[geeks] ntfs repair advice/help needed

[Jonathan Katz]

Here's the trick I've been using.

I took a SANS Forensics course which included a Tableau Forensic
Bridge write-block reader. See
http://www.forensicpc.com/products.asp?cat=46 ... I hook it up to my
PC using USB and will read anything from either a Linux VM or OSX.
This works best, because mounting bad drives read-write can cause
issues, but mounting them read-only makes things much easier. I
believe this has to do with how NTFS records transactions. If you're
not writing data, you're far less likely to trip over bad blocks, etc.

If you're just doing simple IDE drives, go this route:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1733195&CatId=2779

If you're really hard-up, I have an external IDE->USB enclosure you
could use, you'd just pay shipping from 46219 ($10 or so.) You can
keep it; I'm still paring down my crap for the big move.


On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 4:19 PM, Sandwich Maker <adh at an.bradford.ma.us> wrote:
> problem #1: a machine whose hd is starting to throw bad blocks.  one
> or more have landed in windows files and now it won't boot.  i have
> backups but none recent, so getting it backup-able is desireable.  i
> don't have a windows disk to try repair mode with; it came preloaded.
>
> problem #2: the backup drive also is unhealthy.  i can see the ntfs
> part on another windows pc but i can't go into any of the directories
> or look at files and one directory is missing, and it doesn't show up
> as properly mounted, so i can't unmount prior to removing.  i think
> this is more of a software issue though, as i can look at files on a
> mac, which mounts ntfs read-only, and i successfully backed the mac
> up to the hfs part on the drive.
>
> i looked for tools and found...  too many.  anyone have any experience
> and/or recommendations to help separate the wheat from the chaff?
>
> i'm also in the market for an external drive enclosure, 3.5" pata with
> usb 2 and firewire.  the one i have - from a company that shockingly
> has vanished from the internet - has gone tango uniform.  any help in
> locating a replacement is appreciated.
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
> internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
> adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought
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-- 
-Jon
Jonathan Katz, Indianapolis, IN.