Probably a forlorn hope...Can I restore from a "corrupted" image?

Some months ago I put an image of my desktop's HDD on my laptop (running WinME). Subsequently my laptop has become unusable (and unrepairable) and all the files on its HDD - including that .tib file - have now been copied to a USB hard-drive (format FAT32) connected to my desktop PC. But when I try to explore that disk image on my desktop PC (running WinXP, format NTFS) I get a message saying it's not the most recent (which is true) and that I must first load the most recent image (which is no use since that doesn't contain the .tib file I'm trying to open).

If I instead try to restore from that .tib file I get a message telling me that it's corrupted.

If it really is corrupted, how can this have happened? Or has the problem something to do with a FAT32-NTFS or WinME-XP incompatibility? Is there any workaround? I really do need to extract/copy some very precious data which is in that .tib file and for which I have no other backup.

 

Have you tried opening TI with the USB drive connected? From there you may be able to mount the image, explore and copy the data you require. To go straight in from explorer without first mounting the image may not work this time.

Xpilot

 

Greetings Robertles,

Your best chance will be, as Xpilot suggests, to attempt to mount the image, which can be done on images that are slightly corrupted. If the file/partition info in that image is corrupted, there is no way to restore that image, and more than slight corruption will render the image unmountable as well.

Corruption can occur from any number of sources: overheated USB external HDs, faulty memory, chipset errors, copying .tibs using faulty hardware, etc. You haven't said what caused your laptop to fail...perhaps that may have caused the .tib files to go bad as well?

Yes, Images are sensitive, and must be intact, or almost intact, for TI to access them. If True Image can't access them, thru mounting, there is very little chance you will be able to access the data they contain. If you suspect that the corruption is slight, you could try contacting a data recovery service for help, though, as the following linked thread points out, they may not be able to help you, either.

Re: One more corrupted archive.....

A word of caution to those reading this (which won't help Robertles now):

Do not rely on images as your sole method of protecting your original, non-replaceable data.

Just to be certain, try restoring the image from TI in Windows, and from both modes of Boot mode. While rare, I have read about some who have had luck restoring an image that wouldn't restore in other modes. You might even try restoring it with the same build you used to create it, in boot mode as well.


Regards

 

Thanks for the replies, and greetings to you!

I have tried mounting the *.tif image (which is on the USB drive) from within that drive with TI. I've also tried using the TI boot disk. Neither worked. Also tried copying the image to my IDE hard drive and seing if it would mount from there - but no luck.

Having now studied the thread to which you pointed me, I think I might just as well call it a day with this image. I'm now not only sadder but, thanks to you, a lot wiser than before. I realise now that I had been investing far too much faith in TI's powers and, from now on, I intend to take more precautions.

Thanks a lot for helping.