Files with I/O Errors preventing access to full folders?

[SineSpe]

So I just recently had my computer's harddrive crap out on me in the process of trying to relocate my files to an external harddrive. Since i cannot boot Win 7 from my HDD, I'm using Xubuntu 12.10 from a CD to boot.

When trying to move my files to an external hard drive, i receive the error "Error when getting information for file '/media/...xxx.mp3' (or whatever the file happens to be) and it's detailed as an "Input/output error."

There's no doubt that this is due to bad sectors on the disk. When commanding dmesg, i receive:

end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 50748707
Buffer I/O error on device sda3, logical block 2493348
ata1: EH complete

Thing is, these bad sectors are also preventing me from opening folders. If i try to open a folder with a bad document directly in it (not in a subfolder), an error message displays "Failed to open directory "Folder" and it's because of the bad file.

I need a way to get into these folders to transfer all the files that aren't effected by the bad sectors. My second goal is to repair the damaged files if necessary.

I've already created and saved a 278GB image.dd using Testdisk onto my 1TB external. I was told i could go back to this if anything were to go wrong when trying to repair the original files. However, after completing the image, i received:

Image created successfully but read errors have occurred.

What are the next steps i should take? The only thing i can think of is running a chkdsk on the original harddrive, but i'm still hesitant as to how to go about doing this.

If there's anymore information you need, let me know. My vocabulary with this stuff is pretty limited.

[NikTh]

So this is a NTFS filesystem partition, correct ? A Windows partition. Well, would be better to run chkdsk from a Windows machine to correct the NTFS filesystem.

Also a Linux utility exist to correct NTFS filesystems , but I would be trust more the MS tool for such job. But if you want to try, the utility's name is ntfs-3g.

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g 
sudo ntfsfix /dev/sd??

Where ? , replace it with the drive letter and partition letter. (e.g /dev/sda2)

You can find drive letter and partition letter with

sudo fdisk -l

you will see the HPFS/NTFS filesystem.

Again, better would be to boot from a Windows CD/DVD and try to correct the filesytem with chkdsk .

Thanks

[SineSpe]

Now i do have a Windows 7 reinstallation disc, but when i try to boot from it, it goes to the process of installing Windows. Is there anyway i can simply boot from this disc without reinstalling? It's necessary for me to boot from a disc or something other than my harddrive because the system will run too slowly working from my harddrive.

I'd much rather use chkdsk, because i've read that ntfs-3g might not be able to get everything that chkdsk would.

[NikTh]

The appropriate forums about Windows 7 are here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...isk-check.html

You will find several helpful topics. I would prefer to ask there for a Windows problem, rather than here.

[oldos2er]

Moved to Other OS/Distro Support.

[mips]

So this is a NTFS filesystem partition, correct ? A Windows partition. Well, would be better to run chkdsk from a Windows machine to correct the NTFS filesystem.

Do NOT run chkdsk on a drive with bad sectors, it will just make things worse.

[SineSpe]

Do NOT run chkdsk on a drive with bad sectors, it will just make things worse.

That's what i've heard, which is why i'm trying to be cautious and also made the image.dd in advance.
What do you recommend i do in order to access and transfer the GOOD files from the folders that refuse to open?

[NikTh]

Do NOT run chkdsk on a drive with bad sectors, it will just make things worse.

LoL..

and what you suggest?

I know only chkdsk as a powerful tool and the one (MS official) to correct such errors. I've ran it twice. Well, the truth is that the first time (external HDD) I've lost all of my files. The second time though (internal HDD), everything went well and the problems have been corrected properly.

[varunendra]

That's what i've heard, which is why i'm trying to be cautious and also made the image.dd in advance.
What do you recommend i do in order to access and transfer the GOOD files from the folders that refuse to open?

I would recommend to run photorec on the saved image file to salvage whatever files were accessible (possibly ignoring filesystem errors) at the time you created the image. If the state of the physical drive is not getting worse with every use (that is, the errors are not due to physical wear & tear), you should be good to do it on the drive itself. But in case of doubts, I'd recommend to work on the image.

Using photorec or testdisk on the image file is a read-only operation, so it will not affect the image. It is as easy as using them on the physical drive. So go with whatever you prefer.

If using image, I *think the appropriate command will be -

sudo photorec <path to your image.dd>

Photorec step-by-step : http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

[mips]

That's what i've heard, which is why i'm trying to be cautious and also made the image.dd in advance.
What do you recommend i do in order to access and transfer the GOOD files from the folders that refuse to open?

Some things might already not be possible to recover.

Create an image file of the drive or partition using GNU ddrescue and ensure you enable the log file. Once you have an image you can mount it and try to recover from it. You can also use tools like testdisk/photorec on the image.

You can also have a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Do me a favour and post the S.M.A.R.T. info for the drive here, you can get that info using the smartctl command or you can use a gui called GSmartControl.