LOST PARTITIONS!!!!

[rynopolis]

I just clean reinstalled XP Pro SP2. Backed up all my data to my secondary WDC 320 drive that had two partitions. They are now lost. The good news is that I can see the drive in drive management. I changed it to a dynamic drive (???) and now I can access it. However, it is still missing one of the two former partitions and the backup files are not on the partition that I can see! This is pics of the kids and all gone on that backup file. Please help!

I will check this in the morning before work. I need to sleep for now.

PS One other problem that maybe someone can help with. My "Main drive" is now "F:" instead of C:. C: is right now a memory card drive that is uninstalled still from the reinstall.

Thank you in advance for any help!

 

[rynopolis]

OK. I was able to find why the C drive is an F drive. So since I just started this nightmare last night. Today after work, I will reinstall XP without my printer with the flash drives plugged in.

So the more important problem is where is the two backup files I created on the extra HDD? I did even get some progress on that this morning. Well, I download VirtualLab Data Recovery Software (Free) and I was able to see both partitions. However, the two files are still MIA on the partition they were on. I am baffled. I even looked in My Computer after completing the backup and they were there. One is a 32 GB file and the other is a 7 GB!

Off to work, but any help is appreciated.

 

[rynopolis]

Well I now have changed the F drive to a C drive (reinstalled xp again!). I used the PCI file recovery tool to find my backup files (7GB and 30GB) and they appear to be lost on the extra drive. So I am now about to venture onto searching the C drive for the lost files.

Any advice is still appreciated. I did find this free file recovery tool through the forums here. Thank you whoever posted.

 

[blaumer]

Ok, the first thing to do is stop writing data to those drives if you want to be able to recover data. You sould pull the drives from that pc and hook them up as a slave drive to a different pc and use the data recovery software on that pc. once you get what you can get off of those drives, I would basically delete all the partitions on both drives and start over. Make sure that your memory card is not in the drive so it is not recognised as a possible boot device during install. Fixing this CF is going to take significantly more time than starting over.

Make sure that your data that you did recover is saved on CD/thumb drive/other removable media or another pc before you start over.

And I don't mean to rub salt in the wound of any lost data, but you should perform backups of that important data on a regular basis. Keeping at least 2 copies of them (1 on HD, one on something else like CD/DVD) at all times. That way something like this isn't nearly so bad.

 

[rynopolis]

Baumer, Thank you for responding. I am not going to touch that drive for a bit. Fortunately I did recently just get a second PC. So I can do some work on the secondary drive like you suggested.

The good news is I was able to find the most important pictures through backups and using PC Inspector and the memory card of my camera. Now if I can just find one of the two backup files on that drive. I had backed it up before the holidays, but I think once things were stable (I thought!), I deleted it.

True lesson learned. I do have a data backup DVD from August. So not too off.

By the way, think I figured out root of issue. Recently installed a new case fan, but it was taking air in, not out. Since I only have one fan area, out is necessary. It was getting too hot.

 

[i_guy]

You Sir, are a life-saver.

I had EXACTLY the same problem on a WD 3200 drive after reinstalling XP SP2. In fact, the reason I reinstalled it was because another WD drive (a Raptor 740) had a mechanical failure. Just like you, my WD 3200 was my backup, and just like you, the partitions were deleted so every time I tried to access the drive windows asked me to format it.

I downloaded VirtualLab like you suggested and as I write this, it's hunting through the drive, rescuing all my photographs (my hobby is photography!) and most important files.

Thank you soooooooooo much for posting your message.