electrical storm

I received a 300GB Western Digital SATA hard disk drive with the
report that it had been subject to an electrical event (lightning
strike nearby?). It was a XP boot and data drive. There is no recent
backup.

The hdd detects as a second behind the operating system. The hp
recovery partition is evident and properties
indicates that partition is probably ok. The o/s, application, data
partition indicates 0 bytes.

As this is one physical drive why would the HP recovery partition be
ok and the o/s, app, data partition be destroyed?

So far I have tried 3 software tools, R-Studio reports the defective
partition "disk is locked".
Casper recognizes the failed partition but cannot clone due to the hdd
format.
A 3rd software that boots from a floppy fails to recognize the hdd
that is failed.

At this time I am running Acronis in an attempt to clone.

Any other software tools I should try - especially ones that have been
successful under these circumstances.

btw re professional Data Recovery the owner has indicated he does not
intend to proceed in that manner ($'s).

hdtv? <woftbo@gmail.com> wrote:

> I received a 300GB Western Digital SATA hard disk drive with the
> report that it had been subject to an electrical event (lightning strike
> nearby?). It was a XP boot and data drive. There is no recent backup.

> The hdd detects as a second behind the operating system.
> The hp recovery partition is evident and properties indicates
> that partition is probably ok. The o/s, application, data
> partition indicates 0 bytes.

> As this is one physical drive why would the HP recovery
> partition be ok and the o/s, app, data partition be destroyed?

Because that partition was in use when the electrical event
happened and so the data structures of it got damaged.

> So far I have tried 3 software tools, R-Studio
> reports the defective partition "disk is locked".

> Casper recognizes the failed partition
> but cannot clone due to the hdd format.

> A 3rd software that boots from a floppy
> fails to recognize the hdd that is failed.

Then that partition is likely rather comprehensively *******.

> At this time I am running Acronis in an attempt to clone.

> Any other software tools I should try - especially ones
> that have been successful under these circumstances.

I like Easy Recovery Pro myself.

> btw re professional Data Recovery the owner has indicated
> he does not intend to proceed in that manner ($'s).

You can try out Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software a file
and partition recovery utility which recover data lost due to
accidental format, virus problems, software malfunction, file/
directory deletion, unexpected shutdown, or even sabotage.
Stellar Phoenix also provides 'Raw File Recovery' that recognizes &
recovers more than 300 file types including documents, spreadsheets,
web content & images.
Product Information: http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm
Download the demo: http://www.stellarinfo.com/spwdr.exe