HELP......Data loss need it back..

[jondl]

OK.. heres the deal.
I was unpartitioning my hard drive (putting two partitions into one) and my computer decides to restart as its doing its business. Next thing you know, my data on my drive isnt working anymore. I have pictures and documents that are very important to me. Can somebody help me find a way to recover my lost data? ANY ideas/comments appreciated...

 

[MustISO]

There are a few programs out there that work very well.
I've used GetDataBack to recover files for people.

 

[jondl]

The problem lies not in getting it back but.. it seems somehow all my files are corrupt..... i do not know how that could have happened but none of the files seem to work anymore..

 

[V00D00]

Well then, I'm pretty sure you're screwed. Windows is pretty gay like that, but you should make sure your OS is free of crapware that can cause restarts before doing a crucial operation such as that.

It was most likely moving all the files around right in the middle of the restart, in which case any recovery software will not be able to get all the files back because they're garbled.

I would just get what isn't corrupt and say screw it on the rest.

 

[CrispyFried]

get another drive and ghost (clone, copy, whatever) it before you mess with it any more, the more stuff you try the more likely that whatever data is still good and recoverable is going to get lost. corrupt partitions tend to self destruct. then play with the ghost image and see what you can recover.

voodoo is right, youre pretty screwed, playing with partitions is dangerous to your data, if it blows up it tends to blow up big.

 

[jondl]

argh. i've messed around with partitions so many times and never had this happened before. It was done in windows xp's version of dos or whatever its called. Thanks for all your replies and i have decided that the files are gone forever. I have had failed drives before but never so devastating. I'm now thinking about a sata raid setup for my important files. Anyone have any recommendations? I have 1x Western digital 320gb, 1x maxtor diamondmax 10 300gb and a 74gb raptor. I am thinking about selling one of the drives and buying another identical drive to do a raid-1 mirror i think? Again, thanks for all your replies.

 

[montag451]

As CrispyFried says -
1 - GHOST or ACRONIS sector by sector - slow but reliable.
2 - on the copy, use Spinrite6 or Getdataback as MustISO suggests.

 

[V00D00]

Even if you have a raid setup, if you mess up when you partition your stuff, there is no hope.

I have a raid with 2x300gb seagates purchased after rebates from various places for under $100 each. Can't beat that price/performance.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Restore from backups.

 

[shortylickens]

I've used File Scavanger and it recovers everything.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I've used File Scavanger and it recovers everything.

Just a note for future reference.....

never ever put inportant pictures or documents on a h/d in a raid configuration....

I always transfer whatever is important to a seperate stand alone harddrive or to a zip disk!!

Good Luck!!
You could always pay to have your information recovered professionally if its thats important$$$$$$.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I've used File Scavanger and it recovers everything.

Just a note for future reference.....

never ever put inportant pictures or documents on a h/d in a raid configuration....

I always transfer whatever is important to a seperate stand alone harddrive or to a zip disk!!

Good Luck!!
You could always pay to have your information recovered professionally if its thats important$$$$$$.

Um, raid isn't a bad thing to use.

 

[0roo0roo]

well.... depends which raid. mirror raid = good
but if you don't b ackup before attempting something big as partition changes..u are screwed either way. trusting important things to your harddrive is silly, but most people don't give it a second thought until their harddrive shats on em

 

[jondl]

yes.. i didn't think it would happen but i guess it was my fault. Never again. Thanks for all the replies and comments. Maybe some will learn from my misfortune and backup before doing major changes to your partitions or do what i will start doing.. random backups of important files.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Yes basically Raid is not a bad thing.....
But even if your using a mirrored raid.......you should still back up and becuase i have lost content before on hardrivesd I always transfer my most importants stuff to a seperate stand alone harddrive or Zip drive!!

 

[Skeeedunt]

Sorry, maybe I'm dense, but since when did windows let you recombine partitions?

 

[Brona]

Greetings,


If your partitions are lost then Active@ partition recovery utility should help bring it back.

If your data is just erased or corrupted you can try Undelete or Uneraser (DOS) to restore. Theese tools worked great for me so thay might be of some usage for you too.

http://www.partition-recovery.com/

http://www.active-undelete.com/

http://www.uneraser.com/

 

[beatle]

RAID-1 wouldn't have helped you in this case. RAID-1 only provides redundancy for drive failure, not OS issues, virii, other hardware/software glitches, etc. Your best bet is to backup to another computer or an external drive on a regular basis.