# Bolting the stable door time, how buggered is this hard drive **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2011, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817 "2011-09-10T11:58:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817/1 "2011-09-10T11:58:34Z")
A friend’s notebook gives an “unmountable boot volume” warning on booting up. The usual three options for continuing to boot (starting normally, in safe mode etc) simply start the process over again. I tried putting the drive in a caddy to see if any Windows tools could help, but Windows would only recognise one of the drive’s partitions, the one without the important data on it. The other partition has a manufacturer’s recovery programme, which doesn’t help sadly. A repair man at a big name PC store said if the drive was corrupted, it would take a rebuilding of the HD to recover the data, which would take hundreds of pounds. My friend is keen for the data to be recovered, as it has pictures of a deceased family member, but might not have that much money to spare. Are there alternative means to repair I might attempt at home? And yes, the benefits of frequent backups are now well understood. ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_N.Cheese)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817/2 "2011-09-10T16:30:07Z")
Take a look at a utility called [Active @ partition recovery](http://www.partition-recovery.com/). I haven’t used this particular utility, but I did buy Active @ undelete years ago because it was the only thing that worked out of several utils I tried for data recovery. They make good stuff and have a downloadable demo you can try to see if recovery is possible. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![AHarris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@AHarris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHarris)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817/3 "2011-09-10T19:08:22Z")
Do you have a Windows cd/dvd for the appropriate version of Windows (if not, you should be able to find an iso online)? If so, you can try the following: 1. Boot the computer using the cd (you should get the installation screen 2. From here, choose the Recovery or System Repair option (press the ‘R’ key for windows xp). 3. Select the drive you want to recover 4. Run the following command: chkdsk /R 5. When this is done remove the cd and reboot the computer ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817/4 "2011-09-12T04:09:53Z")
Gibson Spinwrite has good reputation for recovery > **[GRC | SpinRite 6.0 FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions  ](https://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm)** > > SpinRite 6.0 FAQ. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817/5 "2011-09-13T10:27:23Z")
I’d been trying to run chkdsk when I popped the drive in a caddy, to no avail. I don’t see an option to boot from a USB DVD drive either, but I’ll double check that again when I’m back home with the machine. Thanks for the suggestions so far. ---
**Author:** ![phaemon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/977dab/32.png) [@phaemon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phaemon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817/6 "2011-09-13T14:36:57Z")
I’d work on an image rather than the drive. You could try the instructions at: > **[NTFS Disk Recovery](https://www.howtoforge.com/ntfs-disk-recovery)** > > NTFS Disk Recovery > Mary, the daughter of a friend is in college: her Windows XP laptop > constantly reboots and, we suspect, has a bad hard drive. The... They seem fairly complete. ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_N.Cheese)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bolting-the-stable-door-time-how-buggered-is-this-hard-drive/595817/7 "2011-09-13T17:32:26Z")
**Pushkin** ’s friend needs to recover the partition before he can do anything else. You can’t run high level utilities on or image a partition you can’t ‘see’. I believe FAT and NTFS keep two copies of the partition table data, so recovery may be trivial with the proper tools. Then again, it may be a lost cause without professional intervention. At least Active @partition and maybe some of Gibson’s stuff will give him a shot at it. Losing important data sucks.