Resolved Hard Drive shows as RAW in Disk Management

Hi. I have a laptop that seems like its dropped a partition somehow. The boot partition is not mountable - even using a Linux live boot. Linux can mount the 2nd partition though. When I took the drive out and put it in a caddy, my main win7 machine huffed and puffed before it wanted to know anything much about it. Eventually the drive was detected and became viewable in Disk Management. Thats when I discovered that the boot partition was now RAW (but it is also showing as healthy, active and primary).

I've been looking around for some means of at least trying to recover the data off this disk before reformatting and reinstalling Vista. I tried using a repair install using my oem dvd but it wanted drivers to detect the drive and got no further. I tried to get a diagnostic cd from Fujitsu and got sent to Toshiba and then hit the buffers. The only tool they give is one that requires the OS to be operational - or a bootable dos floppy

Does anyone recommend particular software - either windows or linux to recover this partition or at least the data on it? Alternatively suggest a better course of action for tackling this problem....

 

Try either GParted or Partition Wizard - Server Partition Software.

Hopefully you can recover your data from these. How did it happen ?

 

The laptop isn't mine but I did have it for repair about 6 weeks ago after the owner was duped by one of these Indians who cold call people saying they were from Microsoft and they'd detected a virus on his computer. Foolishly, he'd listened to them and the result was so horrendous I'd never seen the like before. Amongst numerous other things, the safe mode administrator account was gone and factory restore had been crippled. I ended up reformatting the partition using my oem vista disk and reinstalling from scratch.

It was working fine when I sent it back but whether the two incidents are connected I'm not sure. I had done full deep scans on it before returning it so I'm reasonably confident that the original virus was cleaned.

One of the things about this is that, unfortunately, the owner is disabled and part of his disability is that, while in some situations he's as sharp as a razor, in other situations he's a bit slow to understand whats going on so its difficult to ascertain exactly how the problem came about and what the symptoms were in the run up to it.

Linux will mount the 2nd partition but won't mount the boot partition. I'll try the tools you've suggested and see how I get on. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for now.

Don.

 

I've now managed to recover the partition using partition wizard which detected some errors on the drive. I ran the "fix" and the laptop's now running. However, all's still not well. A windows update stalled and avg updater has also stalled. I did run scandisk but updates are still stalling. I tried to uninstall avg to reinstall it but I'm getting msi error 1719. It seems the installer is corrupted. At the moment I'm running a full malwarebytes scan to see if it throws anything up. I guess the question at the moment is should I run a disk scanner or continue looking for malware? Any recommendations please?

Regards,
Don.

 

I would backup,run HDD utility,repartition,reformat,reload just to be sure.

 

Yes. That was the conclusion I was coming to myself. I'm just hoping that the drive won't be so damaged that its going to need replacing. Here's hoping the disk utilities will fix the damaged sectors.
I'll let you know how I get on.
Thanks.
Don.

 

If you are getting reports of "bad sectors ", CHKDSK can mark them as such, but you might get more and more in the future.

Most utilities would say that the drive is defective when bad sectors are present.

I would start looking at getting the system transferred to a new HDD. I might continue to use a "repaired" HDD for extra space, but treat it as unreliable, so I wouldn't save any important data to it.

Matt

 

Hi Matt.

I used Partition Wizard (live boot cd) to surface scan the disk which showed a few sectors that were unreadable. I then deleted all the partitions and zeroed the whole drive using 3 passes and then the subsequent surface scan showed all sectors good. I've now reinstalled vista and its running well so far. There are still a few updates to go but it is looking good.

Going back a couple of steps, I did discover - after recovering the drive to a workable state - that a few unsavoury websites had been visited which I subsequently found out had been visited by the owner's brother who's really a nasty piece of work and not exactly the type of guy you'd invite round to Gran's for tea and scones.... This, I believe is when the damage had been done as I had been told that it was after the brother had used it that it had died. This coincided with the datestamps in the browser history so I have no reason to doubt that the two events are connected.

Needless to say the owner wasn't best pleased and I guess he won't be lending his laptop to his brother again. This is the second time I've had to fix a computer that this guy had messed up - the first being his mother's who hit the roof after the "You really need to see what's on here" moment... But all this is by the by..

This laptop is really only used by the owner for his truck sim games and the like so there's no real critical data on it. So assuming all goes well with the reinstallation the drive will remain in situ for now. I guess that when the hard drive eventually fails, the laptop will be replaced as its now a few years old and not worth spending too much money on parts to repair it. But thats for them to decide.

Regards,
Don.

 

IMHO you are only postponing the inevitable. The drive firmware has locked the bad sectors & it may look to you that they have been "cured" when in fact they have just been hidden.

You should test the drive using a SMART utility & look for "Reallocated Sectors Count ". If the value is above or nearly equal to the threshold, you are taking a big chance.

 

I agree, bad sectors are not "fixed" they are just marked as "bad" and the system automatically treats them as dead.

Bad sectors can come about if the HDD receives a physical shock (like it is dropped, banged, knocked ....thrown, chucked ). It is worse if the drive is running at the time. I've seen bad sectors from a sudden loss of power (blackout during a thunderstorm). They can occur somewhat naturally.

Guess what, if the hard drive requires replacement, who do you think they will ask to do the job? I know you like to wash your hands of the job, but why not try to take it on. Let them know you will be flying solo and they might need to either spend $ to complete any unexpected repairs or if the upgrade fails...a new computer would "cover" an outdated system and the problems they are having. You always need to cover yourself if you have happened to have made the wrong guess for what the problem was...unless you want to buy them a new computer yourself.

So...the choices might be...
Hope the problem has gone away.
Check for further possible problems (see rsinfo's reply).
Expect further problems, be ready for them.
Will the problem be small or large?
Can you change the hard drive?

Matt

 

Hi guys.

I ran Passmark Software's Disk Checkup and this is the output.

What do you make of that output?

Given the guy involved - I'd reckon that "somewhat naturally" is unlikely...
Its just too much of a coincidence IMHO that it died just after he used it to go to unsavoury websites.

I'd say possible but unlikely...

See the above report from Disk Checkup...

Before I give the laptop back I'm going to image it with Acronis True image so that I can quickly restore to what I've got now.

Remains to be seen. But I do have a contingency ie ATI backup.

Easily. But not unless they're prepared to pay for it. They're almost certain to just take it back as-is since there's no critical data on it and its basically just a glorified toy until the drive packs in completely.

Having said all that, I will be spelling out the existing damage that exists on the drive and the likelihood of drive failure sooner rather than later so that they are fully aware of what they are getting back so that there's no comeback on me.

I do agree that it is simply postponing the inevitable, but thats not really my decision to make. I can only offer advice and its up to them then to decide for themselves and that the decision they make is as informed as I can make it for them.

I'm going out of town tomorrow so I'll not be able to respond for about 24 hrs or so.

Regards.

Don.

 

The disk is dying. Best to replace it.

 

Up to you...and "diplomacy"

 

Well the upshot of this saga is that the customer has taken the laptop back as it is. They have been advised of the state of the drive and the cost of replacement. I guess its a case of the aftermath of Christmas dictating the extent of the budget for now.

Its now time to wait and see what develops.

I'm going to mark this thread as resolved for now.

Thanks for your input in this guys.

Regards,
Don.

 

You're Welcome.

 

Good luck is not an option, it is mandatory.