[RESOLVED] Partition problems

I have a customers Maxtor hard drive that has issues. The drive wont boot at all, causing the PC to reboot as soon as the first Windows splash appears.
In a seperate PC, it casues the same issue. Add it as a USB drive via a USB/IDE connector and it recognizes as a Maxtor drive in device manager, but not seen by Windows. Partition Magic (used with the vain hope of fixing file issues) freezes with a partition error. GetDataBack cant see it at all. RStudio freezes completely. The Maxtor Maxblast test diagnostic run from boot up tells me the drive is error free. This then appears to be a partition issue. active@ntfs recognises it and can actual see files and folders. One at a time it will copy files onto a FAT32 drive ive hooked up. Try copying folders, and the process fails after about 20 seconds, causing the PC to freeze up. Ive got 55Gb of data to get off it. Does anyone know of another program that will help? PLeeeeease! :kiss:

I would try setting it in a sealed plastic bag and put it in the freezer overnite.
Then have a system ready to do the copy and pull it out hook it up and try the copying then

Thanks, but the drive spins up fine. Drive hardware integrity is fine, and it passes the Maxtor advanced diagnostic - yes I agree teh freezer trick does occasionally work for hardware issues, but this is a partition issue.

Ive found active@partition recovery on the Ultimate boot CD, which can see all folders, and is at the moment attempting a drive image copy (as opposed to the file viewer I used earlier. Its been running for over an hour now, and seems to be working. At the rate its going it will be morning before I can verify what its copied.

55 gigs doesnt take more then an hour to copy
Even though you dont see a hardware issue i suspect one
In fact I just ghosted an 80 gig harddrive with 2 partitions in like 40 minutes.
And it has hardware issue s

Thanks for the reply, but I think you are missing the point.
55 gb data rescue would normally be fairly simple, but I cant access the data for more than a few minutes, and then only with a bootable program such as active@. I CANNOT use Windows. The image copy has failed as well.
active@ is the only program that can even see the files. Copying one at a time does work, but it will take forever. Copy a folder and it freezes, copy a file and it works. Still, Ive managed to get the customers uni work off, and I think theyll settle for that.
You may be right and there is also a hardware issue afterall, but the Maxtor and IBM advanced hdd diags say its fine.
However, it would be useful to find a program that did this job a little more efficiently, or was able to repair the partition/mbr properly.
Once the customer is happy theyve got their essential data off im going to low level the drive and see what happens.......

Have you still got a copy of Ruslan's recommendation MHDD?

Or maybe HDAT2 could be worth a try?

Running scan with MHDD now.

Also taking a look at HDAT2. Never seen it before, thanks.

Have tinkered with MBR after a scan in MHDD. Drive now recognised by Windows although original ntfs partitions have gone, but GetDataBack is now doing its stuff. Should be fine now. Thanks. :)

FYI.......
The original partitions were toast. MHDD fixed the mbr issue. Data rescue took just over two hours for scan and rescue using GetDataBack, and was very easy. All data rescued.
Ive since low levelled the drive, tested it, re-partitioned it and installed XP. All seems fine with the drive. Thanks.

Good luck!