I'll preface that I acknowledge that I've added too many tech request threads recently. But I've been hit with something quite nasty this time.

I had my boot drive in a raid 0 array (smart, I know), along with another partition I used for storage on the same array (i.e. the boot partition and another one both on the same RAID array). Something happened with one of the two drives that were in the array (they were two seagate barracuda SATA 160 gigs each; the RAID summary after POST says "an error has occurred" next to one of the member drives. Nothing much else.), causing things to go to hell in a handbasket. After running the "seatools" utility, the disk itself is physically fine (I think? I did a quick scan and a full surface scan), but the file system is corrupted to all hell.

Using the windows recovery console, I can *see* all my files, and windows recognizes the partitions I made, etc. Windows tells me to replace the system/config (or somesuch) directory when I try startup normally. However, I dunno if that would be the right course of action if my file system is corrupted?

Anyway, I have this knoppix liveCD that I had for just such a situation, but I'm not that well versed in it's use (posting from Konqueror now, heh). Knoppix recognizes one of the partitions, but says that:



However, for the boot partition it says that:



I would run CHKDSK from the recovery console, but I've heard that many files become corrupted in the process. I just want some files off (around 200 mb worth), but I want them to be intact. It seems (from what I've heard) CHKDSK isn't all that reliable.

So, I humbly ask you, who ever read all that:
1.) Should I follow window's suggestion to replace that "config" file?
2.) Should I try to fix the masterboot record/or fix the boot sector via the console?
3.) Should I run chkdsk as knoppix suggests?
4.) Is there anything else I can do?
5.) Any other forums I bother with my inane questions?

All I know is that I want my files off of there; I care not to have a functional system otherwise. Some files are irreplaceable (pictures, some documents) and have a bit of personal value to them. It's frustrating that I can *see* the files in the recovery console, but I cannot move them off (it seems).

Also, when using the recovery console, I can't seem to actually copy any files off from the windows CD; although I haven't looked into that much and maybe a bit more googling would find the answer.

Oh yeah, it's just a software raid (I think?) it's done via a controller on my intel board.

If anyone read all this, my sincerest thanks.

CHKDSK in the recovery console will be fine. Don't worry.

One important thing I forgot to mention was that chkdsk froze (I was not using the /p or /f commands at the time though) at 19% every time.

It is possible that the HD may be dying.

How old is it and what brand?

I had a hard drive do something similar not too long ago. I was pissed. I had to get a new hard drive.

Seagate Barracuda, around 1 1/2 years old.

I've heard that Seagate hasn't been that good since Maxtor bought them awhile back. (Maxtor drives themselves are usually junk within a year or two)

The only drive brand that I can still feel good about recommending is Western Digital.

1. Seagate bought Maxtor

2. Maxtor drives are just as good as any other drives out there.

Hard drive are spotty creatures. Everybody has their horror stories. I've heard plenty about WD. I kind of figure that the company with the longest warranty (Seagate) is probably the most confident in their drives. Still, it's buy no means a sure thing. They have delicate ultra fast moving parts, and things go wrong. It's a miracle they last as well as they do.

The hard drive that came with my computer in 2001 still works just fine. It seems like a pretty random thing as far as dying or not goes.

Hard drive didn't fail, it was the MBR got corrupted... somehow. In any case, I'm recovering my files using the nero plugin in BartPE. Ordered a new hard drive as well, because I need a boot drive that isn't RAID 0.

Networking is giving me a problem, but that is another story.