Hi
I had an “UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME” a couple weeks ago and went through WinXP recovery console to use chkdsk/r, which said there were one or more unrecoverable errors, and then used fixboot which switched my ntfs hard drive to FAT. So I’ve lost all my files. I have since tried 3 different low level data recovery programs; recover my files, File recovery Pro, and Zero Assumpion Recovery. They all seem to find files but every one of them freezes once the disk gets to 3% (specifically physical sector 5515264 of 156295439) and freezes XP along with it. If I scan up to sector 5515263, everything is fine. If I try to scan anything after that, even starting 300 sectors after it to try and bypass the bad spot, the whole system locks up. It happens with every program that gets that far. I even tried running windows’ chkdsk and the system locks up around 3%. It seems to be bad drive obviously, but what kind of pysical problem would let the drive work until you get past 3% of the way in? I don’t have enough experience with the nuts and bolts of HDs to know. Any help?
Oh, the drive came with my Compaq Presario 5420 US and has been working fine for a year and a half.
