A program for restoring external drives. My experience of hard drive resuscitation

Recovery hard drives implies bringing the disks into a state that allows reading the necessary information from them. We do not carry out repairs in cases where data recovery is not required.

Recovering hard drives with unreadable sectors

As a rule, if the disk is not periodically checked for bad blocks, their appearance manifests itself in reading errors and disappearance of folder files. Logical drives may appear as unformatted or disappear, and the operating system stops loading.
Recovery of hard drives in the presence of unreadable sectors is carried out using a hardware and software complex. This complex allows you to work with disks in technological modes, carry out multiple reading of sectors and reading while ignoring the cyclic control code. Using these operations, in many cases, it is possible to read information from a significant part of bad sectors.
In the event that unreadable sectors are located in the area where the partition table or service information of the file system is located, a preliminary copy is required to a working medium. Then data recovery proceeds in the same way as in the case of a working hard drive.

Recovering hard drives in case of violations in the ROM or service area

The disk is not detected in the BIOS or is detected incorrectly. May make uncharacteristic sounds, “knocking.” There are cases when the media is detected correctly, but upon further loading the BIOS gives an error.
Recovery hard drive, in this case, consists of restoring data from the service area of ​​the HDD or ROM. This work is carried out at the stand, in the technological operating modes of the drives. After which data recovery proceeds as usual.

Recovering hard drives with a faulty controller

In this case, in most cases, the disk knocks or is not detected in the BIOS.
Hard drive recovery work mainly involves replacing or repairing the controller. Sometimes it is also necessary to flash the disk firmware. After repair, data is restored as if from a working drive.

Recovering hard drives in case of faults in a containment area

This type of malfunction most often causes a knocking or grinding noise in the HDA. The exception is “head sticking” and “wedge” of the engine, in this case the disk does not spin up. The drive is not detected or can be detected by the BIOS.
If one or more magnetic heads or a switch (it is also located in the HDA) fails, hard recovery disk requires opening the HDA and replacing the magnetic head unit together with the switch.
In case of “sticking”, the containment zone is opened and the “heads” are diverted to the parking area. Engine jamming can be eliminated by repairing it or transferring the “pancakes” to a working drive.
After this, data recovery is performed on the complex

Free programs for hard drive repair

Problems with hard drives occur quite often, and many users do not know what to do about it. Therefore, in most cases, the average user gives HDD V service center, where specialists repair it for a fee. But as practice shows, you can solve most problems with a hard drive yourself completely free of charge; it is enough to know what programs exist for repairing a hard drive, what they are responsible for and how to work with them.

Three best programs for repair and restoration of hard drives

To begin repairing a hard drive using specialized programs and utilities, you first need to understand the reasons for its failure. There are several classic failures, namely:

— Violation of structure in the file concept

— Defect or damage to hard drive files

— Program crashes and errors

— Disappearance of information and files

To solve all these problems, they use the most popular programs and utilities:

— Victoria

— Other

Regenerator is a fairly powerful and powerful program that allows you to find errors in the hard drive system, as well as restore it. It mainly acts on damaged areas where failures have occurred and tries to restore damaged registries and areas. The program does not restore information that has been deleted or lost; it works to repair damaged areas.

1. Launch the application and select the disk to work with.

2. In the DOS window, select the scanning type and press the enter button.

After all the steps, we finish scanning and repairing the disk surface and look at the results.

According to experts, HDD Regenerator in DOS mode can completely restore a hard drive by magnetizing the surface of the hard drive. This solves most problems associated with disk damage.

Download HDD Regenerator— http://www.softportal.com/software-17886-hdd-regenerator.html

Viktoria is a well-known program that is very high quality and, most importantly, quickly copes with many errors, system losses and sector failures in the HDD. The program works in two variations:

— In DOS mode

— In a windowed application of the Windows operating system

In any variation, the program copes perfectly with big amount errors, resuscitating lost files and repairing bad sectors.

To work in the program you need:

1. Launch the program and select the faulty disk.

2. On the special smart tab, view information about the disk.

3. After receiving the information, go to the test tab and test all areas of the disk by default. The test type should be Verify.

4. Analyze the received errors, which are marked in red (these are failures and non-working sectors).

5. Hide non-working and damaged sectors using the Remap operating mode.

Download Victoria— http://www.softportal.com/software-40873-victoria.html

This program is an excellent assistant when repairing a hard drive. Acronis Recovery Expert is quite easy to use, has a user-friendly interface and runs like a regular application. In addition, it can create a special bootable media that plays files when the hard drive is performing poorly. Also this program supports a huge number of system files and big sizes hard drives.

