[Gllug] Recommendable hard drive repair 'kits'

[Andy McGarty]

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:11:15 -0000, DL Neil <GLLUG at getaroundtoit.co.uk>  
wrote:

> Chris' recent post on the 'BBC petition' thread mentioned using Linux
> to repair disks at which Windows baulks. I have done this with some
> success in the past - now where did I scribble those notes...
>
> Is this 'the season' for it? I have recently accumulated three HDDs in
> various states of distress (one is likely 'only' MBR/boot, one gives
> an EIDE error, and the other is either in the middle or beyond my
> meager resources). All are Win2000 or maybe XP, internal IDE/P-ATA, -
> and if I set them up originally, they'll be NTFS.
>
> I have experimental 'server' hardware available, with both P-ATA and
> S-ATA, plus network access. I'd prefer to do file copies (cf disk
> images). Unless disk testing shows almost-no errors (eg the MBR), the
> 'faulty' drives will likely be 'erased' and then junked rather than
> risking a re-build.
>
> Which 'repair kit' or specialised distro do you consider the best of
> the bunch currently?
>
> Regards,
> =dn
>
>
This article gives quite a good run through using knoppix to save windows  
drives.
http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/

I recently recovered a windows NTFS drive that windows wouldn't even agree  
had an NTFS partition on it using a linux system and a program called  
testdisk.  It searched through the disk looking for the second copy of the  
disk descriptor (something windows wouldn't do).
http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/nix/disk/general/disk20-DataRescue/ar01s04.html

Andy

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