OMFG!! I HAVE LOST EVERYTHING I EVER HAD ON MY COMPUTER!! :( :(

Feb 19, 2007
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:(I have lost EVERYTHING! All my games, documents, phone numbers and everything else.

Today I was using PartitionMagic to merge together two partitions of the same HD.
Then all of a sudden at 26%, a damn power failure struck me and restarted the computer. It all of a sudden said "No OS" on startup. Then I popped in Vista and installed vista on another hard disk.

Now I am typing this on Vista and when I check the two partitions, I was merging, almost everything is gone. (Only a few random files remain)

I didnt keep backups and now I regret it really! :(

What do I do?!?!?

Please help
 

Bill Kunert

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
793
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Not ot make you feel bad but this is exactly why I have a spare hard drive that I use only to back up my main drive. About once every 2 weeks I image my main drive on to it. I then disconnect it until next time. As cheap as large drives are now it just makes sense to me. Hope you find a way to recover your data.
 

Kreon

Golden Member
Oct 22, 2006
1,329
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What about a data recovery program. Put it onto the other harddrive you put Vista on, and run it

I dunno if it'd work, but that'd be my first try

Edit: I think there are free ones out there, lemme check
 

Imyourzero

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2002
3,701
0
76
Man...if it CAN happen it will, won't it?

I've seen some utilities that can supposedly help when stuff like this happens, but I don't know enough about them to trust them. If you do have potentially recoverable data on the disk, I'd be scared of doing anything to it for fear of making any chance of data recovery go out the window.

Ontrack might be your best bet...but how much is the lost data worth to you?
 

SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,463
2,397
136
R-Studio

I've used OnTrack EasyRecovery Pro 6.1, but it fails to recover files completely. R-Studio 3.6 is way much better.
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
Since the drive hardware is likely OK, then you have a software problem. Look at the options presented here and search the web yourself and try to find the best recovery software within your price boundaries.

If the data has any importance at all, the BEST thing to do is to clone the drive and do the data recovery on the CLONE. No respectable data-recovery company would do the recovery on your original drive, because if you mess up the recovery, you've only made the problem worse (and more expensive).

My suggestion:
Buy another hard drive and clone your current one to it.
Attempt data recovery on the clone.
If you can't recover the data yourself, then consider a reputable data recovery company.
After you are all done, put the "extra" hard drive into an external USB housing and use it to make periodic backups of everything on your PC (so this won't happen again).
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,409
39
91
Originally posted by: SKORPI0
R-Studio

I've used OnTrack EasyRecovery Pro 6.1, but it fails to recover files completely. R-Studio 3.6 is way much better.

Seconded. Get R-Studio.
I've also used OnTrack's VERY EXPENSIVE software. And guess what, it works like ******. R-Studio is lightyears ahead.

I'm pretty confident r-studio could recover the files.

I had a RAID0 array go completely corrupt on me once. The system would stall trying to read the drive. I formatted and rebuilt the array. I loaded up r-studio, and all my files were still there!
:)
 

Nocturnal

Lifer
Jan 8, 2002
18,927
0
76
You should invest in a uninterruptible power supply. I think it's one of the best investments anyone can do.
 

HannibalX

Diamond Member
May 12, 2000
9,359
2
0
Originally posted by: Nocturnal
You should invest in a uninterruptible power supply. I think it's one of the best investments anyone can do.

Yup. Even a cheapo one to keep your machine up when the power "clicks" is a good investment.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Since the drive hardware is likely OK, then you have a software problem. Look at the options presented here and search the web yourself and try to find the best recovery software within your price boundaries.

If the data has any importance at all, the BEST thing to do is to clone the drive and do the data recovery on the CLONE. No respectable data-recovery company would do the recovery on your original drive, because if you mess up the recovery, you've only made the problem worse (and more expensive).

My suggestion:
Buy another hard drive and clone your current one to it.
Attempt data recovery on the clone.
If you can't recover the data yourself, then consider a reputable data recovery company.
After you are all done, put the "extra" hard drive into an external USB housing and use it to make periodic backups of everything on your PC (so this won't happen again).

Seconded. Do NOT write ANYTHING to the drive with the filesystem damage. Only read from it. What you've got write now is a damaged picture of a puzzle; it's best to leave it as it is, and not change it in any way.

Also seconded: A UPS. The first time your power goes off, you'll want to hug your UPS, especially if you're in the middle of another partitioning operation or a BIOS flashing.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
oh my freakin god. never ever do partition work like that without a backup!! i can't believe you chanced it.
anyways solutions already posted above:p
 

ForumMaster

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2005
7,792
1
0
since it's a software problem, you may be able to recover the files. this should teach you a lesson: never do these kind of things without a backup and buy a UPS.
 

Thor86

Diamond Member
May 3, 2001
7,886
7
81
Originally posted by: Nocturnal
You should invest in a uninterruptible power supply. I think it's one of the best investments anyone can do.

 

crimson117

Platinum Member
Aug 25, 2001
2,094
0
76
Originally posted by: Nocturnal
You should invest in a uninterruptible power supply. I think it's one of the best investments anyone can do.

QFT

blackouts, brownouts, etc make it well worth the $50-$100 for a good UPS.
 

dainthomas

Lifer
Dec 7, 2004
14,738
3,652
136
Originally posted by: Gannon
This should be stickied on why it is important to backup irreplaceable data.

This is exactly why all my digital pics are backed up to DVD and external HD. Everything else is replaceable.