Recovery from Corrupted Partitions Disks

Imagine this: For 3 months you have done up your project and you hold all the important documents, digital files I might add, in you laptop. Your bosses have held you responsible for all the crucial files and clinching the deal.

Then, the next morning, you switch on your laptop, only to realise in shock that you can't turn on the laptop! "Invalid Partition Table"! What’s that? Moreover, you can't even boot up your laptop!

If you see that particular error message (which by right you shouldn't), then it is possible that you master boot record is corrupted or contains information which the system (in most cases Windows) deems in valid.

Once this happens, you lose the ability to access that particular partition or drive volume, and in turn, can't access the information inside that partition.

However, data inside the partition is not lost, just inaccessible.

Recovery from corrupted/invalid partitions and volumes

In data recovery, there are two main things which one needs to take care of before recovery can proceed.

• checks to look for physical failures
• creation of a disk image

This step is necessary so that recovery can proceed while preserving the integrity of the original disk (or any media which has lost data) which has lost the data.

The reasons for doing all the checks and backups are to ensure that you do not lose all chances of recovery OR the hard disk platter gets physically damaged OR data gets overwritten.

To check for physical failures: A simple way to do this is to check for any sounds like clicking and grinding or if you have heard any sounds before. Sounds which are a good indicator that your hard disk is suffering, or going to, suffer from physical damage. In this case, you need the services of a data recovery service provider.

Backup procedure

Things you need: another working computer, recovery software and another hard disk with a larger space than the current disk.
First, you need to physically remove your drive and connect it to another working computer or laptop.

If your laptop is still under warranty, you can go to their service centre to have the hard disk removed. Otherwise, ask an experienced friend or ask you local friendly computer store to do it for you. In fact, if you are not confident at all, it is best to print this guide for them to follow.

Once you have connected the drive to another computer, its time to recover the actual data! Well, not really since you still need data recovery software to recover the data. You need to download recovery utility. From this point on, I will be referring and using the data recovery software and data recovery tools (free).

Download ADRC data recovery tools here.

Remember! Do not for whatever reason whatsoever, install anything, even if prompted or urged by the manufacturer or any other friends who are "expert" in all things computer related.

Once you have downloaded the software, unzip it and double click on the application.

The following process is to create a disk image of the corrupted drive (meaning an exact copy of the hard disk, system files and all) so that recovery can be done on the image instead of the original data disk.

To create an image, you want to use the Image Backup/Restore function, which is under the tools menu in ADRC's data recovery tools.

You should see there are two radio buttons. Select Create Image From Disk.

Then, in the lower drop down menu, select the drive you want to clone. Save and image file name, and then wait for the operation to finish.

Image created, you want to proceed on to recovery from this disk image.

Data Recovery Express

There are many recovery software on the market, both good and bad. However, in this particular guide, we are referring to ADRC's data recovery express, which costs US$6.99. The software relatively powerful but cheap costing software, thus there is minimal risk.Download ADRC's Data Recovery Express.Run the software (just double-click on icon). Under the settings tab, you would want to check the "raw disk scan" option. Then, select the image you have created, and click "Begin Scan".

And now we wait for the automated recovery process to finish.

As long as you have not done anything after realising that your disk partition has been corrupted, your files should be remain intact. In fact, ADRC recovery express can repair files that have suffered corruption, so long as the corruption is not severe.

Problem solved. So what are you waiting for? Get that deal!

Suhaimi Baruddin is currently employed as a writer, designer,researcher and data recovery engineer at Adroit Data Recovery Centre's laboratory, which is located in Singapore's Science Hub. With the necessary tools, parts and experience, ADRC strives to spread the word about data recovery, and help people recover data which means so much to them. - Adroit Data Recovery Centre Pte Ltd