Linux hard drive recovery and repair

Hard drive broken? Computer crashed? What now? Useful tips and tricks, tools and utilites for hard disk drive recovery and repair with Linux, for Linux distributions and non-linux operating systems. (ext2 ext3 ext4 reiserfs ntfs fat32, etc.). Next time make a backup! But for now …

[this is a work in progress; most recent updates 2011-08-01]

Linux hard drive recovery and repair

Some sources and resources

Maintenance for prevention of hard drive problems

• Disk Maintenance under Linux (Disk Recovery), January 1st, 1997 by David A. Bandel, “The ins and outs of disk maintenance—what we all should know and DO.”

Repairing a broken linux distro, filesystem, bootloader

Most distros – Fedora, Mandriva, SUSE, Ubuntu, etc. – come with a “fix” or repair option similar to the F8 options available when booting MS Windows. This provides a minimalist environment from which you can test a drive and run automated repairs (eg with fsck). However it’s best if you “touch” a broken drive as little as possible to avoid damaging data further and so using a boot-from-CD (or more commonly now DVD) tool is often best.

• Tomsrtbt
• Knoppix, eg see this review of recovery options with Knoppix.
• UBCD, Ultimate Boot CD

In addition to these options often a drive manufacturer – Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi, etc. – will have a tool to diagnose issues and possibly even perform some automated fixes.

• [industry tools]

Finally there are tools to recover partitions, MFT, rebuild boot sectors, copy back or undelete eleted files.

• TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software. It helps recover lost partitions making non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy. and/or

Recovery of lost files, damaged partitions, broken RAIDS

• Spinrite from Gibson Research: SpinRite v6.0 recognizes and operates on ALL file systems. It can even be used to repair and recover Apple Macintosh and Tivo hard drives by temporarily moving them into an Intel-based PC. It can also be used to check the health of drives that have not yet been formatted.
  
  SpinRite v6.0 brings along and automatically boots a copy of the FreeDOS operating system, so it will run even if you have no “DOS”. It can create bootable diskettes, CD‑R’s, USB Flash drives and other media.
• Photorec despite the name is an application to recover any type of data file not just photos and pictures.
• Seagate File Recovery Software, $99, for either MS Windows (.exe) or Mac OS (.dmg).

Manufacturer recommended recovery companies

Some manufacturers recommend data recovery companies instead of offering recovery tools. Some of these companies (famously OnTrack) offer their own software tools for download as well as offering a mail-in service for repair and recovery of files.

Western Digital’s “platinum” recommendations:

• US: Driversavers, OnTrack (Global), ESS Data Recovery
• Europe/Middle-East/Africa: Attingo, OnTrack, RecoveryLabs
• Australia/NewZealand/Pacific/Asia/China: OnTrack

OEM supplied hard disk drive repair tools

All links tested March 2009.

• Maxtor/Quantum http://www.maxtor.com/en/main/support.html
  • At the tertiary level Maxtor’s site simply redirects to the relevant part of Seagate’s website. Seagate acquired Maxtor in 1996 but still uses the Maxtor brand on some equipment. See the Seagate pages given below.
• Fujitsu http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/storage/hdd/support/
  • Diagnostic Tools
  • UDMA Utilities
  • Flash Utility
  • Change Definition Utility
  • Erase Utility
  • Ontrack Disk Manager®
• Samsung http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/download/supportDownMain.do
  • No direct links available, choose product from the Samsung on site support wizard.
• Seagate http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/
  • Download SeaTools for DOS
  • Download SeaTools for Windows
  • Legacy: Windows Version Linux Command Line Version
• Western Digital http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en; www.westerndigital.com
  • Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for Windows
  • Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS (CD)
  • Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS (Floppy)
  • Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (Floppy)
  • Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (CD)
  • Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows
  • IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade – 3Ware Cards
  • IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade – Non-3Ware Cards
  • Old Data Lifeguard Diagnostic
  • Data Lifeguard Tools 11.0 for DOS
  • Data Lifeguard Tools 11.0 for DOS (CD)
• IBM and Hitachi http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/
  • Install or Optimize Your Drive – Utilities for installing or optimizing Hitachi HDDs
    • Feature Tool – Change various ATA features.
    • Power Booster – Control advanced battery life extender power settings.
    • Disk Manager
  • Analyze, Monitor and Restore Your Drive – Utilities for analyzing, monitoring and restoring Hitachi HDDs
    • Drive Fitness Test
    • Feature Tool
    • OGT Diagnostic Tool
    • SMART Defender

  Other techniques

  Dangerous hard drive recovery tricks

  • Drop it to release a stuck platten.
  • Freeze it (in an airtight bag) to release stuck parts.