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Author Topic: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt  (Read 5901 times)

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ShaneTFletcher

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Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« on: July 08, 2013, 02:09:48 AM »
Hi all, yesterday I did a recovery on a hard drive where ALL the customers files where deleted. The files where removed around 6-8 months ago, probably longer.

However, I used a software called Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery - Professional to recovery the files which the customer wanted. After selecting the .docx files, the recovery was successful but the .docx files will not open as they are corrupt.

Here is what I have done so fair to try and fix this -
Used several third-party software to repair the document files, no luck.
Used Microsoft Office 2010 repair but no luck.
Opened the documents in a free software like OpenOffice, this just came up with loads of characters including #, $ and such.
Sending the document via email to gmail - I read this on the internet and it apparently worked. Not for me I'm afraid.

Just to add - I am using an USB to SATA kit to do this recovery.

So there any other ways to get this documents up and running? Using different recovery maybe?

Here is the history of the hard drive -
The desktop with this hard drive in went to a computer shop due to the motherboard failure. After installing a new motherboard, totally different to the original motherboard, the desktops OS (Windows Vista) product key would not work, as its an OEM version. Not sure exactly why this computer shop did what they did but they basically reinstalled Windows Vista, removing ALL files with it. They still could not get the product key working so they used the other hard drive (as the desktop had two) and installed Windows 7 on it. The other hard drive (with Vista) as placed as a optional drive and left to do nothing. Now, I have that hard drive trying to do a recovery on it.
This happened several months ago.
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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2013, 09:13:46 AM »
Welcome to CH.
Thank you for posting. Perhaps some members will ofter suggestions.
It would appear that you have done all you could.

The problem Y with the product key has happened to others. One would think  big rich Microsoft could make it easy for  users to restore the system.

Actually, they do offer some help. But you have to look for it.
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cu_sc_prodact_master
The link above is helpful, but might not fix your specific issue.

patio

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2013, 09:34:57 AM »
I would say that with the way the shop totally buffooned the install that your only hope at this point would be a data recovery service...
Stop using the HDD.
Let's face it...an OS has now been installed to that drive 3 times now from your info...
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ShaneTFletcher

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2013, 12:39:22 PM »
The product key is not the problem, this topic isn't about the product key.

The issue is the recovery on the files, that's it.

The OS was re-installed once on that hard drive, removing the files. There was nothing more done to that hard drive.
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Salmon Trout

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2013, 12:45:16 PM »
Quote
Stop using the HDD.

Totally agree.

your only hope at this point would be a data recovery service...

Totally agree. But don't expect too much.




ShaneTFletcher

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2013, 12:43:24 AM »
Louiseshivers1 - This is a customers hard drive, therefore the information I have is limited. However, the person did not state that a virus was on there at all. The data was purely wiped because of a computer shop not knowing exactly what they were doing. The hard drive is fully working, no corrupt sectors, no errors via chkdsk.

Edited - spam post above removed

I was speaking the live chat on here and was told about the document word ghost files. It seems that if I am unable to access these files, I'm unable to repair the corrupt documents.

Just 1 question - As I did a full advance recovery on the hard drive, the size was over 1000GB. What are the chances of ALL of this data recovered, placed on a 2TB hard drive and seeing if the word documents can be repaired that way? This way would determine if the ghost files exist, also every other data is intact (well, recovered).
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 01:38:17 AM by Calum »
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kimmyh51



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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2013, 08:44:21 AM »
try recovering the docx files again with a different recovery solution? Maybe the one you used was not able to recover them and another recovery tool might be better at recovering that particular type of file?

 I assume that the software you are using is not a really old version (ie before docx files were invented by microsoft)?

I dont know if this is any use - it may not be - I have only recovered files twice - one on a laptop running ubuntu after a power brown out. and the other time was when I had my laptop running - playing music while I was doing stuff outside.  I came in and move the laptop, and I think what happened was windows had popped up with the stupid message it often does with external drives 'you must format this drive before you can use it... do you want to format it' (or something along those lines).  Anyway Id picked up the laptop and moved it without actually looking at it, and came back in later on to find my 2TB external drive with loads of stuff that was important, had been formatted - Thanks windows!  That message must have popped up after Id plugged in the external drive, and when Id moved the laptop I must have inadvertantly hit a button and said 'yes' to format it.

So I did a quick google for something to try and recover it. and found an app called recuva.  I cant compare it to anything else as it is the first and only thing I tried.  The search process takes forever, and I found I had to check 'enable deep scan' every time or it wouldnt find anything.  However, everything I have restored with it so far, as been fine - no problems using the files (mostly photos and movies though). 

The only problem (and this might well be standard for this sort of tool, you would probably know that better than me) is that I couldnt restore it back onto the drive it was on, so I have be4en for months now, slowly working my way through the files, as my laptop and other externak drive dont have enough space to fit 2TB of data - or close to - and I am too tight to buy another drive ;-)

Anyway its freeware so I figure, if your client is desperate to get these docx files back - what harm can it do you to try this and maybe any other tools you have available, or find by your own googling.

If you do use it , Id be interested to know whether it was any use ?

Was the drive wiped - as in formated or partition deleted? or something else?

Regarding the word doc ghost files - I assume you mean the files that start with $....? And are usually created when a person has a doc open - and removed when the doc is saved?  I am wondering how the pc could have been at a computer shop (you said it was wiped because of computer shop not knowing what they were doing) and at the same time have files open and in use?  Is there some reason that users might not have been able to properly save and close these docs?

