NTFS Repair under Linux

[ldanto]

Basicly....

My Window$ NTFS hard disk has died. Its in my dads pc, and he needs the data recovered. Yeah yeah silly me for not doing regular backups, but there you go. Whats happened is that the NT file system is corrupt, and wont load the contens of the directory because the file table is corrupt. Is there any linux programs that would be able to build the directory tree to allow me to recover the data.

I have looked at commercial versions, but cannot justify paying $99 for a piece of software im not going to use very often, and id rather a lin program thatll run on my primary kubuntu box. Thanks.

Cmmercial software example: http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm

[askrieger]

Re: NTFS Repair under Linux

Is there any linux programs that would be able to build the directory tree to allow me to recover the data.

The issue is whether the directory structure of the HD is intact, but unreachable or hopelessly garbled.

cannot justify paying $99 for a piece of software im not going to use very often

How about $10 (or less) for a CDROM you'll use a lot, and $30 for a book that tells you what to do with the CDROM? The answer is Knoppix, a Debian and KDE based Linux distro (like Kubuntu) that comes on a live-CD (like Kubuntu) that is very useful for healing sick windoze systems. The book is called "Knoppix Hacks". My 2005 edition cost $29.95, and was well worth the price. I don't know what the numbering is in the current edition, or even if there is a more recent edition, but I believe you're looking for the stuff in chapter 7, "Rescue Windows". I don't know enough about your problem to tell whether Knoppix would help, but I know that if you're problem can be solved with Linux, the Linux to use to solve it is Knoppix.

[v_override]

Re: NTFS Repair under Linux

I assume the NTFS disk isn't mountable.

Was wondering if you've tried NTFSFIX yet ?
It can be found in the package called "ntfsprogs" or something like that.

To keep this simple, you can find the package in the "Adept Manager" if you just type in "ntfsprogs".

ntfsprogs contains these tools :
mkntfs - Create an NTFS filesystem.
ntfscat - Dump a file’s content to the standard output.
ntfsclone - Efficiently clone, backup, restore or rescue NTFS.
ntfscluster - Locate the files which use the given sectors or clusters.
ntfscmp - Compare two NTFS filesystems and tell the differences.
ntfscp - Overwrite a file on an NTFS.
ntfsfix - Check and fix some common errors, clear the LogFile and make Windows perform a thorough check next time it boots.
ntfsinfo - Show info about NTFS or one of the files or directories within it.
ntfslabel - Show, or set, an NTFS filesystem’s volume label.
ntfsls - List information about files in a directory residing on an NTFS.
ntfsmount - Read-write NTFS userspace driver.
ntfsresize - Resize NTFS without losing data.
ntfsundelete - Recover deleted files from NTFS.

[askrieger]

Re: NTFS Repair under Linux

Those are the tools, that I was suggesting that you use on the Knoppix disk. I was unaware that they were available on Kubuntu!

[v_override]

Re: NTFS Repair under Linux

Yes, they're available for Kubuntu as well.
I'm using Kubuntu Fiesty, and they already came in handy :-)