failure to mount corrupted drive

[Steve Reilly]

Fred Roller wrote:
> Rashkae wrote:
>> Steve Reilly wrote:
>>   
>>> hi all,
>>>
>>>
>>> trying to recover data for a friend off an ntfs drive.  well, fdisk
>>> reports it as ntfs anyway.  booted a gparted cd and it reported it as
>>> unknown.
>>>
>>> mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/disk -o force
>>>
>>> with this command im getting an error says this doesnt seem to have a
>>> valid ntfs?  i thought force, meant FORCE, how can i mount this drive to
>>> get pictures off it?  using 9.04 live cd at the moment...., but have
>>> tried no less than a dozen others, none have automounted this drive.
>>>
>>>
>>>     
>> Force will mount the drive if the file system driver thinks it might
>> otherwise be a bad idea (ie, if the drive was not unmounted cleanly and
>> needs a windows fsck equivalent,) but no command switch on earth will
>> allow the kernel to mount the drive if it can't make sense of what it
>> sees.  If the open source tools are unable to access this drive, your
>> only other choice is to try Windows itself.  If neither Windows nor
>> Linux can figure out how to access the file system, then it's probably
>> hopeless, short of pro data recover service.
>>
>> Addamentum:
>>
>> It wouldn't hurt to make a backup of the partition with dd and try to
>> use ntfsfix on the backup.
>>
>>   
> Agreed, something I have tried, successfully, is to attach to an 
> external usb case for the hdd and attach to a windows (XP) machine.  
> Used solutions there, chkdsk?, and brought up under windows.  Unmounted 
> ("Safely Remove Hardware") and then was able to mount in linux.  As 
> Rashkae mentioned, dd the hard drive now if at all possible so you have 
> a copy some where.  If you are not familiar with dd then let us know, it 
> fairly simple.
> 

hi, .... had to walk away for a couple hours for my sanity.......thanks
for the tips guys, been a while since ive used dd,  how would i go about
using dd to backup a 160gb drive if i dont have another drive the same
size?  all i have laying around are some 80gb and smaller.... and 2nd
question, doesnt the drive have to be mounted (which cant be done)to use
dd?

im leaning toward trying chkdsk, but ill wait for an answer.



-- 
Steve Reilly

http://reillyblog.com