recovering files from hard drive including original folders

[ilovefilms]

I have a hard drive which I am recovering files from. I have several programs which allows me to recover the files but it takes all the files, ignores the folders and copies them into one folder. Is there a disk recovery program which will allow me to recover the files and the folders they are in and copy them both onto my backup area? I am currently trying to do that using Odin, Arax, ICare & Stellar Pheonix. An example is that I am trying to recover all folders & files in My Documents and would like to copy them over so My Music contains the stored music along with each artist folder and the songs within, etc. Any help is appreciated.

I currently have the corrupted hard drive in a shell. When plugged into my computer by USB the files can be seen by the recovery software but when I try to click directly on the drive it tells me I have to format this drive in order to use it. Maybe someone can tell me how to recover this boot sector or something so I can read the files directly off the corrupted drive.

[Dr_Bob]

Well here are a couple of facts. First, if you have any program that can get any data off a dying hard drive, use it to get whatever you can because eventually nothing will be able to retrieve the data except a data retrieval center which will cost about $1000. Second, trying all of these programs on a dying drive means that this drive may not be long for this world. Continuous pressure on a failing drive only makes matters worse. I would personally be less worried about the sorting of my drive and more worried if I got all of the information off of it.

That being said, after you have ran a program you know works and got everything it could, I would try Treesize first because if it can scan the drive, you can right click and copy each folder in its entirety. Come to think of it, I cant remember a recovery program that will give you an exact copy of your data the way it was laid out before. To my knowledge, backup programs like those mentioned and Recuva and GetDataBack are made to scour the drive and find as many files as it can. If you want an exact copy of your data you could try imaging the drive with Ghost, Acronis, or another imaging program. If the drive isnt too far gone, thats a possibility.

[ilovefilms]

Thanks Dr Bob. I think the drive is actually fine and not dying. I think the problem is the MBR is corrupted. I will give treesize a try.

OK tried to use treesize but when I choose the drive I get an error that the drive can't be read and there is a crc error. I will try to fix the crc error and try again.

[bucksfanjimj]

CRC errors are typically a sign of a dying hard drive. You need to run diagnostics on the drive. Check our Tutorials section for a guide on using the Ultimate Boot CD. UBCD contains several hdd diagnostic tools.