Yet Another HDD problem

[Sandtoyz]

At this rate are we turning into an IT forum?

Anyhow..
I was doing some drive maintenance,
I have got a SATA with two partitions for data storage.
I wanted to clean off the second partition and resize the main one to use all the hard drive.
I'd got as far as deleting all the second partitions files,
Using Windows XPpro to manage the drive space,
I made a mistake and cleared both drives, - and that was all too easy :o - (late last night and too quick on clicking options?)
Question is -
Can I recover the data that is on there, if so how.
I'm not a guru, but if explained logically, I can fix it (I hope).

[George130]

With the right gear then yes. Don't ask ne how as I have never tried. In theory you can even recover the data after it's been reformated.

[abaddonxi]

Well the first thing you do is restore the backup that you have sitting handily by.:D

Oh well.

So you've already reformatted the drive?

Plug in another drive immediately, the more you write to the drive with the lost data the more you cover over the lost data.

Set the lost drive as a secondary drive. Make sure that there is no pagefile on the old drive.

Get a data recovery program.

Set it running for a couple of days.

Don't get your hopes up. Only do it if you are trying to recover truly essential information. I wiped a 200 page document, three months work; I recovered about twenty pages.

:D And I worked real hard to wipe that file too, it takes a lot of practice to delete it as completely as I did.

hth

Cheers
Simon.

[p38arover]

If you haven't reformatted, will this work (thanks to link from Pedro the Swift) http://www.pctools.com/file-recover/'ref=mgfr

Ron

[p38arover]

At this rate are we turning into an IT forum?

Maybe we need a Computers & IT section?

Ron

[cal415]

Hi,
You should be able to recovery any data that is in a sector that has not yet been over written. There are heaps of different tools that do unformat and undelete etc just gota find one. Try downloading Hirens Boot CD or Ultimate boot CD I use Hirens alot and i am pretty sure you will find all the needed tools on that plus heaps more. You should be able to find the latest Hirens - think its up to about 7.9 now - on bit torrent, try mininova.org



Mick.

[Bytemrk]

If you haven't reformatted, will this work (thanks to link from Pedro the Swift) http://www.pctools.com/file-recover/'ref=mgfr

Ron
That's a really good start, the suggestion earlier that you should isolate the drive if possible is very valid.

If the drive has the operating system on it - the OS will constantly be writing to it - so there is a risk it will overwrite the deleted data, Pull it out - make it a second drive in a different machine and run this recovery if you want to be sure you do not make it worse.. (or work from a bootable cd like BartPE or Knoppix or something)

Cheers, Mark

[Sandtoyz]

I haven't formatted the drive.
from what I understand, I've just cleared the MBR on this disc.
This was easily accomplished from Windows disc manager :o
- can't remember exactly but it only took two mouse clicks to clear it... and no warnings :eek:
It was only used for data storage, not any operating system.

I've only got a partial backup, mainly the program installation files stored on this drive.
The 60+G of data wasn't yet done, was getting round to that.

[HangOver]

I haven't formatted the drive.
from what I understand, I've just cleared the MBR on this disc.
This was easily accomplished from Windows disc manager :o
- can't remember exactly but it only took two mouse clicks to clear it... and no warnings :eek:
It was only used for data storage, not any operating system.

I've only got a partial backup, mainly the program installation files stored on this drive.
The 60+G of data wasn't yet done, was getting round to that.

I'm a bit unclear as to what you might have done but if it is just the MBR, (Master Boot Record) it can be restored easily using a windows XP cd.
BUT if you deleted the partition, that's another story.
I do't remember an option in disk manager for deleting the MBR but I could be wrong?

If you have deleted the partition you "might" be able to recover the data using a free download program, can't rememebr it's name I have it at work, I can looktomorrow.

But to reiterate what has been said unplug your drive and don't use it again until you have means of recovery.

[Bytemrk]

I haven't formatted the drive.
from what I understand, I've just cleared the MBR on this disc.
This was easily accomplished from Windows disc manager :o
- can't remember exactly but it only took two mouse clicks to clear it... and no warnings :eek:
It was only used for data storage, not any operating system.

I've only got a partial backup, mainly the program installation files stored on this drive.
The 60+G of data wasn't yet done, was getting round to that.
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Not sounding real good from woindows disk manager the only things you can do in a couple of clicks are... delete a partition, format a partition, create a partition or change a drive letter, as far as I remember.

I'm pretty sure that windows will not allow you to change the letter of your C drive... so it is sounding to me like you accidently deleted a partition - if it happened almost instantly.

If you go back into windows disk manager, can you see the partition?

If not, the tool that P38arover lists above, does have the option to scan entire drives. Your Primary drive will be listed as physicaldrive0 (that will be the one with the OS most likely) so it is the other drive you need to scan - it is likely to take quite some time on a 60gig drive - do you have space to move the files to that you find?..

Good luck with it,
Mark

[Sandtoyz]

I'm not running Windows at the moment (using Linux),
so had a quick check on another machine...
In Windows Computer Management > Disk Management,
Right Click on a Volume, brings up options, One that says 'Delete Volume'
- someone else care to see if you get asked for confirmation, I don't need another drive to recover ;)
Originally I had two 80G volumes on a 160GB disk, had emptied the second one, was checking for options to merge or rezize volumes when I did this by accident.
Now shows 1 disk, 160GB, but not accessable - can't remember why exactly?

[Sandtoyz]

Yippee, its all fixed...
I Had deleted the MBR record.
Found a utility for recovering crashed discs.
Called Testdisk
Website is http://www.cgsecurity.org

[p38arover]

Excellent! Lucky chap!

Ron