I think there are some tools that you can get which claim to be able to repair files without the temp file - I did a search on it once when an excel doc was corrupted and excel when crashing had removed the temp file as well.  I never ended up trying any of them, but do remember there were a number of tools claiming to be able to restore MS docs without the temp file.  No idea whether any of them actually could - but if you are desperate it might be worth doing some googling on?  I wonder if there is any way to find out from the files you do have - whether they are 'expecting' a ghost file, if you know what I mean - some sort of flag that the file has when it is in use.   Knowing that would allow you to check if all the docx files were considered 'open' when the disk was wiped, and may also be something you can manually turn off, so that the file will open for you and not insist on there being a ghost file available first.

I hope that if you solve this you will post back here? As your solution might help a lot of others (ie me :-) when ms office crashes corrupt spreadsheets, word docs, and so on.... 

Oh the recuva tool I have used is at http://www.piriform.com/recuva.  Ive only used it on the one pc to restore a whole pile of avis,  and some jpegs and other bits and bobs, after that accidental format - but apart from being really slow, seemed to work ok - as long as you choose the deep scan option.

Edit: Hmm ok, just looked at the recuva web page and their features refers to recovering word docs but specifically says it rebuilts them from the temp files.  So I guess unless it is able to find the temp files where the other one didnt, then it probably isnt going to be able to get them back for you either. 

If you solve this Id be keen to know how?
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kimmyh51



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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2013, 08:57:43 AM »

Just 1 question - As I did a full advance recovery on the hard drive, the size was over 1000GB. What are the chances of ALL of this data recovered, placed on a 2TB hard drive and seeing if the word documents can be repaired that way? This way would determine if the ghost files exist, also every other data is intact (well, recovered).

what sort of options does your recovery tool give you in terms of selecting the type of files you want to restore?  Can you/or do you need to maybe check options to tell it to "recover hidden files" or "recover system files"  as I think those $.... files are seen by windows as either hidden or system (or both) and it might be that standard restore settings dont look for and recover them - that you have to go into whatever options/advanced options it has to select that - as it would probably be turned off by default to avoid restoring a whole pile of temp files and other crap like 'thumbs.db'...

have you tried doing a restore again onto anotehr drive and selecting/searching (whatever the tool has available) to just restore docx and $* or something like that Or an option which will show you all files - or maybe all files by date or file size (so you can put the size at under 1mb and get a good portion of the docx and temp ghost files that way if they are there - without having to trawl through everything on the drive..?

There is bound to be a way to get those ghost files off the drive if they are there
PEBKAC tends to cover most PC problems, including my own..... :-)

'If it aint broken... you'll never learn how to fix it yourself - so go ahead and break it'

Ive finally started to put all the links to my huge collection of free software online
Link removed...under review.

And, yup its actually all legal...

Salmon Trout

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2013, 10:43:22 AM »
my 2TB external drive with loads of stuff that was important, had been formatted - Thanks windows!  That message must have popped up after Id plugged in the external drive, and when Id moved the laptop I must have inadvertantly hit a button and said 'yes' to format it.

"Thanks Windows"? That was you, not Windows.

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #9 on: July 09, 2013, 01:25:33 PM »
"Thanks Windows"? That was you, not Windows.

Quote
PEBKAC tends to cover most PC problems, including my own..... :-)

ShaneTFletcher

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2013, 12:41:36 AM »
I didn't even know Recuva had a deep scan. Just looked now in the options and there it was haha. Going to try a different recovery program and see what happens.

Just to add - The repair tools wont work sadly :( I tried several basic to advanced programs to do this and none came to light.

I will do other options and see what happens. If successful, I will post back with a fix to my issue and hopefully help other people with similar or same issue.
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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2013, 01:08:01 AM »
Hi

With stella phonex there is the option to scan and recover all files of a certain type like docx. Was this how you recovered the files.

It would pay to ask the customer did they log on with a password to windows, in Vista business and ultimate this can make some files encrypted which will show the files as rubbish when they are recovered.

Do the docx files look to be the correct size in bytes if all the files are 1 sector in size 4096 bytes then you may have to search the drive for a word  like Manchester if this was used in a document and see if there is ascii data either side of the word if so that document should be available to view. Use a disk hex editor to do the search.
If stella phonex is finding  1tb of data you need to have a drive to copy this to to start sorting the data so a 2tb would be great. As you are moving so much data save the scan in stella phonex if you haven't already and attach the drive to a sata cable. It will take to long to copy 1tb of data over usb .

But as all the other files came back i think there is encryption turned on for word files .

And no data recovery software is going to recover from that

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ShaneTFletcher

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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2013, 10:49:04 AM »
Lisa_maree - thanks for your reply. I just scanned the hard drive in full, not searching for any file types. I just recovered the document files as you can choose after the scan.

The old OS on that hard drive was Windows Vista Home, and possibly a password was entered.
I did check the file size of each document and its around 14kb which seems correct for the amount of data inputted.

If the files has an encryption, that basically means its a no go in recovering the data if I'm right in saying?
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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2013, 03:01:13 PM »
Hi Shane,

Windows Vista Home does not have the high enough security to encrypt files so that is good. Seems strange that other files will open but not the word documents is this correct ? . Unless the customer is a business it is very unlikely they would have used the office security features so can rule that out  .
You said the files were about 14kb what size was the orginal drive ?
Have you checked the drive with a hex editor for an ascii string that is only in the word documents.

Lisamaree
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Re: Hard Drive Recovery, doc files corrupt
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2013, 04:45:30 PM »
If they are 14k they are only shortcuts or file tags...and not the files themselves.
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