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how to retrieve info from a bad disk?

hi,
I have a disk ( I tera Bytes it contains important data!!!) formatted with nfts,
somebody used it in wind$ a virus seems destroy "something" in partition table ???!!

Now no access is possible, although the partition is recognized as /dev/sdb1 with correct sie, but no possibility to
retive files.
I tried ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 t gave segmentaion fault
I tried testdisk it analysed the disk and gathered the data, I tried to list the files , it gave same error as ntfs-3g, I mean segmentation fault??

Is there another rescue software ??
thanks for help

regards

Have you tried testdisk's partner, photorec?

Hi,
Yes I tried it !!
I used ntfs-3g too here is the test:

I check ntfs-3g ( tool on linux to manage ntfs file system) to fix the error.

ntfsfix /dev/sdc1 gives the output: mft corrupted ... is there a chance to recover something ???

"
Mounting volume... MFT is corrupt, cannot read its unmapped extent record 280867
Note : chkdsk cannot fix this, try ntfsfix
Inode is corrupt (0): Input/output error
Failed to load runlist for $MFT/$DATA.
highest_vcn = 0x3, last_vcn - 1 = 0x1a53f
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... MFT is corrupt, cannot read its unmapped extent record 280867
Note : chkdsk cannot fix this, try ntfsfix
Inode is corrupt (0): Input/output error
Failed to load runlist for $MFT/$DATA.
highest_vcn = 0x3, last_vcn - 1 = 0x1a53f
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error
Checking for self-located MFT segment... ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0xc0468167 size: 1024 usa_ofs: 43309 usa_count:
58159: Invalid argument
OK
MFT is corrupt, cannot read its unmapped extent record 280867
Note : chkdsk cannot fix this, try ntfsfix
Inode is corrupt (0): Input/output error
Failed to load runlist for $MFT/$DATA.
highest_vcn = 0x3, last_vcn - 1 = 0x1a53f
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
"

thanks a lot
regards
bela

I think you may be best off to quit while you are ahead and get professional help if the data is important.

Testdisk was probably your best chance.

Every time you do anything with that drive it makes it harder to recover the data.

When you do get it straightened out, one way or the other, think seriously about partitioning the thing into something like 400 or 500gig partitions. One huge partitions is kind of putting all your eggs in one basket.

Safecopy is a data recovery tool which tries to extract as much data as
possible from a seekable, but problematic (i.e. damaged sectors) source - like
floppy drives, harddisk partitions, CDs, ..., where other tools like dd would
fail due to I/O errors.
Homepage: http://safecopy.sourceforge.net

gddrescue

Quote:

The gddrescue tool copies data from one file or block device
(hard disc, cdrom, etc) to another, trying hard to rescue data
in case of read errors.
.
gddrescue does not truncate the output file if not asked to.
So, every time you run it on the same output file, it tries to
fill in the gaps.
.
The basic operation of gddrescue is fully automatic. That is,
you don't have to wait for an error, stop the program, read the
log, run it in reverse mode, etc. If you use the logfile
feature of gddrescue, the data is rescued very efficiently (only
the needed blocks are read). Also you can interrupt the rescue
at any time and resume it later at the same point.
.
Automatic merging of backups: If you have two or more damaged
copies of a file, cdrom, etc, and run gddrescue on all of them,
one at a time, with the same output file, you will probably
obtain a complete and error-free file. This is so because the
probability of having damaged areas at the same places on
different input files is very low. Using the logfile, only the
needed blocks are read from the second and successive copies.
.
The logfile is periodically saved to disc. So in case of a crash
you can resume the rescue with little recopying. Also, the same
logfile can be used for multiple commands that copy different
areas of the file, and for multiple recovery attempts over
different subsets.
.
gddrescue aligns its I/O buffer to the sector size so that it
can be used to read from raw devices. For efficiency reasons,
also aligns it to the memory page size if page size is a
multiple of sector size.
.
Please note that this is the GNU ddrescue version providing
the /sbin/ddrescue executable. If you are searching for the
ddrescue version of Kurt Garloff please check out the
ddrescue package instead.
Homepage: http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Learn something new all the time around here.

Both packages in the Debian repos too.

how to retrieve info from a bad disk?

Hi,

I had a similar problem. Finally resolved it by:

1. Restarting server using 'Live Debian' Squeeze.
2. Install lvm: aptitude install lvm.
3. After install, partitions appeared in file manager, selected required partition.
4. Inserted USB Stick.
5. Copied required files to USB stick.

DONE!

Regards
Nick