Drive won't boot. Trying to recover files

[kookoo]

So I had this crappy old drive that stopped booting.
Drive was initially NTFS on a Win XP machine.
I hooked it up to another PC in an attempt to recover what was on it. (XP as well)
Windows does see the drive and assigned it to E:\
However I can't access it.
Using test disk I was able to see the drive just fine but it seems that the filesystem is damaged.
Is there anything I can do to regain access to that drive?
I apologize for my noobish questions.
I have attached a step-by-step print screen of what I have tried so far.

Step 1


Step 2


Step 3


Step 4


Step 5


So I'm a bit stuck and have no clue what I should do next.
If I hit P I get an error message saying "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged"
If I just hit enter it returns to a screen where I can see the partition and have 3 options.

[Quit] [Deeper Search] [Write]

I wasn't sure if I need to write the partition structure to disk and wanted to ask before I go and do anything bananas.

Thanks for your time in reading this and maybe one of you guys can steer me in the right direction.

[kookoo]

I should probably add that I already tried chkdsk E: /r
and I get the following:

The type of the file system is NTFS.
Unreadable master file table. CHKDSK aborted.

[Fiona]

TestDisk doesn't find something to repair.
But there will be an option you can try.

Diagnose your boot sector and try to list your files.
It worked in some cases and users were able to copy their data.

Start TestDisk.
Confirm through until you see the menu Analyse.
Don't confirm at Analyse but Advanced.
Confirm at Boot with enter also.
Highlight Rebuild BS and hit Enter.
Rebuild your BS will be in progress.
Normally, it takes some minutes.
If it takes too long, interrupt the scan and let me know
It indicates, that your file system is damaged
If it's finished, please post the infos or upload a screen.
If you see a menu List, please highlight it and press enter.
Please let me know, do you see your data or an error message.
To get back to the previous screen, easily press q for Quit.

If you see an error message means that your file system is seriously damaged.
You'll need datarecovery software.
In case you can try PhotoRec.

[kookoo]

Hey Fiona,
and thank you for your quick reply.

Here's what I did so far:


I chose Rebuild BS and it's searching the MFT right now at a solid constant speed.

I was wondering if I should also try the [Repair MFT] option since chkdsk said that the MFT was unreadable??

I'll keep you posted of what's going on next.
And, once again thanks for taking the time

[Fiona]

Chkdsk is an utility to have try to repair a file system but not to recover data.
It can cause more problems.
Also Repair MFT should be used in conjuction with chkdsk.
Infos are available here at the bottom of the page;
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced ... MFT_Repair

Looks like tha you should consider datarecovery software?

[kookoo]

Should I let it finish rebuilding the BS or it does not matter at this point?

It got up to 49170376 / 488375937 (so roughly 10%)

Is there any specific recovery software you would recommend??? that won't break the budget

[Fiona]

Yes, after your post about chkdsk and MFT you can interrupt it.
Looks like our posts must have crossed paths.

PhotoRec is free of charge, but it doesn't recover file names and folders.

Affordable commercial software will be Scavenger and Restorer Ultimate.
You kann download a trial and test it.

[kookoo]

Oh well... we gave it a try.
Thank you so much for your time Fiona.
I'll look into those apps you mentioned.
Do you know if any of them have the ability to recover full file names and/or paths???
There's quite a bit of data on that drive and a gazillion folders and sub-folders.
I can understand that the structure could be really messed up but at least I would like to be able to get the original file names if possible.

Again, thank you for your time and have a great day!

[Fiona]

Yes they can recover file names, folder and if not overridden the whole path!
Just use the trial to test it.
If you're not satisfy with, check the other one.
In Scavenger, use the long scan and Restorer Ultimate the RAW scan.

[kookoo]

Sounds good.
Just wanted to mention that you guys have an outstanding support considering that this is a free product.
Wish some of the big dogs in this industry could provide a fraction of the support you guys are doing for a product.
Keep up the great work!