Help Repairing a Corrupt File System

Hello,

I have a problem that has me completely stumped. Thank you in advance for reading and replying to this long post (which I will try to keep brief).

I have a PC that is running XP Media Center. I wanted to upgrade the OS to XP Pro so that I could attach the PC to a domain (another story). I started moving about 80 GB of personal files from this PC to another when I ran into a problem. I was using an external USB HDD to move the files. I moved the first 40 GB successfully. Then of all things I noticed a burning smell from my APC UPS. This is a fairly high-end $500 UPS with a relatively new battery. The UPS all of a sudden shut off causing the computer to turn off instantly. After swapping out the UPS I tried rebooting and ran into a problem. I received the message that "the NTLDR file is missing, press control alt delete to reboot. "

Since then I have tried many things on my own and with Dell's technical support. I tried booting the PC in every variety of Safe Modes and in the Last Known Good Condition with no luck. I tried booting from an XP Pro Installation CD into Repair mode with no luck (I cannot find my Media Center CD). I then read a post by Pete and downloaded PE Builder. I was able to boot from that CD into the PE Builder OS, but still no luck accessing my drive.

Dell suspects that I have a corrupt file system on my C drive. I ran diagnostics on the hardware and it passed. When I get to the C prompt under Recovery Mode I cannot see anything in the drive. If I type c:\>dir I get a message that there is no floppy or CD in the drive. I am able to see the contents on my CD drive, but my hard drive contents are invisible.

Eventually I was planning on wiping the computer clean and doing a clean install of XP Pro (I bought a retail copy for this purpose). Most of the remaining files on the sick PC have been backed up. There may be some personal videos on it that I do not have anywhere else. I know I should have done a better job of backing up the PC. I very much would like to try to pull the files before I reformat.

One suggestion was to buy a SATA to USB connector. Then I should pull the drive and connect it to another PC. I am not sure if I can buy this type of connector locally or if I will need to order it online. I would hate to buy this and wait a few days only to learn it doesn't work.

Any other suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, I tried running CHKDSK /R from the c prompt and received a message that the drive has one or more irreparable problems (sounds ominous).

Thanks in advance,
Chip

 

Buy a new drive and that USB<->SATA controller, do not use your current drive. A reformat may not be an option now.

 

Hi Wildfire,

Thanks for the tip. The next time I am near a PC parts place I am going to pick up that connector (it sounds like a good thing to have on hand).

I am hopeful that my hard drive is OK. If for some reason it is not, it is covered under warranty from Dell. Once I have it reformatted and XP Pro installed, I will not store anything locally for a while until stability is proven.

In the meantime I see that my BIOS supports booting from a USB device. I am looking into 3rd party software that I can install on my USB HDD to try to pull the files. Have you heard of any good ones? I went to the Top Tens site (http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/) for some ideas.

At this point I already spent $150 on the XP Pro disk. I would like to find some freeware to help but am willing to buy $50 s/w if I can test it first to know it will do the job.

 

Have a look at BartPE?

If the USB option doesn't work is it possible to boot from CD/DVD drive?

Failing that is it possible to slave the hard drive to your present (or another) system and attempt data retrieval/HD diagnostics from there?

 

Try the Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/
It has a Windows-type interface and quite a few file recovery tools. It has USB support, but not Plug and Play, so you need to connect the USB drive before you start the computer.

If you are still stuck, run the hard drive manufacturer's utilities
http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
If the utilities can "see" the HDD, when you exit the Utilities, it will leave you at a command prompt. See if you can access the data (C:\ -> dir) from there.

Matt