I've been having some trouble with my OS, so I thought I would stick in a WinXP disc and run a repair. Found a CD labeled WinXP SP2, stuck it in the drive and rebooted. As the computer was going down I was thinking... "Haven't done a profile backup in over a year. I should really be careful not to delete the partition or something, cause that would suck." After booting from CD, I walk away for a few minutes to let the disc do that "loading drivers" thing.
Turns out, this was the automated install CD that I built a while ago. The one that deletes existing partitions, creates a new partition, formats it, and installs XP, Office, etc. It was just not "fully" labeled. :|
Bad.
Luckily, I walk back in the room as it's beginning the format of the newly created partition, realize what it's doing, and immediately hit the reset button, then power it off.
So I have now deleted the OS partition on my not-backed-up 74GB raptor drive, created a new partition (of the same size), and started to format it.
Crap.
*frantic google searches on data/drive recovery*
*depressing thougts of spending hundreds of dollars on recovery*
Finally, I find this: TestDisk. It's opensource (read: free) so I figured I'd give it a shot. D/L'd it, installed the drive in my Win2003 server, and ran the program.
This thing is awesome! After a deep scan of the drive, it found the original patition. It let me browse the files and even copy them directly to another drive in my system, which I chose to do, just to be safe. It then let me restore the partition as well as the backup boot sector (primary was now corrupted, probably because of the interruption of the formatting).
Installed the drive back in the original system, booted up, and here I type! Never been so relieved in my life. I thought I was screwed...at least down for several days while I sent the drive off.
*kicks off ntbackup* Yes, I'm sure I will receive the appropriate amount of flogging for now having backed up my profile at least, if not the whole OS drive.
Cliffs:
1. Accidentally repartitioned and began a format of my un-backed-up primary OS drive.
2. TESTDISK KICKS ASS. Recovered with no problem. Here I am.
3. (opensource recovery success) - (visions of expensive recovery) = Profit?
Turns out, this was the automated install CD that I built a while ago. The one that deletes existing partitions, creates a new partition, formats it, and installs XP, Office, etc. It was just not "fully" labeled. :|
Bad.
Luckily, I walk back in the room as it's beginning the format of the newly created partition, realize what it's doing, and immediately hit the reset button, then power it off.
So I have now deleted the OS partition on my not-backed-up 74GB raptor drive, created a new partition (of the same size), and started to format it.
Crap.
*frantic google searches on data/drive recovery*
*depressing thougts of spending hundreds of dollars on recovery*
Finally, I find this: TestDisk. It's opensource (read: free) so I figured I'd give it a shot. D/L'd it, installed the drive in my Win2003 server, and ran the program.
This thing is awesome! After a deep scan of the drive, it found the original patition. It let me browse the files and even copy them directly to another drive in my system, which I chose to do, just to be safe. It then let me restore the partition as well as the backup boot sector (primary was now corrupted, probably because of the interruption of the formatting).
Installed the drive back in the original system, booted up, and here I type! Never been so relieved in my life. I thought I was screwed...at least down for several days while I sent the drive off.
*kicks off ntbackup* Yes, I'm sure I will receive the appropriate amount of flogging for now having backed up my profile at least, if not the whole OS drive.
Cliffs:
1. Accidentally repartitioned and began a format of my un-backed-up primary OS drive.
2. TESTDISK KICKS ASS. Recovered with no problem. Here I am.
3. (opensource recovery success) - (visions of expensive recovery) = Profit?
