Description of hdd regenerator. HDD Regenerator: performing basic tasks. HDD Regenerator Software

Devices designed to store various data are important components of any computerized system. Currently, magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs) are widely used. These devices are highly reliable, but, like any part of a personal computer, they are not immune to malfunctions and failures. In order to restore the operation of the HDD and provide this component with full service, there are many special programs.

Among them, HDD Regenerator took a worthy position. This is a very common and effective solution to a large number of hard drive problems.

HDD Regenerator: how to use

This application is very easy to learn and use. This software tool is designed to resuscitate damaged HDD sectors and restore the surface. A characteristic feature of the program is special principle of coating reversal, on the basis of which the software operates.

The application also has a nice interface and convenient controls - there are no complex add-ons or menus with a large number of levels, and the commands for activating certain options are understandable to any user. However the regenerator has many advantages and functions. We will not consider in detail all the advantages of the program, but will analyze only the main use cases that are most popular among computer users.

So, HDD Regenerator for hard drive recovery is often used in the following cases:

In addition to a wide “range” of options, the developers also included several activation options in this application, - The “regenerator” functions purely at the physical level, therefore it has no dependence on the version and type of OS. Installation, launch and use are possible in the Windows environment, and when activating the program from a disk or flash drive, also in DOS mode. This point should be discussed in more detail.

Launch methods

Windows

Launches from a flash drive

It is immediately worth noting that launching a program from a USB drive It is only advisable in a situation where the hard drive is severely damaged or is the only one. In addition, using a flash drive is also useful for those users who often repair different PCs. So, to make a bootable flash drive, you need to do the following:

  1. Launch the program and click on the “Bootable USB Flash” item.
  2. Select a specific USB device and click on “Ok”.
  3. After the bootable USB drive is created, restart your computer.

If you need to make a bootable disk, then in the program you should click the “Bootable DVD\CD” button and select the recommended burning (writing) speed in the window that appears.

How to use HDD Regenerator 2011

Detection of BAD-blocks

Scanning and troubleshooting

  1. Click on the item “Normal Scan...”.
  2. Next, click “Scan and repair”. This mode performs in-depth scanning and recovery of faulty units.
  3. The scanning range is determined using the arrow keys.
  4. After pressing the Enter key, the procedure itself begins.
  5. Blocks that have been successfully restored are highlighted with a green R.
  6. You can exit the application using any button on your PC.

Restoration using magnetization reversal technology

  1. Click on the “Normal Scan” item, and then on the “Regenerate all sectors in a range” button.
  2. Next you need to determine the range of blocks.
  3. The recovery is started using the C button on the computer keyboard.

As a conclusion, it is worth saying that the resuscitation of hard storage devices using HDD Regenerator is available to all computers user and does not require special knowledge. It should be remembered that any work related to software repair and maintenance of the HDD requires maximum care and attention. I hope that this HDD Regenerator manual will be useful to you.

Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. An inscription that sends legions of goosebumps down your spine, each one the size of a hard drive. According to the law of meanness, this happens when nothing portends trouble. But don’t rush to frantically restart the system - this is a game of Russian roulette. It's better to boot from another medium and do a thorough check. A proven tool will help with this - MHDD.

Introduction

If SMART shows problems, most often this means one thing: the disk is about to start crumbling, and even an extra OS load can have an effect. The next thing you need to understand is whether it is software or hardware. If there are not so many hardware ones, then you can still try to bring the disk back to life.

I think you've heard of products like MHDD and Victoria. They are indispensable for low-level hard drive work and will help you achieve great feats in recovery and diagnostics. About Victoria, now it’s time to deal with the second - archaic, but still mega-useful utility.

MHDD is a small but powerful free program that is designed to work with drives at the lowest level (as possible). The first version was released by Dmitry Postrigan in 2000. It could scan the surface of an IDE drive in CHS mode. Now MHDD is much more than a diagnosis. With MHDD you can do anything: diagnose drives, read and write random sectors, manage the SMART system, password system, noise management system, and also change the size of the drive.

Despite the fact that working with MHDD is also possible through installed Windows, I highly recommend burning the image to a flash drive or external (or second boot) disk and loading bare DOS from there. Believe me, in a hardware issue it is better to eliminate as much as possible all links in the chain that can lead to glitches or freezing of the computer during operation.

Oh those interfaces

Not every interface can be correctly recognized by the program.

SATA interface. There is a possibility that the disk will not be detected in MHDD. The reason may be the operating mode of the SATA controller (IDE and AHCI) in the BIOS. MHDD, alas, does not support AHCI mode. It is necessary to change the BIOS settings. The worst thing is that nowadays not all motherboards support this mode. The only way out is to use a machine with a suitable motherboard or abandon MHDD.