To work in the program you need:

1. Launch the program.

2. Select the operating and recovery mode (manual or automatic).

3. Select the deleted and damaged partition.

4. Select the search method for deleted partitions (fast and complete).

5. Restore the partition and repair the disk.

Download Acronis Recovery Expert— http://soft.mydiv.net/win/download-Acronis-Recovery-Expert.html

In addition to these programs, there are many other applications and utilities that also help fix problem areas of the hard drive and solve many problems with it. Of course, the first-priority solution for minor problems with a hard drive is ScanDisk, but for more serious problems, these are the giants HDD Regenerator or Viktoria. These programs can definitely help you fix your hard drive, and you won’t need any technicians.

In this category it is difficult to give an unambiguous conclusion, since it is impossible to say what will help restore a hard drive without conducting detailed diagnostics. We do not advise ordinary users to try to revive the device in order to avoid negative consequences. Before starting such work, you need to study the computer’s HDD, understand its algorithms, learn how to navigate the command line, etc. Simply put, it is better to leave the matter to the professionals. Moreover, data cannot be saved from formatted disks and other media after a complete rewrite.

We recommend periodically, if you suspect a hard drive malfunction (files disappear or take a long time to open, Winsows XP-10 runs chkdsk before each system boot, etc.) check its surface and SMART using HDDScan. The utility can be downloaded for free; you only need to have a minimal understanding of English. She reads all the important information of the hard.

To recover data, use Hetman Partition Recovery– it will pull out as much information as possible, even if the volume is no longer displayed correctly in Explorer. Step by step wizard will help you complete the procedure easily and quickly. Zero Assumption Recovery or Acronis Recovery Expert from the Acronis Disk Director suite will help you troubleshoot partition structure problems. We also recommend effective remedy Seagate File Recovery, but pay attention to its feature - it is compatible exclusively with Seagate hard disk.

Let's talk a little about each utility that we think is worthy.

HDD Capacity Restore Tool saves you when the disk volume suddenly “decreases” from hundreds of GB to several MB. The application is fairly simple, effective, and can restore hard drive capacity after a failure or if the laptop manufacturer initially “cut off” part of it for the needs of the subsystem.

Low Level Format Tool– a good thing for flash drives and disks, the information on which is not needed. It will not be possible to restore data after it. The main function of this program is the so-called. “low-level formatting” - rewriting both normal and damaged areas with zeros. This helps permanently erase files and improve hard drive speed by eliminating fragmentation for new data.

Program HDD Regenerator is mercilessly criticized by experts, but for “semi-professionals” it is useful, since it turns the resuscitation of damaged sections into easy task. You boot from the disk/flash drive, select the drive, ask the tool to scan and restore it, and calmly drink tea. It will “cure” boot sectors and “logical problems”. This type of damage removal will not do any harm 100%; the utility itself is easy to use, but expensive.

The cohort of professional solutions consists of a trio , . The last two are extremely popular. Initially they were created for DOS, but alternative developers were able to port applications to Win, depriving only some of the “branded goodies”.

The capabilities of the +- products are the same: “low-level formatting” and re-partitioning of bad sectors (Advanced Remap). To put it simply, setting a mark about the impossibility of writing to a bad block. Against large quantity This won’t help “bads,” but if there are several dozen of them, you will extend the life of the drive.

The operating algorithms of the utilities are similar. It is better to keep on your computer due to the ease of selecting a disk, its interface is simpler than that of. But the trouble is that both projects have stopped - support for the latest hard drives can only be found in . The high speed of the programs also distinguishes them favorably from HDD Regenerator.

Summarizing the above, we note once again that it is better for beginners not to “play hard”. If problems are detected, simply restore individual files (images, audio, video, etc.) using the program Hetman Partition Recovery and take the “screw” to the workshop. If you can’t “make friends” with the solution from Hetman, the free but less effective 7-data recovery suite and minitool power data recovery will come to the rescue.

Advanced users will appreciate it LLF Tool, Capacity Restore Tool, HDD Regenerator or its cheaper analogue DRevitalize, Windows version popular DOS utility Victoria.

The choice of the pros is clear - these are bootable , or – a project that continues to develop in contrast to its famous “colleagues”. Updates appear regularly on the official website; developers enthusiastically continue to improve the tool and add support for new drive models.

