Lost Partition Data - Looking for Quick Fix

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stevepppp
  • Start date Start date
S

Stevepppp

My pc froze while I was in the process of moving a few files around. I
waited a few minutes without luck and was forced to shutdown manually.
Doing so lost the MBR file structure (Drive is no longer recognized by
windows xp). I'm looking for a fast fix. My drive storage is 750G so a
thorough deep recovery is not an option. There's many recovery
programs and I'm too busy to try them all. Anyone have a quick fix
suggestion. TIA.

Here's what I've sampled a little so far:

GetDataBack
Straight forward and robust. Deep disk seek and rescue.
Runs in windows in the background without consuming too much
resorces.

Issues:
For large storage disks, it can take 100 hours to complete!
Worse, there is no resume capability. You quit, you have to start
all over again from scratch.
So if your drive is large and only the mbr file structure was lost
(files weren't corrupt) avoid GDB.

Diskpatch
Never finished the free trial because there were issues from the
getgo
that gave the clear impression to stop while I was ahead.

Fdisk/MBR
Robust for MBR recovery in the right hands.

Issues:
Tricky and potentially harmful. Leave it alone unless you are very
experienced and confident.

Spinrite
Haven't tried it.

Many online complaints, despite glossy promoting.
Promoted by Wikipedia, another reason to be skeptical.

Active Partition Recovery Tools
Never finished the free trial because there were issues from the
getgo
that gave the clear impression to stop while I was ahead.

DataRecoveryWizard
Never finished the free trial because there were issues from the
getgo
that gave the clear impression to stop while I was ahead.

Norton Partition Table Doctor
Not only doesn't it recover the original MBR/Partition table
information,
but much worse, it creates its own! Believe it or not.
I personally avoid almost anything Norton makes with a ten foot pole.
 
Maybe if you make a bootitng CD and skip the install -- it goes into
maintenance mode -- it might recognize it for undelete. If not, it won't
have touched anything.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean.
 
I tried Jan's suggestion. Here's what I got:
"The Volume appears to contain 1 or more unrecovery problems.
** CAUTION **
This computer appears to have a non-standard or bad master boot
record.
FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed.

Needless to say, I did not proceed!

Anyone else?
TIA.
 
There's a way to get FDISK to recover corrupt MBR/PTs. But it's been
so long that I forgot how to do it.
 
Go to

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/support-bootit-next-generation.htm

Scroll down to newsgroups. Set up for the news server and subscribe to
bootitng.

The author of bootitng is a partition wizard. Just say a bootitng user
sent you. He may have a free utility on hand and be able to tell you how
to fix it.

Free utilities page:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm

Actually, it would be a good idea to make a bootitng CD first and
explore the partition work screen, as I said before, so you'll be
familiar with that. You don't have to buy it until you install it on the
HD for awhile. Just go by the install screen.
--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.
 
There's a way to get FDISK to recover corrupt MBR/PTs. But it's been
so long that I forgot how to do it.
Click to expand...

Running chkdsk, I get:

"The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."

I have a clone HD and plan to clone the drive bit by bit. This way I
can FDISK the dummy, worry-free. Can anyone suggest some robust low-
level cloning software? I only have an old version of drive copy on
hand at the moment. TIA.
 
No it cannot. You will cause much more damage.
Click to expand...

No really. Seriously, there's a way to get FDISK to recover corrupt
MBR/PTs without damaging anything. Honestly. SIncerely. I've done it
several times.
 
Yes, do you know the process using FDISK? TIA.
Click to expand...

Oops, was under the impression that this was the volume not
recognized under XP but no problem with Win98 thread.

The MBR repair with Fdisk is Fdisk /MBR.
But you need to have an intact partition table with
it since it only repairs the bootcode and signature.
 
Back
Top