IDE interface. This interface is characterized by the distribution of devices on the loop - master/slave. By default, MHDD hides all devices in slave mode. There are two ways to fix this. The first is to change the location of the hard drive (switch the jumper to master) and check that the settings in the BIOS match. The second way is to try changing the disk number in MHDD to 2 or 4. Well, don’t forget about the configuration file mhdd.cfg, which is in the CFG folder. In this case, the parameter PRIMARY_ENABLED=TRUE is important.

SCSI interface. The SCSI controller driver may not be detected.

USB interface. It is theoretically possible to connect a drive via USB using an additional driver and program settings. The driver emulates the operating mode via SCSI. You also need to disconnect all unnecessary USB drives. The target drive must be connected before MHDD can boot. In config.sys you will need to write: device=X:\USBASPI.SYS /w /v , where X:\ is the path to the disk.

So, I'm taking one of the broken disks off the shelf (I usually put the broken label on them) and now I'm going to try to resurrect it to show you how it works in practice. I ended up with a WDC WD7500BPVX-60JC3T0 screw with a vinaigrette instead of the system and all the files on it.

Since the situation is so sad, I can format the disk inside and out with a clear conscience, which greatly simplifies my task. But first, let's look at a little theory and recovery plan.

Getting ready

Initially, the disk must be initialized by the program, which is quite logical. After this, a surface scan is performed, which gives an understanding of the current state of affairs: MHDD will show the condition of the hard surface. Then you will need to format the disk and check again. Usually at this stage the soft bads disappear, and only the hard ones remain. Next, you can perform the REMAP procedure to reassign the bad blocks to the service area.

The main problem is that the service area is not rubber, and even after all operations the disk needs to be looked after. If bad blocks continue to appear, then the disk, no matter how hard you try, is no longer alive. But in more successful cases, this method should help. As practice shows, after a remap the disk can last for a very long time and even outlive its neighbors in the basket. Other times he dies immediately after the reboot - it depends on your luck, and it is almost impossible to predict the effect.

Thou shalt not kill

It is much easier to destroy a disk than to restore it. For example, everyone knows (or should know) that disconnecting the cable during operation leads to dire consequences. We also strongly discourage you from thoughtlessly switching flags and executing commands in MHDD. Read the documentation carefully and don’t start doing something if you don’t fully understand what it might lead to.

Well, we can get down to business! First, let's create a bootable USB flash drive. For this I recommend - complete instructions and DOS itself are available. When the media is ready, all that remains is to drop MHDD into its root, so as not to once again climb through directories from the command line.

In order for the disk connected to the first channel to be accurately displayed, you need to edit the mhdd.cfg config, which is located in the CFG folder.

PRIMARY_ENABLED=TRUE

As I already said, scanning any device is only possible if it is identified by the ID or EID commands (or by pressing F2).


Scanning

To scan, type SCAN and press ENTER or use F4. A menu will appear from which you can change some of the settings. By default, the starting sector is zero (start sector). The final sector is equal to the maximum possible (end of the disk). All functions destructive to user data (Remap, Erase Delays) are disabled by default.


Let's go through the scanning parameters.

  • Start LBA- the initial sector for scanning, by default 0, that is, the beginning of the disk.
  • End LBA- sector of scanning completion, by default the end of the disk. Sometimes it is more convenient to scan not the entire surface (especially when the disk volume exceeds several terabytes), but only the work area where the OS is located. For example, disk C is 50 GB, then the final area will be 2 * 50 * 1024 * 1024 = 104,857,600th sector. You can calculate it more simply: (volume * 2) * 1,000,000, total 100,000,000.
  • Remap marks the sector as bad in a special service area, after which the disk does not access it.
  • Timeout- delay time for reading a sector, after which the check proceeds to the next sector.
  • Spindown after scan- stop the hard drive after scanning.
  • Loop test/repair- carry out scanning or testing cyclically.
  • Erase Delays- erase sectors in which read delays are detected.

Press F4 again to start scanning. MHDD scans drives in blocks. For IDE/SATA drives, one block is equal to 255 sectors (130,560 bytes).


Here's how scanning works:

  1. MHDD sends the VERIFY SECTORS command with the LBA number (sector number) and sector number as parameters.
  2. The drive raises the BUSY flag.
  3. MHDD starts the timer.
  4. After the drive has completed the command, it lowers the BUSY flag.
  5. MHDD calculates the time spent by the drive and displays the corresponding block on the screen. If an error (bad block) is encountered, the program displays a letter that describes the error.

