What is going on? what have I done?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DianaH
  • Start date Start date
D

DianaH

Ok ... I formated my c:\drive for a clean install ... then discovered that
my h:\drive got formated instead. I thought I'd made the big error, but
upon checking ... (boot to floppy - dos mode) ... there's nothing on the
c:\drive and I can't see any of the other partitions or the other physical
drive.

What is going on? How can this happen? I don't get it. This never
happened to me before.

In windows, I can see all those drives ... including the one that got
formated when it shouldn't have. It's my h:\drive, but in dos mode, it's
the c:\drive. ???????

My main drive is NTSF, the other physical drive if FAT.
 
Hi,

I am not sure if this is too late and/or will be the best practice for
experts, but I'd suggest you to mount only one (primary) drive for
installing OS and also to disconnect other unnecessary devices (e.g.
printers) during installation.

Don't count on your luck or only words from product providers, everything
could happen during installation.

Hope this helps and good luck.
 
You are right X, but it's unfortunately too late for the separate drive to
be dismounted ... as it's the one that got nailed during the format. The
rest of the drives that are ok (so far) are partitions of the main drive.

If I am able to recover it (here's hopin') ... I'll definitely disconnect
it.
Thanks. Diana

Hi,

I am not sure if this is too late and/or will be the best practice for
experts, but I'd suggest you to mount only one (primary) drive for
installing OS and also to disconnect other unnecessary devices (e.g.
printers) during installation.

Don't count on your luck or only words from product providers, everything
could happen during installation.

Hope this helps and good luck.
 
You're welcome D, and good luck.


DianaH said:
You are right X, but it's unfortunately too late for the separate drive to
be dismounted ... as it's the one that got nailed during the format. The
rest of the drives that are ok (so far) are partitions of the main drive.

If I am able to recover it (here's hopin') ... I'll definitely disconnect
it.
Thanks. Diana

Hi,

I am not sure if this is too late and/or will be the best practice for
experts, but I'd suggest you to mount only one (primary) drive for
installing OS and also to disconnect other unnecessary devices (e.g.
printers) during installation.

Don't count on your luck or only words from product providers, everything
could happen during installation.

Hope this helps and good luck.
Click to expand...
 
Formatting a drive is not the end of the world as we know it, as long as you
don't rewrite on that drive. Leave it alone until you have your options
sorted out.

There "are" programs that run from a floppy that can recover files from a
formatted drive. Search in Google under "file recovery".

I use what I consider the best one (EasyRecovery Professional from
www.ontrack.com) but it is very expensive. Just getting back my #1 son's
infant photos made it worth the cost to me. I got back every single file
from a formatted, and subsequently unused, drive.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Sorry about your situation, but this is a classic example of why NOT to, in
any way, rely on drive letters.
Drive number/partition number and hopefully proper descriptions are the only
way to understand what is being addressed. Personally I even make sure all
partitions are slightly different sizes and keep a record of each so I can
be sure in those operations that only show a drive letter and partition
size.
 
Richard,

Just curious if you had done a long or short format on that drive? Also,
were you able to just have it restore all of the files at once, or did you
have to manually pick each file for it to restore?

-Mike
 
Mike,

I can not remember which type of format I performed. It was a couple of
years ago.

As far as recovery: I had to purchase a new drive with equal/greater
capacity than the aggregate size of the files on the formatted drive. I was
able to recover them all at once by pointing to the new drive as recovery
medium. Pressed the "GO" button and went on about my business. It took over
12 hours if I remember correctly.
 
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