Lost partition! can i recover it?

justinjustin · #1 03-27-2004, 12:59 PM

A couple days ago i was using a program called WinXP Manager, just to help speed up my slow system. When I turned my computer back on the next day, it simply reset it self before the logon screen. I have a Roxios GoBack installed on my computer thought so I tried to revert the drive to an earlier time but it still didnt work. After trying that i figured out that i cound boot into safe mode.

I have a 200GB drive partition into 130-140gb and 50gb parts (approx.) when I looked in My Computer it said that my G drive (50gb) was unformatted. I ran a few programs on it to see if it could unerase the drive or something but nothing worked! Could I format it and then try to use a prog like that? I dont know what would work. Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks!

ps My basic specs are
Athlon XP 2000+
384mb ram
Windows xp pro
200GB hdd

Play_The_0dds · #2 03-27-2004, 01:13 PM

if you format it the chances of recovering any data on it will get much worse. i have never had much luck with data recovery tools, i have been able to recover a couple things , but it wasnt worth all the effort i put into trying. you may get lucy with data recovery tools and get some of your info back. if the stuff you had can be replaced, format the partition. remember back up your system often on cd, tape drive, external hd....anything. go back by roxio(comes on some norton disk) is not good on xp, even if you disable the system restore on xp, if you didnt disable the restore on xp this maybe why you have the problem now.

justinjustin · #3 03-27-2004, 01:29 PM

alrite, thanks. Ive already had problems w/ bad harddrives and losing data, but i really cant replace all this stuff. Is there anything else i could do?

Play_The_0dds · #4 03-27-2004, 02:46 PM

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3150-2248-0.html?tag=dir
try them all, shareware versions come witha free trail. if you have the time and dont mind downloading......

Azn_tweaker · #5 03-27-2004, 03:12 PM

Could Partation Magic 8.0 Work?

justinjustin · #6 03-27-2004, 06:20 PM

I have partition magic 8, but it doesnt really have any recovery options. I was thinking though, since i have some software that tries to recover files from unallocated space, and since my lost partition shows up as unformatted instead, then what if i deleted the partition with partition magic, and then tried to recover files? Just a thought.

s7p9a2m4 · #7 03-27-2004, 06:27 PM

You are grasping at straws. I'm still lost at how a 50 gig partition with data on it suddenly became 'unformatted'.
If K_C's advice did not help, you are up the proverbial creek.

justinjustin · #8 03-27-2004, 06:41 PM

yea, well im with you, I have no idea how 50gb goes missing either, im still trying out progs from zdnet.

Azn_tweaker · #9 03-27-2004, 07:13 PM

would the ERASER Program work for this problem? did u guys do a "clean XP install"?

justinjustin · #10 03-28-2004, 09:39 PM

clean xp install? well i havent reinstalled windows anytime recently, i just turned it on and my partition was gone. what is the eraser program?

Play_The_0dds · #11 03-29-2004, 12:07 AM

the eraser program i think he means will zero the drive, remove the partitions and the mbr....everything back to a raw disk like a new drive. this is only needed if you have reinstalled several times or have a corrupted mbr,boot virus or performance loss. you can reformat your partition, as for the data recovery it's hit or miss. i have recovered some files ,never all. if you do get the files recovered, make a copy in a couple locations and run a full check disk(scan disk) before you try to use them.

justinjustin · #12 03-29-2004, 08:59 PM

Good news! I recovered my files using Ontrack EasyRecovery. It has a Raw Recovery program which actually worked. One slight problem is that none of the recovered files have any names, only extentions. This kinda sucks for me because I had other OSes using virtual pc, so I have every single operating system file unnamed and floating around in some huge folders. Oh well. Im surprised it worked at all.
If this ever happens to any of you then Id suggest trying out this prog.

However, when I restarted my computer I got a "disk read error" and no boot. My guess is that the raw partition is causing trouble, so I guess ill format it since I already recovered all the files I need. Thanks for your help, if you have any other questions then just post them here!

justinjustin · #13 03-30-2004, 03:12 PM

yea alright, well my crappy hdd wont work now, and i cant use boot floppies to format g:. partition magic floppies just give "error" and some number, and a couple others say there is no harddrive connected!? what the he11 is going on? sorry, but this is really really anoying me. Thanks.

scouse · #14 03-30-2004, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by justinjustin
yea alright, well my crappy hdd wont work now, and i cant use boot floppies to format g:. partition magic floppies just give "error" and some number, and a couple others say there is no harddrive connected!? what the he11 is going on? sorry, but this is really really anoying me. Thanks.

Dam dude you are not having it at all good with the drive..

Have you tried setting the drive up as a slave in another computer or slave on the same if you ahve another drivea nd seeing if it is seen?

justinjustin · #15 03-30-2004, 03:46 PM

no, i havent tried plugging it into another comp yet, but i might take it over to a friends house tommorow. But the thing is that it is recognised. I can use the recovery console on the Win XP cd and view my files, but if i run chkdsk it returns with "chkdsk found too many unrecoverable errors or sumthing like that. And it doesnt recognise that there is a G: partition at all. are there any utilities that you think could help. bootable ones of course. thanks!