Data Recovery Forums - Help & Discussions

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

I have managed to lose the contents of a 300gb Maxtor drive. I really do not know exactly how it happened but I'll try to explain.

I was using Diskpart in cmd to format and change a USB flash drive to NTFS format, and when I had finished the my 300gb drive wasn't showing in My Computer. I looked in Partition Magic and it was showing as unallocated space, so I applied a drive letter (which was "P" as it was before). The drive then showed up in My Computer but was empty.

I have tried a number of Disk Recovery programs but have had no luck.

Can anyone help?

Niel · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 20

What happened in your case is that you have mistakenly deleted the partition in which all your data used to reside.
The situation is simple, first make sure that you don't use 300 gig drive for writing purpose, secondly ordinary recovery software will be of no help as you will have to look for the partition first. This can be only done using any professional data recovery software. The recovery software will show many partition but it is on you to point out the exact partition then use the recovery software to recover the data.
I will recommend Geeksnerds Data Recovery Software using which you will scan for the partition first then after selecting the right partition you can look for your desired data.

Hope that you will get your data back.

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Thanks for your help. Which scan should I try as there are 4 options:

1. Normal Scan:
It will scan your drive normally and time for such scan is less as compared to other modes.
2. Advance Scan:
In this mode the software will scan each and every sector of drive and such detail scan will take more time as compare to normal scan.
3. Formatted Drive Recovery:
If your drive is formatted then select this option for recovering data.
4. Deleted File Recovery:
It can help you recover files and folders even they have been permanently deleted i.e. having been deleted even from the Recycle Bin.

Thanks

TD

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Okay, so I have done a partition search on the hard drive using Geeksnerds and all it found was the partition I created after I originally noticed the drive was showing up as unallocated.

I have now deleted that partition again and tried again with the partition search, but it still only found that partition. I am losing my mind! Crying or Very sad

Why wont it find the partition I am trying to find?!

Niel · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 20

Well, if you have not used the drive after losing data or you haven't created partition then you can use the formatted scan. If the formatted scan is not working, then you have to run the advance scan, advance scan will take more time as compared to formatted scan but it is more effective in term of results

Niel · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 20

you have to run the partition scan first. You can take help from this page:

data recovery help

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

The partition scan has been ran twice, and it finds nothing (other than the partition I created after finding the drive "unallocated")

I really appreciate your help but at the moment I am still in the same position. Sad

Niel · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 20

Which type of scan you have used. Try using detail scan.

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

[quote="Niel"]Which type of scan you have used. Try using detail scan.
[/quote]

I am afraid that this is the one I have tried, twice Confused

Niel · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 20

Then try using Advanced Scan for partition searching

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

[quote="Niel"]Then try using Advanced Scan for partition searching[/quote]

Okay, will do.

I'll be back to let you know how I get on. Smile

Thanks again.

PS - Why doesn't the quote boxes work on this forum!?

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Okay I have finished the Partition Search using Advanced and still nothing was found.

Why isn't this working for me? Sad

vicky · Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 60

How many partition did the advance scan show.

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Only 1.

Niel · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 20

Well try running Advanced Scan for data on that partition which is shown by partition scan.

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Okay, will do.

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

41% through and only 1 file found, doesn't look good but I'll leave it to finish.

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Still only 1 file found and 65% complete.

I thought I would take the time to put some more information about what could have happened to this hard drive to cause this loss.

I was trying to create a bootable flash drive to install Windows 7 onto a Netbook without a DVD drive and part of the process is listed below:

# Open a command prompt as administrator.

# Get the drive number by typing:
diskpart
list disk
On my machine the USB disk was number 5.

# Format the drive by typing:
select disk 5
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit

# Mount the Windows 7 beta iso using Daemon Tools or similar.

# Navigate to the boot directory
cd E:\boot

# Using bootsect, we’ll make the USB drive a bootable NTFS drive, ready for a Windows 7 image (my drive was labeled G):
bootsect /nt60 G:

So it seems as though I made a mistake and applied one or all of these processes to the wrong drive. If that is the case is this data ever going to be recovered?

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Here are the results of the Advanced Scan on the only partition that can be found on that hard drive. Needless to say I none of these are what I am looking for Crying or Very sad

Are there any more things I could try?

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Does nobody have any other opinions?

please try Sad

vicky · Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 60

well, the next option will be sending your drive to a professional for data recovery. Most of the data recovery companies don't charge for diagnosis, get your drive diagnosed, if you will not ask for recovery then won't charge you anything other than the shipping charges.

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

I'm not ready to go down that route yet. What else could the professionals do anyway?

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Have you guys really given up on me? Sad

DataHero · Joined: 11 Feb 2009 Posts: 30

Did anyone recommend you image your drive first? Always do this so you can have as many attempts as you like with no consiquences. The more you try the more you are doing harm...maybe geeksnerds is not the software for you.

Is there a complete scan in this software? Something that ignores partitions and just see's data regardless of what partitions the drive has.

Either way it sounds like it's getting pretty screwed up...it's at the point where to be helpful I'd have to look at the drive myself...feel free to send it to Australia Smile

lol, best of luck from here...maybe look at other software options.

www.datahero.com.au

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Noone mentioned imaging my drive first, and I am not sure how I could do that.

What other software options do you recommend?

DataHero · Joined: 11 Feb 2009 Posts: 30

You can use a software called FTK imager, it's free. then try a data recovery with Get Data Gack. These softwares are used more in professional recoveries.

Who knows what damage you have done or lost with all these attempts.

Is the drive password protected or encrypted? This can sometimes result in not getting what you are looking for.

What is the file system? NTFS? HFS? HFS+? EXT?

It would appear you are at the point of using a professional, I suggest you look into it because the data seems to be very important.

Good luck!!!

www.datahero.com.au

tyler durden · Joined: 20 Jan 2009 Posts: 17

Have a look earlier in this thread for more details about what happened to this hard drive.