Mounting Window Drive to Recover Files - Unsuccessful

[countryboy0110]

I have seen this been posted before as far as various linix distributions out there., but I am not able to find anything that helps me.

My Windows drive(500 GB) crashed and I am not able to access anything on it. I attempted the Windows Bootable Recovery, and it has ran numerous chkdisk and all repairs successful but it still loads the recovery system rather the actual Win 7 operating system.

It(Windows Recovery) attempted to let me restore by using an image file, but when it asks me to select the drive, there is no drive that appears. I checked the BIOS and the drive shows(physically).

Now here is what I am trying to do: I am trying to use Linux Mint to see if I can connect the partition and to recover said files. I am not that experience in Linux to attempt to clone the a partition or properly mount the partition to get it to load. Here is what I have done, but still not successful:

An Update: I do see the 500Gb attached but the only folder that is on it is "lost+found".

Any ideas to see if I can recover more? I'm not an experience enough user to use Kali or Backtrack though they may be better choices for this type of process and on a side note. This liveCD has no network support at all. It is an Acer Aspire 7560-sb416

Below is the exact commands I have ran so far:
mint@mint ~ $ sudo su


mint mint # mount /dev/sda1 /home/mint/Documents/ -t ntf
mount: unknown filesystem type 'ntf'


mint mint # mount /dev/sda1 /home/mint/Documents/ -t ntfs
ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read $MFTMirr: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.


mint mint # fsck /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>


mint mint # e2fsck -b 8193 /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

mint mint # fsck /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>


mint mint # mount /dev/sdb1 /home/mint/Documents/ -t ntfs
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
mint mint # mount /dev/sdb1 /home/mint/Documents/ -t auto
mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /home/mint/Documents/ busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1 is mounted on /cdrom
mint mint # mke2fs /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
30531584 inodes, 122096128 blocks
6104806 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
3727 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
102400000

Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 31 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.


mint mint # e2fsck -b 32768 /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>




mint mint # mount /dev/sda1 /home/mint/ -t ntfs
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
mint mint # fsck /dev/sda1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
/dev/sda1: clean, 11/30531584 files, 1934134/122096128 blocks

[Kalyk]

Hello and welcome to this forum!!

First think how important the data on the disk is!!
Because any recovery action can also make the problems worse.
If the information is very important then you might consider making a full image of the drive and use that to recover stuff.

It sounds like the disk is alive and can be connected.
But ntfs is broken and Windows couldn't recover it.
The Linux programs that are meant for this use are testdisk and photorec.
Testdisk can recover filesystems, directories and filenametables and as far as I know photorec can discover the filecontent if possible.
EDIT: Here's a tutorial http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1640

My first choice however would be to get Spinrite and try if that can check the drive and correct hard errors.

[gertjan]

It not entirely clear to me what you did with the 2nd disk (/dev/sdb ?) and creating a file system on it. Why ? If this was your bad disk, you just made life a lot worse.
In general this is what I do to recover Windows files: (1) buy a new disk bigger than your problem disk (2) use ddrescue to create an image of the disk to your new disk. That assumes your disk is in-tact enough to be recognized by the kernel (3) recover things only from the new drive. If you manage to mount the drive copy (which is often the case), try tools like rdd-copy to get files of it. All available in standard Debian packages.

Cheers

G

[Mark Phelps]

In my experience, Windows filesystem utilities have been best at recovering data from former Windows partitions; Linux filesystem utilities have been best at recovering data from former Linux partitions. Your best bet at recovering data in a useful form from the Windows filesystem is to do as indicated below ...

Since your data was on a Windows partition, based on my experience at doing this successfully, my suggestions are the following:
[NOTE: If your PC has a working copy of MS Windows on it, skip to step 4]
1) Find someone with a working MS Windows PC
2) Remove your drive from this PC.
3) Connect your old drive to the MS Windows PC.
4) Download and install the trial version of RecoverMyFiles from http://getdata.com.
5) Right-click the RecoverMyFiles shortcut and select "Run as Administrator"
6) Select the option to Recover a Drive
7) You will get a list of drive, scroll down to find the one for your USB stick or memory card
Select Automatic Driver recovery, press Start button
9) It will run for a while but when done, will show a directory tree in the left pane. Do NOT interrupt it.
10) When done, browse the folders in the directory tree -- and be SURE to check the filesizes of the files you want to recover. If the filesize is zero, the file is trashed and you will NOT be able to recover it.

If the files look OK, you will need to contact Runtime Software to purchase a license for the recovery. You won't have to reinstall the app; instead, they will email you an activation code which you can use to turn on the recovery feature.

According to their website, the "standard" version of the app is $70 USD. They also have a Pro version for $99 dollars, but if you go to their website, you can compare versions and features.

Your data ... your money ... your choice.