Partition RECOVERY? HELP!

[TheHorta]

Same client, different nightmare.

When installing beta drivers for a Pinnacle Pro ONE RT video editing board, somehow his "E" drive partition disappeared. It was a 120MB partition. No data was written to it, now it only shows up as a "RAW" drive that wants formatting. There's all sorts of critical data on it that absolutely HAS to be recovered. It's one of three partitions on a 4-drive stripe (4x 40GB IBM 60GXPs). The other two parts are fine and intact. Partition Magic Pro 7 is no help and won't undelete anything.

What's the best APP for recovering stubborn partitions. It's a FAT32 part (the problem).

ANY help is GREATLY appreciated!



The Horta.

 

[Wandere]

I've had good luck recovering critical data using OnTrack's Easy Recovery Pro (it really is almost mindless to use). Install it onto c: (it's a GUI program) and let 'er rip. It didn't restore the partition but it saw all of the data on it and I was able to copy it over to a good one.

You may need to set it to ignore the first copy of the FAT on the drive. I think Lost and found may actaully delete a bad FAT and use the second one....it's been awhile....and I need more coffee.
Scandisk will repair an existing one or use the backup. DO NOT automatically fix errors.

Lost & Found, Hard Drive Mechanic, Tiramisu, Recover4All, Norton Disk Doctor are all decent Apps and have their uses.

If all hope is lost and the data really is critical, paying for recovery may be an option (s'pensive one I'm afraid).

Good Luck!

 

[Woody419]

Test disk is a free tool to check and undelete partitions. I have never needed to try it out.