Help Reclaim My 170GBs Of Data Please. Else I Die. Today.

johnplayerblue

Hey
I need help restoring a lost partition on a 320GB HD. I did a clean install of xp on the 127GB partition with sp2 but due to bad planning and no backup i can't get to the data on the other 170Gb partition. Xp sees it in administrative tools but its unallocated with all of my lovely data. Please advise as to what steps and what S/ware will stop me from been Killed.
While im here could i also ask what would you use to make a HD as clean as the day you bought it and what would you use to clean Index.bat files every now and again?

kaimera

How did a clean install on a sep partition make xp unable to view the other untouched partition?

Chardee MacDennis

xp works in mysterious ways...

jesus_thats_gre

Linux TBH....



ahem.. Hate when this sorta stuff happens.

H2G2

There are products out there such as http://www.partition-recovery.com/ and http://www.handyrecovery.com, but I have no experience of using them.

johnplayerblue wrote:

While im here could i also ask what would you use to make a HD as clean as the day you bought it?

I use Darik's Boot and Nuke its a great cleaner.

johnplayerblue

kaimera wrote:

How did a clean install on a sep partition make xp unable to view the other untouched partition?

Before posting i was kinda bracing myself for a little bit of "Its your own stupid fault for not backing up" but i to was going on the assumption as i have many times before that my secound partition would not be touched as i do this a few times a yr with my own pc and theres never a problem and i have this system set up in the very same way but to my shock and horror the only drives present after set up was the default 127GB that xp uses when installing and my spare HD and no F drive. This kinda thing happend to me a long time ago under 98 and i got about 75% of data back but this time i really do need 100% of it back as its not my data. You would think by now that i would never take anything for granted with windows.

Blazer

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Linux TBH....



ahem.. Hate when this sorta stuff happens.

I was waiting for some gimp to jump in with Linux "the answer to all of XP's problems"...no wonder so many ppl think Linux ppl are unhelpful idiots..instead of actually trying to help some1 they post a completely useless and retarded response..

anyway Op..Go to Disk management in the admin tools and right click on the partition you want to save...it should give you an option to make active or import disk..both of these will restore the partition to it's previous state with no loss of data..hope this helps..if not reply back

L31mr0d

your question is very odd. Maybe you can elaborate more. What was your original setup? Have the partitions remained unchanged since the previous OS was installed (i.e. in the XP setup, did you delete the old partitions and make new ones?)

If the partitions have remained unchanged the simple solution is to go into the administrative tools, right click on the unallocated space and allocate it. Once XP picks it up as a logical drive you will have access to whatever is stored on it.

Alternatively plug the HDD into another PC that has a fully updated version of XP and it should pick up the partitions automatically. This is of course assuming you didn't delete the previous partitions

johnplayerblue

I use Darik's Boot and Nuke its a great cleaner.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for that.

christophicus

So are you sorted now?

melekalikimaka

Mathew Reilly wrote:

I was waiting for some gimp to jump in with Linux "the answer to all of XP's problems"...no wonder so many ppl think Linux ppl are unhelpful idiots..instead of actually trying to help some1 they post a completely useless and retarded response.

don't be such a fool, linux actually would help alot, and for botched xp installs, usually is a easy route to go down for recovery.

johnplayerblue

When i got to the choose a partition section of the xp install i could see my C drive and my E drive with the E drive been the partition on the primary Serial HD. I could also see my F drive which is a separate IDE HD. I made sure that i picked the C drive of 127GB to format and do my install as i have done before. When xp was installed i put sp2 on so as xp would see the full 300GB and i could just go into administrative tools, down to disk management right click and allocate it. But xp didn't give me that option this time, the only options there were format partition, delete partition and help. And thats where im at now

johnplayerblue

melekalikimaka wrote:

don't be such a fool, linux actually would help alot, and for botched xp installs, usually is a easy route to go down for recovery.

