Failed hard drive - NTFS - RAW - WIN XP Install

[jomzjomz]

Just wanted to through a recovery task I've been trying to pull of for the past couple of days, most of the recovery tools I've stumbled upon on the internet feature demo/trial recovery scans - but they can't seem to find the directories and files I need recovered, hence my coming here to see if ZAR can actually do the job.

I first started encountering trouble with my 250 Gig Western Digital hard drive a week or two ago, initial signs were performance lock ups (was running Windows XP). Then a power failure caused for the system to lock up and not boot into XP completely (Windows XP boot-progress bar loading then I encountered the dreaded BSOD, then get reverted back to the bios - repeat process until you have to turn off the PC). So I figured it was an MBR problem, so I go ahead and do a windows system recovery through the Windows XP Installer's console utility: FIXMBR/FIXBOOT.

Next thing I know, even the bios can't distinguish the number of cylinders on the drive, so I examine it by using a disk utility boot loader called: Supergrub. It tries to fix the MBR, but still, I get no information on the cylinders, etc. through the bios (the Windows XP installation wouldn't boot anymore, and the drive was being recognized as an invalid drive). So I figure it's either a corrupt boot sector I'm dealing with. I boot up the Windows XP installer - lo and behold, the entire drive, for some reason, has turned into a 250 Gig raw drive. What I do next is I set a partition, format it accordingly with NTFS (Quick settings) and install Windows XP accordingly - I figured I could boot into another installation of Windows XP and at least, with the faulty drive now working properly, I could scour the underlying surface for the old files I needed on the previous installation of Windows XP.

I've around a couple of gigs of pictures that are pretty important for me to recover, so I scan the drive with most of the file recovery programs I've managed to get demo versions of, and most of them just report the existing folders and files on the clean reinstallation of Windows XP. What I specifically need are the files that were on it prior to it showing up as a Raw drive on my system.

Any idea on an approach, or if ZAR can actually handle this problem?

Thanks in advance!

[Alexey V. Gubin]

If you have installed XP already on that volume, it probably overwritten the original content on that volume. You can still try ZAR as described here - unformat, but given the problem, I doubt it will be any improvement over other software.

[jomzjomz]

Originally Posted by Alexey V. Gubin

If you have installed XP already on that volume, it probably overwritten the original content on that volume. You can still try ZAR as described here - http://www.z-a-recovery.com/unformat-tutorial.htm but given the problem, I doubt it will be any improvement over other software.

I figured that might be the issue, I specifically need the directories inside: Documents and Settings, of which I know which specific user to specify for the recovery of files - alas, I encounter what's now the default user folders within Documents and Settings.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

The folder you are looking for may end up outside recovered "Documents and Settings" because of the fiesystem damage induced by the new install. You need to look thoroughly through the reconstructed folder tree for a definite conclusion.