Long Time Scanning

[JohnP]

Hi

I'm scanning a 500Gb Hitachi PATA hard drive which is a slave drive with video files stored on it, I think I have a corrupted Master File Table. The drive started failing after a Vista reinstall to my main drive which is SATA, imeadiately after I got bad SMART command and system hung until F1 to resume, then it recognised the drive without partitions as raw, couldn't access it or see files. I downloaded ZAR and installed, followed the Unformat Partitions guide. ZAR pre scanned (I think) for 10 - 11 hrs and then, when I thought it had finished and would show the results, started a full scan on the raw disk. Currently I'm at 31Hrs and 45% complete, its saying its found 0 files and 0 directories but there are no red dots and lots of blue and green dots. I don't want to cancel, but this means 60 Hrs of scanning. I'm using the trial version, I hope I won't have to rescan if it finds files and I want to register the software.

Should I stop it and start again, can I speed it up, is this normal?

Many thanks

[JohnP]

CPU usage is shown as 2 - 4% on the program, 2.5Mb/sec
50% at 33Hrs 33Mins, No red dots, only green and blue.
ZAR Version is 8.3

[JohnP]

I decided to cancel the scan, 66 hours seemed like a long time and may stress the drive. I rebooted, CHKDSK tried to run, it reported corrupt MFT and tried to recover it. Didin't work. Got back to desktop, restarted ZAR, the prescan went through in 20 - 30 mins, I was getting same values as above but this time I had a value for seek/sec instead of just 0.

Left the drive overnight, its now done 9.5 hrs and its 83% done. Its saying its doing a quick scan to identify data and found 0 files in 0 locations. I have blue dots and green dots but no red dots. When I cancelled the scan last night it was saying it was doing a full scan not a quick scan. So it looks like it will eventually do another full scan which I suppose will take another 66hrs?

Is this right or am I just wasting time and stressing my drive.

[JohnP]

Its now 11Hrs and the program has entered Full scanning mode. Looks like I'm still in for a 66HR scan. I'll stop the program again and try something else for now.

Can anyone give me confirmation that what is happening with this drive is to be expected.

Should I wait out the 66Hrs?

[JohnP]

I've tried 2 other programs, one I already owned and didn't seem to work when I tried it first and another I downloaded a trial version of. They both began taking a long time to scan, I now realise this to be the case with my first program. Any quick scan option doesn't really find anything.

So I guess I'm stuck with long scanning times?

Should I give up with this drive or peservere through the scanning?

[Alexey V. Gubin]

I'd like to see the SMART status details.


In the physical disk list,
Right click the disk in question, pick "S.M.A.R.T. information".
The detailed listing should appear, click "Save to file"
Post that file here (it is in a plain text format).Also, make sure the drive is still in DMA mode. Refer to this article,
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/art-power-supply-failure.htm
Scroll down to the section labeled "Symptom III - Drives in PIO mode, high CPU load".

If you have about 1TB of free space available, consider making an image of the disk. This is a best course of action with a faulty drive.


Start ZAR.
Proceed to the point when it prompts you to select a physical disk.
Right click the damaged drive, select "Create image file".
Enter the file name and location when prompted.You can only store the image file onto the NTFS partition (FAT has a 4GB file size limit).

This image file can later be analyzed in a same way the physical disk is, but at significantly faster speeds. Considering the recovery is a multi-pass process, this gives a significant advantage.

[JohnP]

Hi there,

here is the S.M.A.R.T. info -

Device 0101 S.M.A.R.T. status
ID Attribute Value Worst Threshold Raw
1 Read Error Rate 100 100 16 00000000
2 Throughput Performance 132 132 54 0000008D
3 Spin Up Time 134 134 24 6012C0110
4 Start/Stop Count 100 100 0 000000E4
5 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 100 5 00000001
7 Seek Error Rate 100 100 67 00000000
8 Seek Time Performance 100 100 20 00000120
9 Power On Hours Count 100 100 0 00000302
10 Spin Retry Count 100 100 60 00000000
12 Power Cycle Count 100 100 0 0000005E
192 Power Off/Retract Cycle Count 100 100 0 000000F4
193 Load/Unload Cycle Count 100 100 0 000000F4
194 Temperature 176 176 0 2B00100022
196 Reallocation Events Count 100 100 0 00000002
197 Current Pending Sector Count 100 100 0 00000000
198 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sectors Count 100 100 0 00000000
199 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate 200 200 0 0000C21B

I have tried to verify that DMA is ok but the screens and options look different, however under advanced settings the box is ticked for 'Enable DMA'

[Alexey V. Gubin]

SMART data does not look that bad to justify that much performance decline as you describe.

So we still need to verify the DMA status.
"Enable DMA" is a setting as commanded, rather than an actual bus status.

What you can try

Open Task Manager (right click empty space on taskbar, click "Task Manager").
In Task Manager, switch to "Performance" tab and note a "CPU usage" at idle. It should be, say, below 15%. Leave Task Manager running.
Start ZAR, and have it start scanning the disk.
Now switch back to the Task Manager and see what CPU usage is.
If the CPU usage is above 75% for a single CPU machine, or above 40% for a dual core, the drive is most likely in PIO mode.
Abort the scan.It would also be nice if you can upload screenshots of a relevant device manager windows (for a controller and IDE channels).

[JohnP]

Using task manager with media centre paused in the background I did not see CPU usage go above 20%, it was running 7 - 13% before starting the prog.

I've already taken pix of the device manager screen, how do I upload them - when I click the icon its asking for a URL?

[Alexey V. Gubin]

When you hit "Post Reply" and get a full reply window,
scroll down below the text input,
there is a section called "attach files",

or just email the images to development@z-a-recovery.com

[JohnP]

The scan seems quicker now - its finished the pre scan in 5 or 6 minutes and has done 14% in 10 minutes on the quick scan. Previously the pre scan took 20 minutes and quick scan 10Hrs. If this continues it will be a lot quicker.

CPU is averaging 20 - 30% but occasionly jumps to 40% and 60%

[JohnP]

Found it.

Now I look at the pictures it seems a bit clearer. This must be the relevant hard drive screen. I'm using 2 pata 500Gb drives as Master and Slave on my only IDE. C drive is sata.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Continue the scan then. Might be that Vista can return drives to DMA mode upon reboot if no problems were detected recently. With XP that was not the case (i.e. if the drive was forcibly degraded to PIO, you have to uninstall/reinstall it in device manager to regain DMA).

[JohnP]

Ok, thanks for your help.

This afternoon I disable User Access Control as the other trial software I tried required it. This afternoon I powered down and unplugged the drive so we could use the PC to watch TV this evening. I replugged the drive when I saw your reply and suggestions. Maybe that did something.

Her's a screenshot of the scanning now - previously the Quick Scan took 10-11Hrs!

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Most likely it was a loose connection then.

[JohnP]

This morning when I got up the scan had finished and I could see all my root folders, the scan reported 96% recovery and 92% validation (I think - was still waking up) I recovered a few files and they seem fine. Can't find a way to get back to that screen or find any saved results.

I've bought a licence and started re-scanning, speed is still good.

Looks promising thank you again for your help - and the program.