chkdsk /r corrupted my data to 0 bytes?

[Tony_786]

So I ran chkdsk C: /r from command prompt from within dos, as my HDD wasn't booting into windows, because it wasn't being recognised, the scan was running fine until it reached 75% and froze their for about an hour, at which point I became really agitated as I thought that the HDD had become corrupted, so I shutdown the computer via the power switch.

When I powered on my computer again this time strangely enough it booted into windows and this was after several unsuccessful attempts, however after the windows loading screen had completed loading all the drivers and just before booting into windows chkdsk popped up with all these files scrolling down my screen stating recovering orphan files, the files were in there thousands and it took about 10 mins showing the same message over and over again, once completed the pc booted into windows, however upon checking my hard drive status I had noticed that I had lost about 5GB of data from my hard drive which is (250GB) and was almost full with about 8GB remaining before having this issue, so from about 8GB of free space left, it now showed up as having 13GB free space. Later I checked through all my personal folders and had realised data corruption everywhere throughout the hard drive, as loads of my personal files as well as system files had become corrupted and are now showing up as 0 bytes in size.

This has totally stressed me out and given me many panic attacks and now I’ve become depressed as a result of this incident, it's had a real bad effect on my mental health, as I just can't figure out a way to recover back my data which was very important to me.

What makes this situation even more unbearable is the fact that this could have all been avoided if I hadn't made a bad judgement call & shutdown my system while chkdsk /r was running at 75% and what makes this even more traumatizing for me is that there was nothing wrong with the HDD to begin with, the only reason it wasn't being recognised or booting was because the molex power cable wasn't plugged into the drive properly, so the realisation of the fact that all this headache and stress could have been avoided to begin with by only a little bit of patience and intuitiveness, has really tipped me over the edge and I’ve gone into depression now, as I made a fatal human error and a bad call of judgement, which in turn has led me to loosing my precious data.

Please can anyone with the know how or expertise help me figure out a way to get my lost/corrupted data back as it would mean the world to me and I’ll be ever so grateful in-return.

By the way my system specs are as follows:
- Windows XP Home Edition (SP3)
- 250GB Hitachi HDD
- Pentium 4 3.0GHz
- 4GB ram
- ATI Radeon X800XT PE 256mb

No HDD issues or problems what-so-ever, such as mechanical noises or system crashes. Only data corruption as a result of shutting down chkdsk /r at 75%.

Will running chkdsk c: /r again fix my corrupted 0 byte files or will they still remain corrupted even after running chkdsk /r again?

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Kind regards,
Tony

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... advice? backup what you got... before pushing that "EASY button" again... This IS your Moment of doing the right thing in the Right order. B /

You are not the Only one this has happen too... it is the Digital AGE of paperless "1's and O's" ...also the device in question is a mechanical device... all mechanical devices Can and will wear out... but in your case you let the software and power button re-shuffle all the Ones and zeros... and your asking us to give you permission to do all over again? B /


1) always have back up locations, devices and Media to save and store important personal Data...
2) Never fill a HD up to MAX capacity... and expect it Run and perform like NEW... or complete a defrag or cleanup in a few minutes... walk away from the system and let it complete.
3) When you encounter a problem with any device... take the time to open the hood, take a Hand and Eye ball walk around it, before jumping to conclusions.

What Type of DATA, programs, APPs are we talking about here... You need to de-stress and do a walkabout to the things that are still GOOD... Your concentrating on all the "BAD items and thoughts right now... and Jumping to conclusions... get all the GOOD data isolated and then you can understand what is missing. B /

If this was a OS drive? then you may want to install it into another computer for the Backup and the sorting of all Good DATA... B /

 

[James Mason]

so your computer looks to be like, a decade old or something, if so, it's very possible your HDD was on the verge of dying.

CHKDSK will examine the whole HDD and mark what it detects as bad sectors on it to "not store data here", if there was data there, that may explain why you lost a bunch.

Unless you had a backup of your data, it's gone, if you want to spend like $10,000 you could probably pay a digital forensics professional to go in and recover what they can for you, but it won't be everything, as data that is lost, is lost.

Your probably really borked up your system by improperly ending the chkdsk program, and you'll likely have to reinstall the OS get the whole thing working right again.

Chkdsk also only fixes SYSTEM files, which means the files Windows needs to run, not any other personal data or program data.

 

[Tony_786]

Thanks for the reply guys, as your feedback was much appreciated.

Ironsounds, I've backed-up as much good data as I could fit onto an external USB back-up drive.
What I wanted to know was that is there any way possible to undo or reverse the damage that has been done to my corrupted data files, as any help would be much appreciated, is there a way that I could possibly restore the ones & zeros that have been re-shuffled as a result of improper shutdown of chkdsk /r program to their original state, as they were before I ran chkdsk and messed everything up. Data recovery software doesn't seem to be helping me recover much if any lost data as I've tried a few recovery softwares, such as Getdataback and a few others with no success. I guess your my last hope of trying to recover any of my lost data, so I'm really counting on your expertise and knowledge to come up with a solution for me, as I'm really stressed out and can't think clearly anymore, as my mind feels really cloudy and fogged up and this issue has really knocked my neurons for a sixer and re-shuffled my neurotransmitters, therefore it feels like not only has my HDD data been corrupted but also my neurological data has also had some sort of corruption due to all the stress, panic and anxiety caused as a result of this human error, oh dear I should have known better, where was my common sense when I needed it most.

Looking forward to hearing back from you, so please have a think-tank and try to come up with a solution to help me get back some of my lost data, I'm counting on you mate.

Thanks for your time and do take care.

Kind regards,
Tony

 

[James Mason]

No, nothing can put the 1s and 0s back, because there isn't any record of what was there.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... Can you add the HD into another Win OS computer... and try to read/sort the files, that was completed from the Chkdsk operation before it was shutdown?

 

[Tony_786]

Computer still seems to be booting-up absolutely fine with no issues what-so-ever, no crashes, blue screens or errors popping up while loading or running Windows XP. Also hard drive seems to be running fine to without any issues, no mechanical sounds, ticking or grinding noises. Only problem that I have right now is trying to recover my lost/corrupted data & trying to restore my personal corrupted files that have become 0 bytes in size, is there any way of recovering my corrupted data, any help would be much appreciated, thanks for all the advice so far.