Recover Corrupted Hard Disk

You might not believe it when my 5-year-old Pentium III computer is actually still running smoothly all the while. It runs on Windows XP with 512MB of SDRAM. Just few days ago, my sister told me that the computer was not able to start up. Maybe it's just too old, but I never give up so easily!

It showed:
Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Some googling brought me to a Microsoft Knowledge Base page, "How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting". It explained that my registry files are corrupted. Following the instructions, I'm able to bring my computer back to live.

Next, the computer asked for scan disk before windows start up. The scan disk process took a very long time, correcting a lot of files and created a lot of backup files, until my hard disk failed! It stated that my hard disk is full (with those backup files). Then, the computer restarted.

At that time, I thought that other files might be corrupted as well. So, there's no point starting up the windows. I unplugged the hard disk, and hooked it to my PC. I thought copying the important files out of the hard disk would give me a good night sleep. It didn't. As soon as I opened my Windows Explorer to view the partition in that hard disk, I saw weird characters everywhere, especially in document and windows folders.

It made me very sad that all the files in my sister's document folder have gone. I remembered I've asked her to back up her files to my computer few months ago, but she might have some important files that have not been copied to my PC.

Another googling has brought me to Nucleus Technologies Windows Data Recovery Software. I downloaded the demo version of "Kernel for FAT+NTFS". The demo version doesn't allow me to recover the files, but it allows me to look at what is recoverable. The program really does what it claims. I saw everything!

Next, I try to open (view) the file with the program. It worked. I'm able to open most (not all) of the image (photo) files and verify that most of the files has already backup-ed.

Here's the part that I don't understand. Since it allows me to open the file, the image file will be available for me to copy from windows temporary folder. Is this a flaw in the demo program? Still, do purchase if you find it useful! Anyhow, it helped my sister to do the verification.

Hope this helps somebody else!