Re: Hard Disk Problems...


"Palindrome" <me9@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%8OIi.64046$tu2.22320@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Todal wrote:
"sk8terg1rl" <sk8terg1rl_2006@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1190366456.744735.173180@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
judith wrote:

Sorry - I must be being thick:
No, not at all, it is a valid question!

You have said:
5. If done correctly, you should be able to see the data in your old
HDD.
However, Todal has already said he put the disk in a different machine
and:
" I get a message that the contents are corrupted and unreadable."

Why will he now be able to read the disk in your scenario?
After scan-disking it. If it gets fixed, then copy it out. I myself
frequently reinstall Win XP because of all the detritus it tends to
build up over time. Doesn't take very long and if you've got backup
comps, it is very little hassle.

Doing a fresh Win XP install to a physically separate HD instead of
trying to roll back the O/S to the pre-Diskeeper state is a better
option, IMVHO.

Thanks for the suggestions. It's a laptop which does restrict the
options somewhat, but I'm fairly optimistic that having run Chkdsk I have
made the contents readable and can copy the useful stuff over to an
external hard drive before reformatting the original drive and
reinstalling the operating system. I did think about buying another hard
drive for the laptop but it's a Thinkpad and for some strange reason
Thinkpads are fussy about precisely which hard drives they are willing to
accept, and the maker's drives are hugely expensive.

I can't remember seeing any warning in Diskeeper that any of this might
happen. The Help topics don't include "how do I fix my computer when all
the files have been scrambled by Diskeeper". But that's computers for
you, I suppose - they are so idiosyncratic and temperamental and there is
usually some reason to blame the user for whatever went wrong.
You could have taken an image copy of the laptop disk in-situ, using a
suitable boot floppy or CD, a suitable utility program and space on a
networked computer or USB-connected drive. Even to your Mac...The same
boot disk would have allowed the image to be restored, had the "cure"
failed.

Had the cure failed, I'd have been stumped for what to do next other than do
the same thing again.


A corrupted hard disk clearly needs to be written-to in order to fix it -
however it is very common for such fixes to go wrong, corrupting the disk
even further in the process of trying to fix it. The standard Microsoft
utilities have a habit of doing this.

Had you taken an image copy of the drive before you installed Diskeeper -
it would have been a simple matter of restoring the image to have undone
the problem. Any software which needs an admin account on a Windows
systems to install is inherently risky and should only be installed on a
fully backed-up system.


You seem to have escaped relatively lightly, this time. If you have a
proper backup strategy in place, you escape lightly, every time..

So true.

In the distant past, I'd rely on Norton Disk Doctor to fix anything like
this. Are there any equivalent utilities that people can recommend -
preferably that boot from CD?


.

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