MHDD repeats steps 1–5 until the final sector. If you need a scan log, it can always be found in the log/mhdd.log file. During scanning you can see many rectangles of different colors. So that you don’t get too scared, here is an excerpt from the certificate:

The presence of red (>500 ms) blocks on a completely healthy drive is unacceptable. If they exist, it is necessary to erase the entire surface of the disk and, if this does not help, get rid of the delays, we can conclude that this drive is no longer reliable enough. Letter-character blocks, for example x, S, etc., are not allowed: they indicate the presence of bad blocks on the surface.

The first thing to be done is to completely clean the surface with the erase command. If this does not help, then scan with the EraseWaits option enabled. If the bad blocks still do not disappear, you should run scan with the Remap option enabled.

We restore

If the scan reveals errors, the first thing you need to do is copy all the data from the drive (if, of course, you need it). In my case this was irrelevant. Then you need to completely clear the surface using the ERASE command, which erases every sector on the drive.


The drive will recalculate the ECC fields for each sector. This helps get rid of the so-called soft-bad blocks. If erasing does not help, run the scan with the REMAP option enabled.


If you see that every block contains an error, do not try to erase the drive or scan with the REMAP option enabled. Most likely, the drive's service area is damaged, and this cannot be fixed with standard MHDD commands.

An attentive reader, looking at the pictures of the disk scan, probably whistled and shook his head sadly. Yes, my disk completely died while I was writing the article. The number of hardware bads exceeded all permissible limits, and by the time the last lines of the article were typed, it was already crunching like a Belarus tractor. By the way, if a disk starts to crumble, you can’t trust it, especially if hardware problems appear. Remap can help when the disc has not yet begun to actively crumble, but defects have appeared on the surface. In any case, even if you managed to fix it, use such a disk only for non-critical data and in no case as the main one.

What do the indicators signal?

  • BUSY- the drive is busy and does not respond to commands;
  • WRFT- recording error;
  • DREQ- the drive wants to exchange data with the outside world;
  • ERR- an error occurred as a result of some operation.

When ERR lights up, look at the top right of the screen: the type of the last error will be displayed there:

  • AMNF- Address Mark Not Found - access to a specific sector failed. Most likely means that the sector is damaged. However, immediately after turning on the drive, just the opposite - it indicates the absence of problems and reports the successful completion of internal diagnostics;
  • T0NF- Track 0 Not Found - zero track was not found;
  • ABRT- Abort, command rejected;
  • IDNF- Sector ID Not found;
  • UNCR- Uncorrectable Error, an error not corrected by the ECC code. Most likely, there is a logical bad block in this place.

Two more indicators may appear at the top: PWD signals that a hardware password has been set, HPA appears if the drive size has been changed using the HPA command (usually used to hide bad blocks at the end of the disk).

Many of us are familiar with the situation when using a computer becomes problematic due to the fact that your hard drive suddenly refuses to work correctly. The most common option is the so-called bad sectors, which cannot be read. One of them is the HDD Regenerator program.

Purpose of the program:

  1. Diagnosis of software faults, treatment of bad blocks.
  2. Hard drive diagnostics () and real-time status monitoring.
  3. If the OS does not boot due to errors on the HDD, you can quickly burn a bootable USB flash drive and bring the hard drive into working condition.

Quite often the cause is disk failure. The above program is designed specifically to fix this problem.

Download the program installer, install and launch. By the way, the latest versions are paid, but there is always an opportunity download demo version, which works with restrictions.

Before launching the program for the first time, be sure to disable all running applications, including antivirus. Otherwise, the operation of HDD Regenerator may be incorrect or completely impossible. The program will warn you if you have not disabled everything and you can correct your mistake

The program interface is simple and clear. After launch, you must scan your hard drive by clicking the appropriate button.

Once the process is completed, you will see a list of all the logical drives of your PC. Select the disk to scan and click “Start process”.

It must be said that all actions will be performed in the command line window, so you will need basic knowledge of English. But even if you don’t have them, it’s okay!

There are only four items in the menu: scanning with recovery of damaged areas, normal scanning (without “treatment”), recovery of sectors in a separate section of the disk, and display of statistics after scanning is completed.

To select an item, you need to enter the corresponding number from the keyboard and press “Enter”. Then we calmly wait until the program completes its work.

After the scan is completed, you can view the statistics:

  • number of “bad” sectors [B]
  • number of recovered [R]
  • and newly found damaged sectors [N],
  • as well as the total number of “bad” sectors [R]

When the trial version of the HDD Regenerator program encounters a bad block, it becomes clear why the program is paid. She cures the first one, and to restore the rest you need to pay for the full version.

