francesco enlightened us all with the following:
hi to everybody
a friend of mine did a big miss with my hd.
my laptop was partitioned in two partition of my hd c: 20 Gb d: 40
Gb(total 60 Gb) where in drive c: there was os win2000 and no
important data, in drive d: a lot of importants files.
my os was not working well so I decided to ask help to my friend to
reinstall os on the c: partition. but my "ex" frind did a big mistake
and now I have a partition c: (13 Gb) with new os wn 2000 and another
partition d: with 47 Gb EMPTY!!! grrgrgrrrrrrrr.
HELP!! SOS!!
I need to recover data
please someone know if exist a program to rescue all data?
thanks
Franc:
There are plenty of utilities available freely on the net, and some that
you have to pay for. I like Active@Undelete for a simple one, or Easy
Recovery Pro, although each has a small price tag, and each has
strengths and weaknesses. Do a quick search on recovery software and see
what you come up with, then dig a bit deeper. I prefer Active@Undelete
because it allows a low level scan which will locate deleted partitions
that are present on the drive, then allow you to scan each deleted
partition individually. You should make a disk clone image using a bit
by bit utility, preferably one that runs under DOS or is OS independant.
Use what you feel comfortable with. It is important that it be bit by
bit, or you will not have the free space recorded in the image to locate
the deleted files. Work with the IMAGE, not the original drive. This may
or may not be an option for you.
A couple of important notes:
1. If the information is THAT important, I would stop using the system
as much as possible, if not completely. If this is not an option, then
you may have to take your chances as the more you use the machine, the
more the files will be over written and inaccessable.
2. Don't install recovery software, or anything for that matter, to the
drive that is being recovered. Add your current drive to another system
as a slave and run the recovery software on another system. If this is
not an option, you may want to look at possibly using a CD-RW UDF setup
like InCD or Drag to Disc to format a disc for read/write operations and
use a CD-RW as a drive to recover data to and run the application from.
You don't want to (many won't allow it) recover files onto the same
drive you are trying to rescue. Data may be inadvertantly over written
in the process.
3. Most importantly- Understand that this is going to be hit and miss.
Given the amount of use the system has seen (repartitioning, formatting,
and reinstalling windows and programs etc, as well as general use) if
you are able to recover 25%-50% of your lost data successfully, consider
yourself extremely lucky. IMHO it does not look good in your favor.
Beyond this, I might suggest calling in someone who is trained to handle
it. Many technicians BELIEVE they are, and many are quite capable (I do
it quite frequently) but don't allow them to get your hopes up with
false statements and pipe dreams. It does require a little extra
ciricular research to even partially understand the methods, and many
feel that with a simple A+ certification, this qualifies them to do the
job. This is hardly the case. On a logical level, given the right tools,
data can usually be retrieved with a fairly good success rate depending
on the timeframe between deletion and discovery, and the knowledge of
the person working on it. More time between= less chance of successful
retrieval. If, in the event that you are desperate, you can quite often
contact the manufacturer of the drive and see if they have data
retrieval services. Most do, they just don't openly advertise it.
Sorry for the long winded reply, but I just want to make sure that you
go in with as much knowledge as I can offer in as short a writing as
possible. If anybody else has things to add, then I would hope they do,
as it pays to be in the know.
Wheaty
