Hard drive corrupted after backup?
Hi,
I'm sad to report that my hard drive seems to have been corrupted after performing a backup. Let me give you the story first:
Some time ago, my IDE hard drive suddenly stopped making any noise when it was powered on. I suspected this was a hard drive failure and send it to a data recovery firm that offered me free diagnostics. After they established it was a PCB failure, I asked them to return the drive. I then bought an identical PCB, replaced the old one with this one, and guess what? The drive spun up again!
I then connected the IDE drive to my PC via a IDE -> USB adapter and hoped I would be able to view my data. However, another problem occured: the drive started reconnecting every second. I could briefly see the drive's icon (albeit non-clickable and without any information) and then it was gone again. With every reconnect a prompt was displayed, asking me to reformat the drive. I thought I was out of luck until Windows "held on" to the drive and started reading its contents. I was able to open the folders and explore the drive, though I didn't have the nerve to open any files.
My next logical step was to immediately create a full backup using Acronis. My settings were:
- Single version scheme
- Backup sector-by-sector
- Backup unallocated space
- Validate backup when it is created
- Max compression level
- No files excluded from backup
Afterwards, I opened the TIB file and was shocked to see only two files. Both could not be opened because their "path is invalid". I then tried to connect the original drive again and recheck its contents. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work because it would continously reconnect. The next day, I did manage to get the drive connected again. You may be able to guess what its contents was: it was exactly the same as the backup's contents. For the record: I set Windows to show hidden as well as system files. The only "evidence" I have of the original files still being there is the "space used" info under the drive's icon, which seems to be OK.
Now, my first thought is: Acronis has corrupted the hard drive. But other than that I've no idea what's going on. It seems Acronis has made a proper backup of the hard drive while it was already corrupted, but something clearly went wrong between me checking out the folders and Acronis creating the backup.
I'm curious to know what you think. I've added the Acronis log as well as a screenshot of the two files and the "space used" info. If you need any more information, please let me know.
Thanks for your reponse! Could you explain why connecting the drive internally might allow me to properly read the file system? IMO, the fact that I only see two files, proves that the file system is already corrupted, whatever connection I use.
In the meanwhile, I have tried several data recovery utilites (on the backups, not on the original drive!) and they do a decent job restoring all the data. Although I cannot check it, I'm pretty sure I can restore all the individual files. Restoring the folder tree in its entirety seems almost impossible though.
Some IDE to USB adapters are not correctly recognized by Windows (as you can see from the constant connect / disconnects) or are of such poor quality that the results look similar to yours. Connecting your IDE drive back to your IDE controller directly eliminates the IDE to USB adapter, and may allow normal access to your drive if the contents are not actually corrupt. They may only appear that way when connected through the IDE to USB adapter. I have used IDE to USB adpaters before, and had two identical adapters, one caused the same issues you are seeing, and the other worked fine. Since I did not try to write to my drive while connected to the bad IDE to USB adapter, when I switched to the second one, I could access my data normally even though it appeared to be scambled when connected to the first adater.
Alright, I'll try out Acronis Rescue Media ASAP. One thing though: are there any limitations to what PCs are supported? I ask, because the original PC is really (like really) old.
The recovery CD uses Linux as the OS. Your mileage will vary with Linux drivers. Got to try.
OK, I've tried it out and get this error message when loading True Image from the bootable media:
"This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: cmov
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU."
Just so you know, the CPU is a PENTIUM-MMX CPU at 233Mhz. I have 65536K of memory.
According to the 2013 manual:
True Image 2013 rescue media has the following hardware requirements:
* 512 MB RAM
* Processor Pentium 1 GHz or faster
* 1.5 GB of free space on a hard disk
The recommended screen resolution is 1280 x 1024.
The minimum screen resolution is 1024 x 768.
Is there any way you can connect the IDE drive to a connector within the computer as a second drive?
If so, you should be able to check to see if you can read the data on the drive directly from within Windows.
Yeah, that's a bit above my specs :P
I could connect it as a second drive, but I'd have buy another IDE drive and install Win95 on there. The most logical thing would be to buy an identical drive on Ebay.