Report a bug

Your computer may experience occasional malfunctions. The cause may be viral activity, power outage and much more. As a result, the hard drive disappears, that is, the system cannot recognize it. The worst thing is that the data on the hard drive may also be lost.

If a similar situation occurs, you need to use specialized software for disk and data recovery. Such applications include the TestDisk program. It should be noted that this software distributed free of charge.

Before using the program, it is recommended to become more familiar with it. It is also recommended to perform restoration using the instructions. If everything is done correctly, the hard drive will be restored within half an hour.

What is TestDisk

The TestDisk utility is a program that can find and restore hard drives, boot sectors and data. The program accesses the BIOS to find the device connected to the PC. In the same way, the utility determines the CHS geometry and LBA size of the disk.

The program checks the hard drive for errors. If errors are detected in a hard drive partition, the application repairs damaged sectors. If necessary, the application is able to create a new partition table, or if the old table is not found or is empty. In addition, the utility is capable of creating a new MBR.

Please note that anyone can download the TestDisk program for free. It is worth knowing that the application has open source. The utility copes with its tasks no worse than its paid counterparts. If desired, you can use additional software that is included in the TestDisk kit.

Program features

On the Internet you can find more than a dozen programs that restore hard drives and data, but most of them are paid. As for TestDisk, the program has more capabilities than some paid products. Before you figure out how to use the program, you should consider its capabilities. The program is capable of:

• Fix the partition table;
• Restore boot sector;
• Copy files from a remote partition (FAT, NTFS);
• Reconfigure boot sectors;
• Select table files;
• Define a backup SuperBlock (for Linux);
• Recover deleted files;
• Create a backup copy.

Data recovery will be faster if beginners study the TestDisk instructions. Professionals can also use this application. It is important that users pay attention to the context clue. All commands are located at the bottom of the terminal.

Where to download the program

The TestDisk application can be downloaded for free from the official website located at: “www.cgsecurity.org”. On the page that opens, click on the “TestDisk” link.

After 1-3 seconds, the product description page will load. You need to go down to the “Operating systems” section and then click on the “Download” hyperlink.

Immediately after this, another page will open where you can download the latest stable as well as beta version of the product. Download software by clicking on the graphic link “TestDisk 7.0 Free Download”.

After the utility is downloaded, you need to unpack the downloaded archive into any comfortable spot. If desired, the program can be moved to removable media, since it is completely portable. This means that the software does not need to be installed and does not need to be unpacked into a system folder such as Windows or System32.

Now all that remains is to run testdisk_win.exe and you can get to work. Please note that the program is not distributed in Russian, so do everything according to the instructions. Users unfamiliar with English are advised to use a translator.

How to use the program

After starting the program, a terminal window will appear. The application first asks if you want to create a progress report. To create reports, select “Create”. To control the program, just use the “Up”, “Down” and “Enter” buttons.

In order to select “Yes”, you need to press the “Y” button. If you need to cancel the action, press the “N” button. To exit the menu, just press the “Q” button. It should be noted that the ESC key does not work. To copy files, just press the “C” button.

Now you need to select the hard drive on which the files were lost. It should be noted that the list shows not only local drives, but also removable media. After selecting the hard drive, click the “Enter” button.

When a list of available Partition Tables appears, you must select the one that matches your computer. For example, Intel. Most often, the utility automatically detects the partition table and places it in the first place in the displayed list.

To test the partition structure of the selected storage medium, as well as search for missing files, select the “Analyze” item. When the result appears, you will see disk information. Now you need to select Quick Search from the menu located at the bottom of the screen. Immediately after this, the program will ask whether you need to search for partitions created under Vista. The best thing to do is to agree and press the “Y” button, which means “Yes”.

In a few minutes, all disk partitions will be displayed on the screen, even those that need to be restored. To view a list of files, select a section and press the “P” button. Directories and files with Russian names will not be displayed correctly (short names are displayed normally). If necessary, files can be copied by specifying the destination folder and pressing the "C" button. The copying process may take some time.

To exit this section, press the “Q” button. To thoroughly search for files, select the “Deep Search” command. If you need to write structure data to the MBR partition, you need to click the “Write” command.

After you succeed in restoring the partition, you need to restart your computer. When the PC turns on, you can see all the missing files appear. It should be noted that the hard drive may not appear immediately because it is missing a letter. To do this, you need to enter the administration section and then assign a letter.

Advantages

An application like TestDisk has a number of advantages that we recommend you pay attention to. The main advantage is that it can be used completely free of charge. Moreover, the program is open source.