On some sites you can find information that the program is unique and “surface magnetization reversal.” This is not true, the program does not do anything supernatural. It simply overwrites poorly readable sectors many times. As a result, soft bads will be overwritten, and for more complex ones the standard Remap procedure will be launched.

The program is quite suitable for treating Soft-Bad blocks, but given that there are good free analogues, it is better to use them. For example, or.

So let's get down to business. Let's look at how to use the hdd regenerator 2011 program. First, download and install the program. Before using the program, disable all programs that operate on the hard drive. For a more comfortable use of the program, you can download and install the crack. It should be accompanied by instructions on how to use hdd regenerator 2011 rus, which will help you install the crack without any problems. We strongly recommend that you strictly follow the instructions, otherwise uninterrupted operation of the hdd regenerator program is not guaranteed.
After starting the program, a dialog box appears. In order to check and restore the HDD in the system shell, you need to click the top button “Click here to restore defective disk sectors directly from under Windows (XP/Vista/7).” In the window that appears, select the disk partitions that need to be restored.

Sometimes the system notifies that the SATA HDD is operating in ANCI mode. To fix this, reboot the computer through the BIOS and select SATA IDE as the mode. Often this cannot be done, and a dialog box constantly pops up during the scan. Select the “Cancel” button, a command line console appears with 4 items:

  • Calculation and regeneration of bad sectors and partitions.
  • Full disk scan with/without data recovery
  • Software version.
  • Information about the progress of the regenerator program.
  • Select item 2 and Start, the HDD checking process has begun.

Please note that restoring a hard drive in this way does not always bring excellent results. What to do in this case?
A bootable flash drive will help us.
To work, you will need a flash drive with a capacity of at least 1 GB. Having launched the hdd regenerator program, select “Create a bootable USB flash drive” and wait until it is formatted and boot data appears on it. Reboot the computer. In this case, you need to go into the BIOS and select the priority for loading the OS via a USB flash drive.
A DOS window appears. In it you need to select sections for diagnostics and regeneration. Having selected the required one, click Start. The process has begun.
To interrupt the scan, you need to press “Esc”, but it is unknown what the results will be. Therefore, it is best to wait for the process to complete.
If the HDD has suffered significant damage, then the hdd regenerator will “slow down” when processing sectors, and the operating time may extend for several hours. Then you have only one option - buy a new HDD and transfer onto it the information that still remains thanks to the hdd regenerator 2011 program.

Hard drive, also known as HDD, is the most valuable space on a computer, because... This is where all the important information is stored. The hard drive, unfortunately, is a rather fragile thing, so problems with it can arise, and quite often. If it happens that your hard drive is damaged, do not panic, because it can be restored using the HDD Regenerator program, which I want to tell you about today.


HDD Regenerator is a fairly well-known program that specializes specifically in restoring damaged sectors of the hard drive. The program is successfully used not only by ordinary PC users, but also by service centers.

The main difference between HDD Regenerator and other similar programs is that it remagnetizes a bad sector, restoring it, and not hiding it, as other programs do.

Beginning of work.
You can try HDD Regenerator by downloading a trial version of the program from the link at the end of the article.

Once the file is downloaded, install and run the program.

Before starting work, be sure to close all programs that access the hard drive during operation (antivirus programs, search indexing, etc.).

First, the program must carry out a scanning process to assess the condition of the hard drive. Select the button in the top window indicated by the arrow in the screenshot below.


A new window will open in which a list of disks that can be scanned will be available. Select the required one and click the “Start process” button.

If you have not closed any background programs, HDD Regenerator will display a warning. To continue scanning, you will have to close the remaining programs that are interfering with the program.


Next, a command line window will appear in front of you, where there are 4 actions to choose from:

1. Scanning with recovery of bad sectors;

2. Regular scanning without recovering bad sectors;

3. Recovering sectors of a specific area of ​​the hard drive;

4. Show statistics after the recovery process is complete.


To scan with the recovery process, select the first option. In my case, I will select the second option to scan without recovery. To select an item, you need to go to it using the arrows on the keyboard and select it with the Enter key.

Next, you need to indicate which segment of the hard drive will serve as the start of the scan. After this, the program will start working.

After HDD Regenerator is completed, the program will display results, including the number of recovered sectors, segments that cannot be restored (this may happen) and other valuable information.

Thus, the program, due to its capabilities, copes with its task perfectly, and it can be safely recommended to users for high-quality hard drive recovery.