Partition inaccessible all of a sudden

[Kourosh]

I rebooted and one of my partitions is unaccessible now. The error is
"the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable"

I've ran powerquest partition magic and windows checkdisk and none
detected errors. It's all one hard drive and it's only one partition of
it that's corrupted like this. What's the best thing I could do next?
should I just try recovery software, or is there a way to try to fix
the partition without affecting the data on it?

[Kourosh]

anyone?
Kourosh wrote:
> I rebooted and one of my partitions is unaccessible now. The error is
> "the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable"
>
> I've ran powerquest partition magic and windows checkdisk and none
> detected errors. It's all one hard drive and it's only one partition of
> it that's corrupted like this. What's the best thing I could do next?
> should I just try recovery software, or is there a way to try to fix
> the partition without affecting the data on it?

[Malke]

Kourosh wrote:

> anyone?
> Kourosh wrote:
>> I rebooted and one of my partitions is unaccessible now. The error is
>> "the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable"
>>
>> I've ran powerquest partition magic and windows checkdisk and none
>> detected errors. It's all one hard drive and it's only one partition
>> of it that's corrupted like this. What's the best thing I could do
>> next? should I just try recovery software, or is there a way to try
>> to fix the partition without affecting the data on it?

If Partition Magic didn't detect any errors (still sees it as a viable
partition), I'd boot with Knoppix (since Windows can't deal with it)
and retrieve the data. Then I'd format the partition and restore the
backed up data.

Knoppix is a Linux distro on a live cd. You will need a computer with
two cd drives one of which is a cd/dvd-rw, OR a usb thumb drive with
enough capacity to hold your data, OR an external hard drive formatted
FAT32 (not NTFS). To get Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast
Internet connection and third-party burning software. Download the
Knoppix .iso from www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then
boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are
using the usb thumb drive or external hard drive, right-click on its
icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that
says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note that the default
mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single
click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows' double-click.
Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files to cd/dvd-r's.

If Knoppix can't see the files, then you can try data recovery software.
I use Easy Recovery Pro, but that is expensive. I've heard good things
about R-Studio and also about the free Restoration.

R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Professional data recovery companies (not inexpensive but only you can
determine the value of your data):

DriveSavers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services -
http://www.seagate.com/support/service/drs/services.html

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

[Kourosh]

thanks for your suggestions. I'm using Easy Recovery to backup some of
my important data. But the rest I can't back up, it;s too big and sort
of not worth the effort for me. Is there any way i could try to
"repair" the partition?
Also, any idea why something like this would happen all of a sudden? I
was working fine with windows and I didnt install any new software or
anything. After one of my reboots the partition became like this

[Malke]

Kourosh wrote:

> thanks for your suggestions. I'm using Easy Recovery to backup some of
> my important data. But the rest I can't back up, it;s too big and sort
> of not worth the effort for me. Is there any way i could try to
> "repair" the partition?
> Also, any idea why something like this would happen all of a sudden? I
> was working fine with windows and I didnt install any new software or
> anything. After one of my reboots the partition became like this

I have no idea why this happened to you. I'd check the health of the
drive with a diagnostic utility downloaded from the hard drive mftr.
You will make a bootable floppy or cd with the file you download. Boot
with the media and do a thorough test. If the drive fails any physical
tests, replace it.

As for repairing the partition, if Partition Magic and Chkdsk haven't
helped I suppose you could try hand-editing but that takes really
advanced disk editing skills. I haven't got them so can't give you
instructions. You could Google for "disk editing". I believe PM has
some disk editing tools as does Hirren's bootdisk.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

[terrytong]

Greetings,
You can try data recovery software: Partition Table Doctor or EASEUS Data
Recovery Wizard.
These tools helped me, so give it a try.

http://www.ptdd.com
http://www.easeus.com

"Kourosh" wrote:

> I rebooted and one of my partitions is unaccessible now. The error is
> "the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable"
>
> I've ran powerquest partition magic and windows checkdisk and none
> detected errors. It's all one hard drive and it's only one partition of
> it that's corrupted like this. What's the best thing I could do next?
> should I just try recovery software, or is there a way to try to fix
> the partition without affecting the data on it?
>
>