Users will like the fact that the program is capable of not only finding a missing hard drive, but also recovering information. Data can be copied to another hard drive. It should be noted that the application copes with such serious situations that even paid products cannot cope with.

In addition to restoring information and connecting the hard drive, the utility is capable of finding errors. After testing, all errors found are automatically corrected by the program. Similar work can be done with any file systems.

Another advantage is the ability to recover the boot sector. Most programs are not capable of resuscitating a disk from operating system. It does not matter what OS was installed on the computer.

Flaws

Despite all its advantages, the application has several significant disadvantages. First of all, it should be noted that there is no graphical interface. The user will have to work through the terminal, and this can confuse many beginners.

The second disadvantage arising from the first is the lack of a Russian-language interface. All commands are registered in English language. The same applies to hints. If you have difficulties with the language, you will have to use a translator.

Conclusion

Users who experience the loss of a hard drive or information from it should use the TestDisk program. Of course, the utility is controlled through the terminal, but there is nothing complicated about it. It is enough to carefully study all the commands and read the questions asked by the application, and the recovery will proceed without problems. It is best to follow the instructions, then working with the program will be much easier. Use the program only if you really need it.

Video review of TestDisk

I'll show you how to restore a disk using the HDD Regenerator 2011 program. I checked my hard drive using the Crystal Disk Info program. I came across this problem.

As you can see, reassigned sectors appeared on my disk, unstable sectors, and uncorrectable sector errors.

I'll show you how to restore a disk using the HDD Regenerator 2011 program.

Download the HDD Regenerator 2011 program (it's free). Reading from the disk S.M.A.R.T. The program information also shows that my disk is dying. And it is recommended to make a copy of all files on the disk (Backup data immediately).

Check the condition of your hard drive, as I showed in the video.

1. Create a bootable USB flash drive to restore damaged sectors.

To use the program to repair a damaged disk, we will make a bootable USB flash drive to safely boot from it and check the disk and repair damaged sectors. To do this, you will need a flash drive larger than 1 GB.

If you try to restore defective disk sectors directly from Windows (XP / Vista / 7 / 8), you will receive the error Unable to obtain exclusive access to Hard Drive 1, because disk is in use. Unable to access hard drive C because it is in use.

We return to the main menu of the program and click Bootable USB Flash to make a bootable USB flash drive to recover bad sectors.

If it gives an error Error has occurred! Bootable regenerating flash not created! An error has occurred! A bootable recovery flash drive was not created.

Then first we format the flash drive and erase all data from it. Click Reset Flash size.

All data on the flash drive will be destroyed and the flash drive will be reformatted. Click OK.

Select the USB Flash drive and click OK.

Ready. Now we have a bootable USB flash drive to repair bad sectors on the disk. The program asks to restart the computer now? Click Yes. By the way, very good decision Problems - this is an SSD drive, you can read this article.

2. Set the bootable USB flash drive in the BIOS to first place in terms of boot importance.

Now go to the BIOS by pressing F2 or del or F10 or the key that is indicated at the very beginning when you turn on your computer at the bottom left

On my Samsung laptop I have to press F2 to enter the BIOS.

All devices from which downloads can be made are listed here. In my case the priority is like this:

1. USB HDD: WD My Passport 0743

2. IDE HDD: ST500LM000-1EJ162

3. IDE CD: TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633A

8. USB HDD: SanDisk Cruzer Blade

that is, first the boot information is read and searched from the external hard drive, then if it is not found, the search goes to the internal hard drive, then if it is not found, to the DVD drive, then to the flash drive. But you need to set it to initially search for boot information from the flash drive.

Select the flash drive and press F6 to move it higher to first place.

Ready. Now boot information will first be searched on the flash drive.

Reboot the computer.

3. Recovering bad sectors using HDD Regenerator 2011

So now we booted from the flash drive. The drives connected to the computer are displayed here. I have

This is 1 disk simply divided into 2 parts. We choose the one that is larger, i.e. number 2 (type on the keyboard) and press Enter.

First, let's do a preliminary scan and find out how many bad sectors there are on the disk. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1. Start Sector 0. Start from sector 0.

2. Resume Last Process. Resume the previous process.

3. Set Start/End Sectors Manually. Set the start/end sector manually.

Let's start scanning from the zero (initial) sector of the disk. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

A preliminary scan and search for damaged and bad sectors has begun.

