OnTrack gives no results

[James Kiehl]

Folks,

thanks for the help and info, I don't post much but i am having trouble.

I have an error that goes like: " The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. "

OK, well, I have discerned that OnTrack may be a good tool to use for this problem. I successfully downloaded and installed OnTrack (painful on a dial-up...). I get the menu, I can select which type of recovery, but when i choose, there is a small dialog box that says "Scanning System", then the program closes down without any other type of display or information.

I have WinXP on a Dell 4600. I have several HD's for storage, three plus the OS drive in the case and another two (one USB and one FireWire) external.

Any ideas on why OnTrack isn't running? Any other tools that Imight be able to try to recover the file system and thus, the data?

Thanks,
Jim

[doubledragon5]

It sounds like it is talking about your operating system.. Check for spyware, malware, trojans, virus etc.... The best tool to check for those are here.

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Both are free, and do a great job. Use one then the other.. If all fails, do reinstall over your exsisting copy of windows.. Good luck

[James Kiehl]

no, the drive that is unreadable is not the OS. It is just a storage drive. My OS is working. I click on "My Computer" and get the list of stuff. I click on the icon for the drive in question and get the error i mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the try,

Jim

[doubledragon5]

Which storage drive does it specify? We need to no in order to help.

[James Kiehl]

OK, the drive is currently "G". It is connected through a PCI extender card, set to Cable Select. The drive failed while it was in an external enclosure connected to the PCI bus by a firewire card. In either case, the error was the same.

I am trying to fix it using PC Inspector Freeware right now, but i am not sure how long to wait. The ONTrack will not scan the drive, but the PC Inspector seems to have found it.

I have an SATA drive and three other IDE drives connected.

Thanks again,
Jim

[James Kiehl]

Hey Dragon, or anyone else, for that matter...

can you help a brother out?


Thanks,
J---

[doubledragon5]

What device is your "G" drive? What device are hooked up to your secondary ide? Set jumper to master. Full system specs wold be helpful

[James Kiehl]

Sorry, i don't know what you mean by "what device"... i told you that the G drive is the storage drive that has the corrupted file system.

Just answer me this, do you know what to do with a drive that has a corrupted file system? If you suggest OnTrack, then let me tell you that that program scans the system and then stops and quits, all on its own.

Please don't make me jump through hoops for your amusement.

I have a main HD and a secondary on the primary IDE. I have a SATA drive on the SATA connection. I have an extender card on the PCI slot with an IDE controller and that is where the corrupted drive sits. I also have a CDRW and a DVDRW on the secondary IDE drive.

Yes, I have the correct cable, for gods sake. This question is about one drive that was working one day and not working the next. I ran some software called OnTrack, and that was the main thrust of the question.

I hve XP on my machine, 512 MB RAM, 2.2 GHz processor and the whole thing started out as a Dell 4600.

Please, read my original post again if you are confused. I appreciate the fact that you are helping me, but so far i don't even think you understand the problem. Operating system has nothing to do with it. I have a drive whose file system is corrupted, and OnTrack will not diagnose the problem correctly.

-J

[glc]

James, please do not flame people who are trying to help you. This goes against our forum principles, which require respect for other members, and as per the forum rules, I have to issue you a warning. When people ask you for clarification, please provide it without talking down to the person who apparently does not completely understand what you are trying to say - and this will work both ways and get the problem solved.

http://forum.pcmech.com/rules.php

- Moderator -

[James Kiehl]

*removed*

[James Kiehl]

Now i see that even disagreeing with the position of the moderator is enough to get me banned.

I, again, thank you, glc, the moderator, for doing what you do and keeping these boards in shape. I mean no disrespect, but am still unsure how I got into this situation. I will delete the above post and send it via PM for a personal discussion.

I, too, am a "live and let live" person, and I, too, enjoy a bit of respect.

[glc]

Okay, let's take this discussion back where it belongs. I would recommend that you use a barebones system to attempt a data recovery - or as close to barebones as you can get. Ideally, it should have a main hard drive with XP and no background applications running - with ample space for recovering your files onto, and a floppy drive - no opticals, Zip drives, etc. It should have no addon cards except a video card - no PCI extender cards, sound cards, network cards, etc. Ideally, the main drive should be a SATA or an IDE on the primary all by itself, and the problem drive should be on the secondary IDE all by itself. If this sounds like a test bench setup, that would be ideal. The more ram and the faster the processor it has, the faster it can do its thing.

Install your data recovery applications and try them. The first one I'd try is the free PC Inspector. If that doesn't work, then it's time to move on to more heavy duty stuff like Ontrack. Data recovery can take a LONG time - when I've had to use Ontrack, it's taken over 12 hours just to generate a recovery report much less do an actual recovery. I'm sure there are other data recovery apps out there, but those are the only 2 I've used other than Badcopy Pro, which is a light duty one designed for removable media and flash memory. If you can't get results using anything you come up with, your only remaining option is send the drive off to a data recovery company and getting a second mortgage to pay for raw platter recovery.

[James Kiehl]

Thanks. i will do my best to strip everything out and try your suggestions.

I noticed that you did not suggest "ckdisc" (checkdisk?). Is there a reason why this is not a good option? It was suggested to me that it may puch the drive over the edge if it is failing.

Thanks again,
JK

[glc]

I don't think chkdsk is strong enough to fix a "corrupt and unreadable" file system. It probably wouldn't even be able to see that there IS a file system.

The odds of recovering the files in place are not good - you are probably going to wind up doing a flat file recovery to another drive.