As it happens i do have a copy of Ubuntu on my IDE F drive but im also very new to Linux of any flavors and was just starting to read the ubuntu forums so it might be a while before i can go down that st.

deadsoul

There a program which I found very good for getting back data that was wiped its called File Scavenger 3.0 you have to pay for it but its the best program I've used to recovery data , It could find the data you lost once the drive can be seen by windows.

johnplayerblue

It could find the data you lost once the drive can be seen by windows.

Ok, thats where im at in my tought process at the moment. Say like you a software title is recommended as having done the trick and brought data back to life as it were, what steps should i take first.
Should i format the partition so windows and the software can first see the partition? should it be a quick format or a full format. Could i merge the two partitions to make a full 300GB HD and let the software scan the whole drive for lost/formated/deleted data

Khannie

Mathew Reilly wrote:

they post a completely useless and retarded response..

That's OTT.

Jesus_thats_gre....you should know better. There's a one day ban in the charter for that...I'm just too tired to enforce it....though Robins may feel differently.

Keep it civil please lads.

petes

Khannie wrote:

Jesus_thats_gre....you should know better. There's a one day ban in the charter for that...I'm just too tired to enforce it....t

pfft...favouritism

irlrobins

Khannie wrote:

though Robins may feel differently.

*click* *click* ban

chopster

Just a thought , in this instance would a LiveCd of sorts ( linux,Hir.....etc ?) not be able to explore the unallocated partition and therefore maybe be able to move/copy the data onto the new xp partition or even onto dvd/cd ?

Blazer

melekalikimaka wrote:

don't be such a fool, linux actually would help alot, and for botched xp installs, usually is a easy route to go down for recovery.

yeah..nice going there.. did u even look at his post??
Did he explain how linux could help the operator or post a link?
No he didn't..he just posted "Linux" and that was it..kinda typical of the linux community..

Khannie

FS.

Ok lads...next person to mention linux in this thread gets bant.

Johnplayerblue: Please let me know when you're sorted so I can close this thread.

oh...and this...

Mathew Reilly wrote:

kinda typical of the linux community..

Is absolute tripe, pretty insulting to me (as a linux community member) and almost certainly based on lack of knowledge.

The guy got a days ban for his silly post. Let that be an end to it.

Blazer

Khannie wrote:

FS.

Ok lads...next person to mention linux in this thread gets bant.

Johnplayerblue: Please let me know when you're sorted so I can close this thread.

oh...and this...



Is absolute tripe, pretty insulting to me (as a linux community member) and almost certainly based on lack of knowledge.

The guy got a days ban for his silly post. Let that be an end to it.

actually i use linux and especailly fedora and ubuntu as well..just for messing around really..

anyway back to the post..try downloading an xp util called BartPE..it can be burned to CD and booted from...should allow you access to the 2nd partition..

jozi

johnplayerblue wrote:

It could find the data you lost once the drive can be seen by windows.

Ok, thats where im at in my tought process at the moment. Say like you a software title is recommended as having done the trick and brought data back to life as it were, what steps should i take first.
Should i format the partition so windows and the software can first see the partition? should it be a quick format or a full format. Could i merge the two partitions to make a full 300GB HD and let the software scan the whole drive for lost/formated/deleted data

Format what? I hope you dont mean the partition your trying to get the data of!
Don't format it what ever you do, try some of the programs mentioned above or putting the drive in a different pc.

Jozi

EDIT: took out the linux bit just incase

deadsoul

If u go to the manage when u right click on my computer if the drive is see there the program will scan the whole lot of the drive and will let u recover what it finds hasn't let me down .

Capt'n Midnight

First off - windows disk utilities are destructive - don't let them near the free space or partition till all recovered.

Fdisk (dos) when you wanted to setup a new partition went off writing to parts of the disk when it said it was checking disk integrity.
Chkdsk/Scandisk - use as a last resourt as you can't recover from them.

http://www.ptdd.com (demo) seems ok, use it to see what it can see, you can browse the partitions it guesses, and because it's a demo it won't write to the disk.

To recover the partition use testdisk from http://www.cgsecurity.org (open source - linux / mac / dos ) - but only if you are well aware of what you are doing. use the options to backup the partition table and use P to confirm you can see the files.