Very OT: partition/formatting...

FuTz wrote on 2/3/2004, 9:49 AM

I think I made a terrible mistake.
I used the Win98 boot floppy to re-format my C:drive (I like it cause it's fast)and I guess I re-*partitionned* 3 of my drives.
Did I lose all of my data? Is it recoverable without costing me a thousand grand? My fresh installed OS (win2k) doesn't "see" those drives now.
From what I know, partitionning is the "grid" in wich the info will be stored ? Formatting is made inside the parameters made from this "grid", rght?

I'm very bad at installing OS. Every time there is something new to learn... much or less the hard way. :..(

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/3/2004, 10:17 AM
How did you re-partition your drives? Did you use fdisk? Chances are everything that was touched by fdisk is dead, gone poof. :( Win2k will see the drives but you will probley need to format them. Goto the "computer management" section in your administrative tools. Goto the storage section and look at "disk management." It will list ALL the drives it can see, even ones it can't use (ie my linux partitions). Just right click on the partition that isn't working and select "format."

then hopefully you will be able to access them.
pelladon wrote on 2/3/2004, 10:23 AM
have you tried unformat?
FuTz wrote on 2/3/2004, 10:24 AM

I did exactly that and my fear was that doing "format" I'd be re-formatting, thus erase all my data...
Maybe I could try an old program I still got on a cd-rom somewhere (partition magic). I just hope if I install it that there is a "recovery" possibility into that program.
Otherwise, there's also the "restore" function into the administrator tools you were telling me (via Actions menu/top left) but it will ask for floppy, etc... and I have the same fear I have with the "format" thingy... mmm... I just wanna be sure of what I do so not to get deeper if there is still a solution now.

It wasn't a fdisk I made (but not 100% sure). It just asked to get from NTFS to FAT if my rememberance is good...
FuTz wrote on 2/3/2004, 10:26 AM
How do I do unformat ??!!!! Seems a good deal !
pelladon wrote on 2/3/2004, 10:39 AM
as long as you didn't format with the /U option, there's a chance you can recover. This came from http://www.easydos.com

Syntax:
UNFORMAT d: [/J][/L][/test][/partn][/P][/U]

Options:
drive (d:) Specifies the drive containing the disk to unformat

/J - Checks the disk to determine if the MIRROR command has been used to place file-recovery info on it.

/L - Used with the /partn parameter to tell DOS that there is no MIRROR file on the disk

/P - Used to tell DOS to send any UNFORMAT messages to the printer

/U - Used to tell DOS to recover files from a formatted disk without using the MIRROR information. (Starting with DOS 6, this option is no longer available).

/partn - Used to restore a corrupted partition table of a hard disk. This option requires a PARTNSAV.FIL file created by using the MIRROR command with the /PARTN option (Starting with DOS 6, this option is no longer available).
FuTz wrote on 2/3/2004, 10:45 AM
Great! the problem now is that I don't have any letter associated with this drive and cannot give a new letter to it (no such option offered)
It says "no allocated" in the manager (the graphic band). Like it had no partition on it...
I have the option to "create a volume" but I got the same fear here; losing all data...

???
johnmeyer wrote on 2/3/2004, 11:42 AM
Before you screw this up any further, may I suggest that you look at the tools and services at this site:

OnTrack Products

This is a link to their products, some of which are quite reasonably priced, Their services are, as you already know, quite expensive.

The neat thing about their products is that you can download a trial which will show you what it will be able to recover, so you know ahead of time whether the darn thing will work. If it shows you the file names, then it will be able to recover them and you can decide if you want to spend the $$.
FuTz wrote on 2/3/2004, 11:48 AM

I'll check that john, thanks.
Winterlover wrote on 2/3/2004, 11:58 AM
http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm

I have found the "NTFS and FAT recovery tool" very useful.
FuTz wrote on 2/3/2004, 12:31 PM

Lars, you're the KING !
I can see all my files with the demo and I guess the $150 is a more than good alternative to recover my files. So far, I haven't seen something like this at this price. It's not given but hell, it's a lot cheaper than most recovery apps I've seen so far...
A big thanks for that one!
Winterlover wrote on 2/3/2004, 2:04 PM
I am glad I could help. The gurus at our IT department recomended it to me, when I had a disk crash.
FuTz wrote on 2/3/2004, 3:08 PM

Even better ! since I only function with NTFS files since a while, I just ordered the NTFS version which is even $50 less so I go for a hundread bucks now. I checked the demo and it works like a charm too.
I'm waiting for activation code...
I'll pass the info to friends in case they ever need it ...

Thanks everybody for your time (again) !
FuTz wrote on 2/4/2004, 9:47 AM

Well, I've been restoring a good part of the files.
Word files (*with passwords*) are corrupted as are a few pictures and video segments. Most of the ZIP files won't work as well. I didn't check VEG files already.
But I'd say I recovered 65% of what I lost.

: ) : ) : ) : ) : )