I made a booboo, please help!

Forumite Members › General Topics › Tech › Windows Talk › I made a booboo, please help!

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  • September 13, 2017 at 8:00 pm #11704
    Craig CarlingCraig Carling
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      @sonicgroove
      Forumite Points: 0

      Hi guys, I was dismayed to see that the MM forum has disappeared. I was equally undismayed(?) to see you have all migrated here.

      It’s been a while for me, admittedly, but I could really do with some advice. I’m now a photographer, hence the reason I don’t have time for pretty much anything anymore, but one of my HDD’s has just had an eplieptic fit on me and stated that the MFT has corrupted. It has ALL my photo’s on it from the last 3 yrs. Anyone any idea of the best (hopefully free)way to recover the data?

      TIA

      September 13, 2017 at 9:47 pm #11705
      Dave RiceDave Rice
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        @ricedg
        Forumite Points: 7

        This may end in tears as most recovery software uses the MFT. You could try Piriform Recuva in Deep Scan mode.

        Now the inevitable question, why, if you are making a living from it, isn’t that data backed up?

        I’d recommend a Synology DS216SE 2 Bay Desktop Enclosure (£121) and two 3GB Toshiba P300 drives (£140). I use this combo myself and have set up several small businesses in the same fashion. There are any number of free backup apps for Windows, I use EaseUs ToDo.

        The reason I recommend a “server” solution is to defend against malware like Cryptolocker. As your PC is separated from the NAS Cryptolocker can’t get at it. An external USB drive attached to your PC would be encrypted at the same time the PC is.

        Synology NAS are very easy to set up and can run an amazing range of totally free software. I’m sure your data must be worth more than £250?

        September 13, 2017 at 10:19 pm #11706
        Ed PEd P
        Participant
          @edps
          Forumite Points: 39

          Do NOT do anything until you have made a bit level clone of the disk! Recovery efforts may work, on the other hand they may totally cock-up the disk. I’m afraid you are going to have to spend money on a new disk and backup facilities before you do anything. For a bit-level clone I’d recommend that you look at ddrescue. Other than what ever you need to do the clone the new disk is not wasted as your old drive should be junked once you have restored everything.

          Once you have a clone put your original disk away somewhere safe as you may need to clone it again if things go belly up.

          Once you have a cloned disk to work on you could attempt to restore the MFT – you MIGHT be lucky. Do NOT use chkdsk that causes more tears than cheers. I’d personally try and get the files off individually using a Linux machine, but if you are not comfortable with Linux you could try Active File Recovery.

          However just to repeat my opening remark – you MUST make a clone first!

          September 13, 2017 at 10:23 pm #11707
          The DukeThe Duke
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            @sgb101
            Forumite Points: 5

            At the very least back up to google and Flickr at full res, and have two hdds for the raw files.

            As I don’t make a living from snaps, I only keep my pics and raws on my PC untill I’ve finished with them, or that are important pics, or very good ones. Raw files add up fast.

            But every photo taken is uploaded , then the ones I work on, then also get uploaded as jpegs.

            And any raw put in long term storage.

            I know this is suckling eggs, but….

            Recuva is good, but it doesn’t help all.

            September 13, 2017 at 11:20 pm #11709
            JayCeeDeeJayCeeDee
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              @jayceedee
              Forumite Points: 230

              …………and welcome to the forum.??

              September 14, 2017 at 10:45 am #11712
              JukeboxJukebox
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                @jukebox
                Forumite Points: 4

                Hi Craig. My daughter had a similar problem a couple of years ago. PC couldn’t access the disk at all. However I was able to recover all her files using Hirens Boot CD (v15.2), saved to a CD (there are USB versions as well). http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download. After booting the PC from the disk, choose Mini XP (for some reason you have to do it twice). You should then get a typical XP desktop with several icons. Select HBCD and Browse Folder. This will tell you if the file structure is still intact. Note the drive letters will be different from normal. Then its just a matter of copying each folder to another drive. You may have to click on ‘Install All Hardware’ if you can’t see the drive you wish to copy to. A bit slow and laborious but in my case it worked! John

                September 14, 2017 at 11:09 pm #11730
                Wheels-Of-FireWheels-Of-Fire
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                  @grahamdearsley
                  Forumite Points: 4

                  Hi Craig

                  Can you please let me know if the disk you are having trouble with is a seperate data disk or a partition on your main disk.

                  Also im assuming your PC does actually boot so could you also tell me what version of Windows its running

                  Ta

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