Formating Accident.....::HELP!::

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Thread: Formating Accident.....::HELP!::

  1. #1
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    Red face Formating Accident.....::HELP!::

    I went to recover my entire computer back to the way I bought it....while doing that the computer saw my 40 gig drive as the master and started formatting it....I went straight for the power button...then after recovering the computer and installing Windows XP...I used the disk error fix crap (scandisk) and when I go to see...some folders in the drive disappeared...And when I check the available space on the computer...its the same...in other words no folders are showing but the files are still on the computer...SOMEONE HELP! Any recovery program anyone knows of that can help me here...? and I cant access the files through dos it doesnt let me...

    thank you,
    DeAthWiSh

  2. #2
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    is there anything terribly important?

    you can probably acsess a lot of stuff through dos, and do an fdisk command, i forget which one

    what you did with the power button was not the best choice, in the worst case, you may have some permenantly damaged sectors, but you probably just screwed up some clusters, run disk defragmenter, thats all i can think of


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  3. #3
    Reef Shark Stasis's Avatar
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    I would fdisk, and format and start over


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  4. #4
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    Well if you really need any thing off that drive you will have to have a professional data recovery company retrieve it for you.

    If you did not need anything that important, just FDISK and format the drive you should be ok, If you did not damage any sectors.


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  5. #5
    Registered User James_Emerson's Avatar
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    I'm a little wonder how did u formated it.

    Ya same suggestion just format it and start all over..



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  6. #6
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    Smile

    I need the files I have on the hard drive...I cant format the sh!t again....you crazy! lol....I need something that will recover the files for me....cuz they are stil on the hard drive...cuz the disk space thing shows that the hard drive is full....im missing like 59 divx that were in a folder that disappeared...and thats a good 38 gigs there....



    [This message has been edited by DeA7hWiSh (edited October 27, 2001).]

  7. #7
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    PLEASE NEED HELP! =) any good recovery programs? please please please...lol....no for real I need those files...sigh...

  8. #8
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    Not saying it'll work, but if you can get Norton SystemWorks... they have a undelete wizard and some other stuff that might solve your problem. There might even be a program made to fix, just your sort of problem.

    I know I was able to download a program that reads CDs so that if you make a coaster, you can recover data, even though Windows and the reader don't seem to see them.

    Hope that helps.
    TK.

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    Ah if you reinstall Win XP without formating It will only install into the folder it wants and the rest of your files will still be there if you used the same File system as your old OS..Did you keep the Fat or switch to NTFS? If you switched...then I am sorry to say that you have a problem that will probably cost some money to fix...

    Unless you have a second computer or harddrive...try sticking your harddrive into an other computer as slave and see if your data is there.

    Next time I would consider making a backup before messing around with your OS.

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  10. #10
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    Question

    ok ok...everyone has this all mixed up...I have two hard drives...ones for back-up (for example: whenever I want to restore my computer to the way I baught it, I put all my important files on that drive) What happened was...when I went to format & restore...the recovery cd saw my "back-up" hard drive as the master some how...when I saw it say.. Formatting 40,182 MB I freaked and hit the power button, cuz the 40, 182 was my backup drive... I went to scandisk it with Windows XP and some of the folders on the drive disappeared...but the files are still there cuz when I go to Disk Space it shows that the drive is full...so the files werent deleted...I am looking for a program that might find these files that Windows doesnt notice is on the hard drive. Maybe a recovery program or something that recovers deleted files.

    Thank you,
    DeA7hWiSh

  11. #11
    Ex-*** kid A's Avatar
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    Did you not make an Emergency Repair Disk after your last format/re-install?

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  12. #12
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    EasyRecovery Pro isn't that hard to find. As long as your hard drive is physically functional, it will get some(likely all) of your data back.

    Problems:

    1. Varying effectiveness. I've gotten virtually every file off a drive before, directory structure and all. Other times, ER won't be able to reconstruct half of it, or the directory structure is missing.

    2. It's expensive. I can't tell you where to get it illegally, but Astalavista is a good search engine for (perfectly legal) things. It links to sites that can tell you where to start looking. I dare not link diretly to places that stock such things.

    3. You have to have someplace to put the files you recover. Sure, you can run ER from a floppy with no OS, but it's not practical to recover a 40 gb drive 250kb at a time. You'll need another HD to copy files onto.

    4. For some unknown reason, compressed files don't come through intact, as often as not. Crosslinked MP3's and videos often work, but it sucks getting pieces of other songs and movies in the middle of totally different files.

    5. It takes about 20 hours to determine the types of lost partitions and find the files. The actual recovery only takes as long as it takes to actually copy the files.

    If you are unable to buy it or obtain it illegally, there is a trial version that allows you to recover five files. Better than nothing.

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  13. #13
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    another reason to back up your hard drive

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  14. #14
    Ex-*** kid A's Avatar
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    Do all the necessary backup routines. Rule of thumb. Guess that doesn't help you much now, but it will in the future

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