- Joined
- Mar 27, 2005
- Location
- Fresno, CA
I'm going through a data recovery nightmare right now. . . . Basically I have a bunch of important data (financial records, photos, etc.) on an ATA hard drive but I can't access any of it. I've been working on this for two days with no progress. Here's what I've attempted. . . .
1. I tried Reinstalling Windows on it without reformating. But Windows says that the partition is not readable and must be formated first.
2. I tried fixing the MBR (master boot record) in the Windows Setup Repair utility. Didn't help.
3. I tried running Windows from another disk and making the disk I am trying to read a dynamic disk. That worked but Windows says it needs to format the drive first to read it.
4. I tried a data recovery program called ZAR which managed to read a lot of the data, but it wasn't the data I need. (It read Windows files and Program Files but I need My Documents files.) When I used ZAR to read the sectors with My Documents files, the computer crashes to a blue screen. . . .
I don't know what to do. . . . I guess I need a program that will let me see an overview of the entire disk and allow me to retrieve the specific data I want (if it's not corrupted). . . . Does anyone know of a good data-recovery program that can do that? . . . I'm definitely willing to pay for it.
Thanks!
1. I tried Reinstalling Windows on it without reformating. But Windows says that the partition is not readable and must be formated first.
2. I tried fixing the MBR (master boot record) in the Windows Setup Repair utility. Didn't help.
3. I tried running Windows from another disk and making the disk I am trying to read a dynamic disk. That worked but Windows says it needs to format the drive first to read it.
4. I tried a data recovery program called ZAR which managed to read a lot of the data, but it wasn't the data I need. (It read Windows files and Program Files but I need My Documents files.) When I used ZAR to read the sectors with My Documents files, the computer crashes to a blue screen. . . .
I don't know what to do. . . . I guess I need a program that will let me see an overview of the entire disk and allow me to retrieve the specific data I want (if it's not corrupted). . . . Does anyone know of a good data-recovery program that can do that? . . . I'm definitely willing to pay for it.
Thanks!
