Need Help: I accidently FDISK'ed the wrong disk

ThomasR

Junior Member
Jan 28, 2003
15
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Yeah, I'm a moron...

In a moment of stupidity I hooked up the wrong IDE hard drive to my test box, and re-fdisk'ed the drive into 3 partitions. BUT, I did NOT issue the "format" command. As soon as I realized what I did I stopped cold.

I know there are some utilities out there on the net that can supposedly help recover data off of an accidently fdisk'ed drive. Has anyone used any of these? Any suggestions? ...Besides double-check next time.. :)

 

Abzstrak

Platinum Member
Mar 11, 2000
2,450
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I think norton disk doctor shoul dbe able to recover it.... I think there is a free trial download too
 

ThomasR

Junior Member
Jan 28, 2003
15
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I've never heard of re-creating the partitions exactly as before... I guess I could try this...

I looked into Norton Disk Doctor, and I only found references to corrupted fat/sectors, not fdisk'ed drives.

<edit> Can't spell Norton...blah </edit>
 

cleverhandle

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2001
3,566
3
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Originally posted by: heliomphalodon
Run 'fdisk' again and re-create the partitions exactly as they were before. Reboot, and pray...

Yup. Changing the partition table by itself isn't going to touch your data - only using an OS to access the partitions will do that. The trick is getting the partition table exactly the same - even if you enter the same values, e.g. 10GB, different partitioners sometimes calculate the cylinder numbers differently. So some prayer is definitely in order.
 

ThomasR

Junior Member
Jan 28, 2003
15
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Now, why would I be admitting I'm a moron and posting here on this forum, if I HAD a backup!?!? :)
 

speed01

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2001
1,167
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Originally posted by: ThomasR
Now, why would I be admitting I'm a moron and posting here on this forum, if I HAD a backup!?!? :)

Maybe you're too much of a moron to know how to use them.....:D

j/k
Speed
 

n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
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Originally posted by: ThomasR
Now, why would I be admitting I'm a moron and posting here on this forum, if I HAD a backup!?!? :)

Then the information was not that important and you shouldnt worry about losing it (thats actually the main part of my backup strategy ;)). If you do have important information I hope you understand the necessity for a good backup implimentation and (this is increadibly important here) you must verify backups and restore.

Anyhow, good luck.
 

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
You'll be alright dude. Just get "GetBackData (Runtime)" or "EasyRecovery (OnTrack)" and you'll have your data back. Even if you formatted the drive you'd be ok. ;)
 

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
8,361
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A lil util call FindPart also saved my hide in the not-too-distant past. I used Ranish to recreate everything thereafter.

-SUO
 

HJB417

Senior member
Dec 31, 2000
763
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last time something like that happened to me, I ran 2 programs.
#1 Partition Recovery shareware version from www.partition-recovery.com
#2 the cih virus removal program from grc.com

partition recovery was able to see the data on my HD and could reconstruct the partition but it wouldn't since it was shareware

the cih virus remova programl did just that thought, even though I didn't have the cih virus

I used 2 other freeware programs that were able to view and extract files from the parition but they didn't have the ability to reconsruct the partition which was what I needed.
I hope you get your hd working again