dragonfly41 wrote:We are expected to deduce that you are recovering windows (since you refer to CHKDSK).
You do not provide any testdisk.log from a first search or analysis.
You give no information on the OS and partition structure.
Is your hdd (under recovery) now an external drive?
As I said originally, I was working with someone else in another forum on my hard drive issues. I was trying to not waste anyone's time getting into all the details of my entire issue, when my questions are specifically about TestDisk. I was trying to get some really quick answers since the person I'm working with had never heard of TestDisk. I don't need to find any files, so I haven't done a search or analysis. The OS is Vista and the hard disk is broken down into 3 NTFS partitions. The HDD is the operating system drive and is not external as yet.
However to answer your questions.
First:-
Just try searching this forum for "clone".
It is generally advisable to make a copy of (clone) any disk under recovery.
The principle is quite basic. If you screw up your recovery attempts you can clone another image from the source.
The principle is quite basic because you understand it. I do not. I don't have any clone software nor can I purchase any. I used TestDisk to make an image, but all it does is make an image.dd file. There is no information on how to use it or recover using that image.
And you cannot copy (clone) any bad sectors (which are hardware faults).
when you are done with recovery you can use the clone hdd as your backup device.
I don't understand what you mean. I
cannot clone any bad sectors or I
must not clone any bad sectors? As I understand it, when using a clone, the marked bad sectors will also be copied to the destination drive.
Recovery of MFT is separate from the argument for cloning.
Yes you will be copying bad MFT's but as I point out if you screw up you have no fallback.
You can try MFT repair without cloning (at your risk).
As I stated originally, I tried the MFT repair and it failed due to a write error. I'm wondering if an image would be better. If I get a bad MFT no matter what I do, then there is no point in the clone since I'll have a bad MFT that still needs repair. It won't matter that it needs repair on a clone. I have copies of all the files but they are not usable as an image. What I'm trying to avoid is reinstalling Windows and having to reinstall all the programs. I have too many to count and no longer have the install files for some of them.
Second:-
The link I provided refers to
MFT repair.
I'll repeat the relevant section here (in full) ..
The MFT (Master File Table) is sometimes corrupted. If Microsoft's Checkdisk (chkdsk) failed to repair the MFT, run TestDisk. In the Advanced menu, select your NTFS partition, choose Boot, then Repair MFT. TestDisk will compare the MFT and MFT mirror (its backup). If the MFT is damaged, it will try to repair the MFT using the backup. If the MFT backup is damaged, it will use the main MFT.
If both MFT and MFTMirr are damaged and thus cannot be repaired using TestDisk, you might want to try commercial software like Zero Assumption Recovery, GetDataBack for NTFS or Restorer 2000.
I saw this and responded that these softwares are for Data Recovery. I do not need data recovery. I can see all the files on the disk and have access to them. This is not the problem I am having.
Deleting files can be done either from testdisk or using a Live CD to inspect the file structure.
This is the question I had. How can I delete files using TestDisk? I find no such "delete" command in the software. If it is hidden, what is it?
The files are there and accessible but I can't delete them because Windows doesn't think they exist. TestDisk can see them and copy them. I can even access them. I've made copies elsewhere and need to delete these references. No other software (DelInvFile, Killbox, ICE ECC, ZTreeWin) has been able to delete them.
If I can fix the file system, I intend to implement a backup and recovery system once I find free software that will do the job. I'm still investigating the multitudes of software out there. I've looked at free Easeus Backup software but it is trialware. I looking for something for the long term.