After some time, a preliminary scan discovered that I had bad and damaged sectors on the disk.

After 1 hour and 48 minutes, the preliminary scan returned the result and showed that I had more than 46 bad sectors on my disk. They are designated by the letter B - bad. Delays on the disk (124) were also detected; they are designated by the letter D - delay.

1. List sectors scanned. List of scanned sectors.

2. List this session sectors. List of sectors for this session.

3. List all sectors. List of all sectors.

4. Clear Drive Map statistics. Clear disk statistics.

Let's look at the list of scanned sectors. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

Here's the list. After looking at it, press any key to exit the list.

1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Pre-scan (show bad sectors)

2. Normal Scan (with / without repair). Normal scan (with\without recovery)

3. Version Info. Version information.

4. Show Statistics. Show statistics.

Now let's start scanning and repairing bad sectors. Type the number 2 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1. Scan and repair. Scan and fix.

2. Scan, but do not repair (show bad sectors). Scan but do not fix (show bad sectors).

3. Regenerate all sectors in a range (even if not bad). Recover all bad sectors in the range (even if not bad).

Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1. Scan Sectors 0. Start from sector 0.

2. Resume Last Process. Resume the last process.

3. Set Start/End Sectors Manually. Set start/end sector manually.

Let's start scanning and recovering damaged disk sectors from sector zero. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

Scanning and sector recovery has begun. This can take a very long time (up to several days) depending on the size of the disk and the number of bad sectors. But you can finish the recovery and scanning, and continue it later, even after a few days or even weeks. The flash drive will save your recovery progress and the place where you stopped.

After about 2 hours, progress was 45% complete and 140 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired.

After about 8 hours, progress became 55% and 827 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired.

After about 20 hours, progress was 56% and 5,753 bad sectors on the disk were detected and repaired. And the inscription Interface HANG-UP! appeared on the top right. Set-up BIOS to compatible IDE mode! The interface is frozen! Set the BIOS to IDE compatible mode. But my BIOS does not have IDE mode. I have a laptop and it only has SATA mode. This is a program error, because... she thinks that the hard drive is not working in the right mode, but in fact. There are so many bad sectors on my hard drive that the entire recovery process almost freezes and movesooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooslowly of bad sectors.

I interrupted the process by pressing ESC. And I loaded Windows and worked in it, the behavior of the disk became noticeably better and it began to freeze less. Then the next day I booted from the flash drive again and continued restoring the disk.

Returning to the main menu of the program.

1. Prescan (show bad sectors). Pre-scan (show bad sectors)

2. Normal Scan (with / without repair). Normal scan (with\without recovery)

3. Version Info. Version information.

4. Show Statistics. Show statistics.

Let's continue scanning and restoring damaged sectors. Type the number 2 on the keyboard and press Enter.

1.Continue process. Continue the process.

2. Show statistics. Show statistics.

3. Change start/end sectors. Change start/end sector.

4. Change mode. Change mode.

5. Exit program. Exit the program.

Let's continue the process of restoring damaged sectors. Type the number 1 on the keyboard and press Enter.

The process continues from the same place where it was interrupted.

A day later, the process reached 60% and 8,342 bad sectors on the disk were detected and restored.

After some more time, the process completely froze, stopping and restoring 10,001 sectors. The message Drive is not ready! The disk is not ready!

But this, again, is a problem specifically for my disk, which is already dying and there are places on the disk, going to which the disk simply becomes 100% loaded and hangs tightly and can only be saved from this by turning off and turning on the computer again.

As a result, statistics showed that she restored a lot of damaged sectors, but when she reached those sectors in which the disk was frozen, she was unable to restore them.

Later, when you try to continue scanning and repairing bad sectors on the disk. The program displayed a message stating that the Disk is not ready, restart the computer and try to continue the process again.

This is a problem specifically in my case, in which when moving to a certain sector of the disk, the disk completely hung. Then I didn’t try to restore it (it took a lot of time and I think my disk can no longer be restored, only if you cut it in size by separating the defective (dead part) from the whole, but then the hard disk will decrease in size) I simply copied the data that I could and bought myself a new hard drive. Hard drives for laptops cost from 1,500 rubles. In principle, it is not expensive and you can afford it.

4. Results

Before buying a new disk, I advise you to try restoring it. And if for some reason it no longer works, then buy a new one. Also, never forget to have a second hard drive on which to periodically copy all information from the main drive.

To be sure, you can also check the hard drive for errors and restore damaged sectors.