I have a primary drive that was borked during an off-line defrag. Attempts to repair from the recovery console did not work. I can still see the files with recovery trialware (DiskInternals) but Windows will no longer boot.

1. Can anyone recommend a partition recovery (file system repair) software that has worked for them ? (paid or free)

2. Other than using a Linux LiveCD, any file recovery software favorites ? (paid or free)

OS is XP (NTFS)
Thanks in advance.

Not knowing what exactly is corrupt or lost it's going to be trial and error until you find something that works. To start off you can have a look at SuperGrub.


http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

Or if you think it's just a matter of undeleting files you could try Recuva, which you can run from a flash drive.

http://www.recuva.com/

I was wondering how you are trying to fix this problem. Have you removed the hard drive and put it in another pc since you can't boot it now, you must have access to another computer if you're posting here or are you trying to fix it without removing? If you need a recovery option that is bootable and you can burn it to a CD then you could also try:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Or if you have the drive in a different pc you could try:
http://findandmount.com/

I can slave it or if I had a bootable repair solution, I would work on it in place.


I have UBCD, just didn't know there was file/partition repair S/W on it.

Thanks, I'll look at that one. Just trying to find a proven performer before I rolled the dice and did any more damage.

"I have UBCD, just didn't know there was file/partition repair S/W on it."

I believe there are four partition tools to choose from. Testdisk might be what you need.

I remember sorting through UBCD now.
Tried TestDisk....it wanted me to restructure my drive's geometry. I wasn't in a hurry to do that.

Findandmount looks interesting....I'll try it tomorrow.
Thanks whappo

You could try Spotmau Power Suite Pro 2008, it offers all kind of recovery solutions.