Backup Directory or Files Corrupt

[rgcook]

I have a Maxtor 200GB external hard drive that came with Retrospect Express HD. I have a Toshiba A75-S2131 laptop, 3Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 100GB hard drive, which I purchased in July. I had the Maxtor and Toshiba connected through a USB. I installed Maxtor OneTouch II and did a complete backup of my C drive on the Toshiba. No problem.

 

My Toshiba experienced some problems unrelated to the Maxtor. I sent it in for repair. Tech support had to reinstall operating system because of corrupt files (related to my DVD-RAM not functioning). I got computer back, proceeded to reinstall Maxtor One Touch II, hook up the external hard drive, and recover my stored files.

 

The backup began without incident. However, the progress bar stopped advancing after about 20% had been completed, yet files continued to "scroll" showing they were being restored. The backup completed (in a much shorter time period that I would have thought). I went to look for certain files (in My Documents) that I needed. The folders were there, but they were EMPTY!! So, I started again.

 

The second and third time I attempted a restore, similar results happened. On the fourth attempt i got a message that the Maxtor hard drive could not be opened because of a corrupt directory. Even when I double-clicked on the hard drive icon in My computer, it wouldn't let me open it to "explore" and see what was there. I even took the external drive to the service center that worked on my laptop, and they weren't able to open the hard drive to view files. (They didn't put a lot of time into it either because I wasn't paying them .

 

Help! Is there anyway to fix this problem so i can at least retrieve my documents in the My Documents folder. It contains several years worth of irreplaceable material. I know there are companies that specialize in data recovery, but they charge upwards of several thousand dollars, depending on time, amount of material, and difficulty in retreiving. And, even then there's no guarantee.

 

I would like to know what happened, is it a recuring problem, could there have been a conflict, and is there any "fix" or work around so that I can retrieve my backup? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Russell G. Cook

[natew]

Hi

 

Will the maxtor drive open up in Windows? If so you can try to copy the restore points folder to another disk. You can then run the restore from there.

 

On the other hand you might want to get the drive to data recovery before you do to much with it. Drive Savers is a good company to work with.

 

Thanks

nate