is your drive). Be very careful, disconnect any drives you don't want zeroed as a precaution.

Bruce Guttman wrote:One disk had my working setup on it and now it refuses to be recognized. I'd really like to recover this guy by rebuilding the master tables (again, FIXMBR, FIXBOOT, et al. didn't work).

My favorite for years has been "iCare Data Recovery" ...

... version 7.8.1 free today at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/icare-d ... the+Day%29

If your harddisk isn't recognized by Windows and "fails to initialize", then the write heads are bad and the drive can't be fixed .... but you may be able to get your files off of it .... even if the MFT (master file table) has been destroyed and it 'reads' so slowly by a recovery program that you think that all of the read heads except one must have died also.

I have tried all of the following on a harddrive that meets the above conditions ... and they all failed :
- iCare Data Recovery 5.1 and 5.3 (old) ... expected to take 1.5 years to read the 500GB HDD
- Recuva
- MiniTool Power Data Recovery 7.0
- Do Your Data Recovery 3.0.0
- ReclaiMe File Recovery
- Wise Data Recovery
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard 9.5
- DMDE 3.0.4
- HDD Mechanic
- Lazesoft Recovery Suite Pro

Some of the above refused to recognize the harddrive, others always got a 'semaphore timeout' trying to access the bad harddrive, and one of them filled all of memory with 'non-pageable' pages which then crashes the system.

The new "iCare Data Recovery Pro 7.8.1" has an option which allows you to choose which file types to recover (older versions did not have this feature). My attempt at recovery is running again and is currently projected to last 15 days for just .jpg files.

You don't repair a hard drive. All you can do is attempt to recover data.

Anyway, my personal favorite is using ddrescue to make a raw image of the drive, which is mountable on windows using Passmark OSFMount.

Last software for HDD attempts.. SpinRite

I prefer the linux program 'gdisk' which includes heavy-handed low-level tools.

gdisk has revived a few drives (thumb drives mostly) which had been in my hdd graveyard for a while.