Hard Drive Repair

[Tinman57]

  I've been using Norton Disk Doctor to repair file/hard drive errors for years.  Since I've gone to XP and NTFS I see that Disk Doctor has lost a lot of functionality and has little "quirks".  I don't know if this is because of the way NTFS works or just because Norton started going down hill since Symantec got involved.
  Anyhow, I never hear any mention of disk repair utilities like Disk Doctor.  Are there better hard drive repair utilities out there, or is NTFS limited in some way?

[Shades]

The NTFS file system has proven to be robust over the years. In capabilities it surpassed FAT32 file system since NT4.0 came out. With each new NT-based Windows version the NTFS file system got some improvements and extra functionality.

So no, NTFS is definitely not limited (when compared with FAT32) and because of its robustness tools like Disc Doctor have (almost) lost their purpose. Of course, the meddling hands of Symantec seem to be able to ruin even the best software.

[MilesAhead]

NTFS is a journaling file system.  Esp. if you have battery backup on you system, when you have a lockup or power out, you tend to get some corrupted files, but not a corrupted file system.

As example on another OS.  I used to run Linux with ext2 file system.  If I had a lockup or power glitch, I had to run fsck on the next boot to fix the file system. ext3 is a journaling file system, so if the same thing happens, it checks the journal on the next boot and any operations that weren't successfully completed are rolled back.  So, like NTFS, you may have a few corrupted files, but the file system is ok.

I just periodically right click in Explorer and use the Disk Tools to check the disk with the "fix file system errors" unchecked.  If it's healthy it comes back and says there was not a problem.

If you check the option to check all the disk sectors, plan to let the machine churn by itself for hours and hours.  Unless you are getting corrupted data, or suspect the drive is on its way out, I wouldn't bother.

[Tinman57]

  I've been depending on Norton for so long I had forgotten all about the Disk Tools hidden in the properties tab, along with a bunch of other stuff I hadn't relied on in years.    Somewhere, buried deep in my help files, I have the direct command to the Disk Tools from an icon, I should put it to use when I need to do a quick check of things.  I do have other file checking utilities that I rely on....... 

[Innuendo]

Not sure if it's what you are looking for but some people swear by SpinRite.

[f0dder]

Not sure if it's what you are looking for but some people swear by SpinRite.

Friends don't let friends use snakeoil SpinRite.

Btw, the distinction should be made between "hard drive repair" and "filesystem recovery" - there's quite a difference.

[Tinman57]

  Well, Norton Disk Doctor used to do both and would tell you what it repaired, with NTFS it don't give any of those options.  I upgraded (if that's what you call it) to SystemWorks 2005 the same time I changed OS's to XP, that's when I discovered that DiskDoctor had completely changed, I don't even know if it even looks at files anymore......

[Innuendo]

Friends don't let friends use snakeoil SpinRite.

I know someone who rescued a hard drive using it, but I have never had reason to use the program. It may be snake oil to you, but evidently it has uses to some people.

However, if you would have said friends don't let friends use Norton products I'd have agreed wholeheartedly. 

Btw, the distinction should be made between "hard drive repair" and "filesystem recovery" - there's quite a difference.

Agreed.

[f0dder]

You don't "rescue a harddrive" with SpinRite, you basically just let the drive kick in sector remapping because SR does read+writeback, whereas something like ChkDsk simple does read-"oh it's unreadble"-flagClusterAsBad. I'd never in a thousand years run SR on a dying drive, since it's only going to stress the drive and risk ruining it even more... the only proper way to deal with a dying drive is grabbing an image of it and then tossing the drive out in the garbage bin. Hell, I'd rather sit and tap the drive with a screwdriver to keep it's read/write heads from getting stuck than I'd run SR.

PS: Norton products used to be good back in the DOS days, when NDD made sense to use. Of course I agree fully with your statement these days, especially after Symantec bought the name.

[jgpaiva]

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Brian+500%22++pcrecovery

Brian 500: please state your association with the program on your post, or you're just blatantly spamming the forum.