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PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!! MY DATA IS GONE!!!!!

D

derekblankmccoy

Member
I was upgrading to Win XP, and it started to install, and after the first boot, the computer froze right when the "please wait" thing with the windows logo appeared. I restarted, and next thing i know is that MY HARD DRIVE WONT BOOT!!!!! It says invalid disk or something. Thing is it wont boot. The BIOS can see it, and if I put it in my other machine (the one im writing this from) it can also see it. And It will even assign a drive letter to it. But if I click on it, I CANT SEE ANYTHING!!!! Like it was formated. BUT I KNOW MY DATA IS THERE!!!! Bc, if i select the drives properties, I can see that half of it is full, and the other half is free space, just like it was before it "went invisible"
I read on the net, and Im not completely sure, but is it one of these?:

-Lost Boot Sector
-Lost Partition Table
-Lost Allocation Table

Well I think its one of those, but im not sure. I also read that doing an fdisk /mbr could fix the prob, bc it rewrites the master boot record, but i dont want to do anything untill Im completely sure, bc the data in there is priceless. The drive is small (5 gigs), but half of it has very important data taht If I loose it, I loose my job.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, I know you guys can help.
thanks
 
What OS were you upgrading from? Have you tried pressing F8(for safe mode and other choices) after it posts? And

<< half of it has very important data taht If I loose it, I loose my job >>

sorry but if it was that important why didn't you back it up first?
 
you try booting of the XP CD and running a windows repair? its like doing a fresh install of all the system files and doesn't touch your personal data.
 


<< Just restore your data from your backup >>


I was making a point that people these days seem to have forgotten.
 
I found this really kick @$$ program from the makers of parttion magic, its called lost and found. This mother can recouperate files even if you formated a drive! Its awesome, bc it actually reads the drive, not just the allocation table. So I got all my files back, I just have to rename them, bc they dont have long names. But I rather have that than nothing.
Thanks anyway!
 
this isnt easy, if the data is very important, i would consider a data recovery specialist, known for being expensive, but just might work .. but im sure in the future you will be backing up your data on a regular basis =) .. good luck ..
-neural
 
I have to agree with Dclone. Lost & Found is an awesome app. Even if you FDisk'd your HD you can still get to your lost files. I think it reads the sectors on your HD so regardless what it was partitioned with you can still get access to it. I found it on a site but won't post it. Search around for it. Its well worth the price.
 
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