How to Locate and Recover Data From Bad Sectors

This article demonstrates how to locate and recover data from corrupt hard drive sectors using Windows XP’s Recovery Console.

How to Recover Your Data

Use the Recovery Console tools to find and recover data from faulty sectors on your hard drive by following these simple instructions.

1. Open the Windows XP Recovery Console, Windows XP’s advanced diagnostic mode, which has tools that will help you locate and fix damaged sectors. Just start your computer using the XP Disc, then press R when setup begins.
2. Type the following command after you’ve reached the Command Prompt.
3. Your hard disc will be scanned for any damaged sectors using the chads command. Chads will recover any data that can be read from any faulty sectors that are discovered.
4. To restart the computer, remove the disc, type quit, and then press Enter.

   Windows should now start normally, assuming that corrupt hard disc sectors were the root of your issue and that chads was successful in recovering data from them.