I have 3 hard drives, one of these hard drives is divided into three partitions. The partitions are C:, D:, and E:. For some reason I deleted a system file or files on another seperate hard drive which had my O/S (Windows XP Pro) on it and I lost my E: partition on this other hard drive. I have tried about 10 or so recovery/undelete/fix it programs to no avail. Does anyone happen to know of any way to get my data recovered from this partition? I have always had luck in the past recovering data. But this time I'm having no luck at all. The only thing I can figure out to do still as far as options is to do a check disc on the partition in drive management. But I fear this may overwrite something and be bad news. Also, would I want to check Automatically fix file system errors or attempt recovery of bad sectors if this is a viable option? I will try my best to provide any more info you guys may need to help me with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am at wits end and currently pulling out my hair out on this one. Thanks!
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Lost a partition, can anyone help me?
- Thread starter adidas_os
- Start date
Seymour IN? No way! My parents are from there 
Onto your problem, I agree that chkdsk should be a last resort. Check for corruption (memory errors, viruses, etc), try a different cable, make sure all of your drivers are up-to-date, and then see if some of the recovery tools on the Ultimate Boot CD will help, if you haven't already tried them.
Onto your problem, I agree that chkdsk should be a last resort. Check for corruption (memory errors, viruses, etc), try a different cable, make sure all of your drivers are up-to-date, and then see if some of the recovery tools on the Ultimate Boot CD will help, if you haven't already tried them.
Partition Table Doctor might do the trick, but iirc the free version wont actually write to the partition table when you try to apply the changes you make .
.<DougLite>Yep, I am here in Seymour, IN. Where can I get this "ultimate boot cd" that you mention? I'm pretty sure the cable works as I have had no problems till now and the other two partitions on the drive are still there. Also, I have always used antivirus and been carefull about potential threats. I think it's more likely that when I was moving everything off of one of my hard drives to a partition on another drive and I deleted some system files that messed up my E: partition.
<RavenD>I am currently looking at PartionTableDoctor. So it's ironic you should mention it now. It says "In most conditions, if Partition Table Doctor marks one FAT16/FAT32/NTFS partition with "X", that means the boot sector of the partition is corrupted. We suggest that you use Fixboot in Partition Table Doctor." Mine has a red x. So I tried the fixboot option. It said it couldn't do anything for me after doing some examining of the partition. I haven't tried rebuilding the partition table yet. And I am using the free trial version. If I use a version that actually allows full functionality of the program will it screw me over as far as any future chances at recovery if it does not work for me? Like by writing over something important that I may need later in order to recover my lost data? Would it be better to try it, or does the risk of losing my data outweigh trying this?
Thanks all!
<RavenD>I am currently looking at PartionTableDoctor. So it's ironic you should mention it now. It says "In most conditions, if Partition Table Doctor marks one FAT16/FAT32/NTFS partition with "X", that means the boot sector of the partition is corrupted. We suggest that you use Fixboot in Partition Table Doctor." Mine has a red x. So I tried the fixboot option. It said it couldn't do anything for me after doing some examining of the partition. I haven't tried rebuilding the partition table yet. And I am using the free trial version. If I use a version that actually allows full functionality of the program will it screw me over as far as any future chances at recovery if it does not work for me? Like by writing over something important that I may need later in order to recover my lost data? Would it be better to try it, or does the risk of losing my data outweigh trying this?
Thanks all!
lithium726
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active parition recovery worked great for me when a vcard crash hosed my partition table
www.ultimatebootcd.com
Its completely safe to play around with the trial version of Partition Table Doctor. See if rebuilding the partition table will work. The trial wont actually write the changes to your partition table. Also, if actually rebuilding the partition table fails, the data on the drive wont be affected, so it should still be possible to recover.
Its completely safe to play around with the trial version of Partition Table Doctor. See if rebuilding the partition table will work. The trial wont actually write the changes to your partition table. Also, if actually rebuilding the partition table fails, the data on the drive wont be affected, so it should still be possible to recover.
***UPDATE***
I tried the full version of Partition Table Doctor to rebuild the partition table and it did not work, though the program said it was successful, I still couldn't access the files on my E: partition in Windows explorer. I did this from a boot cd that I made. So then I undid the changes I made in that program and tried Active@partion recovery as lithium726 in this thread suggested and I got my first and only glimmer of hope. Though my partition is referred to as F: instead of E: as in Windows explorer my files and folders that I cannot access on that partition are all listed as being on this partition!!!! After having tried like 15 or so recovery/undelete/fix boot/partion table/etc... programs I am just glad to see them for the first time lol. Now if I can just figure out how to get access to them. I am using a bootable floppy with the full version of this forementioned program Active@partition recovery (latest version) to get my files back. But I only see options to view my files not to recover them or fix boot/rebuild MBR/rebuild partition table or whatever it may be I need to do to get at my files. So I will do some reading. And if anyone can reply to this thread with instructions or advice that'd be great too.
Thanks all who have replied in this thread!!!
I tried the full version of Partition Table Doctor to rebuild the partition table and it did not work, though the program said it was successful, I still couldn't access the files on my E: partition in Windows explorer. I did this from a boot cd that I made.
So then I undid the changes I made in that program and tried Active@partion recovery as lithium726 in this thread suggested and I got my first and only glimmer of hope. Though my partition is referred to as F: instead of E: as in Windows explorer my files and folders that I cannot access on that partition are all listed as being on this partition!!!! After having tried like 15 or so recovery/undelete/fix boot/partion table/etc... programs I am just glad to see them for the first time lol. Now if I can just figure out how to get access to them. I am using a bootable floppy with the full version of this forementioned program Active@partition recovery (latest version) to get my files back. But I only see options to view my files not to recover them or fix boot/rebuild MBR/rebuild partition table or whatever it may be I need to do to get at my files. So I will do some reading. And if anyone can reply to this thread with instructions or advice that'd be great too.Thanks all who have replied in this thread!!!
lithium726
[H]F Junkie
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you have to purchase active partition recovery to get it to recover teh partition and the data
it worked on two partitions in an entire hard drive for me recovered 200gb of data..
its 30 bucks for teh full pro version, comes with an extensive manual, and actually works
it worked on two partitions in an entire hard drive for me
recovered 200gb of data..its 30 bucks for teh full pro version, comes with an extensive manual, and actually works
Well I tried the full version of Active@Partition Recovery and it didn't work. And I still was not able to get recognition of my partition or access to the files and folders on it in Windows explorer. But the fact that it could see my partition and the files and folders on it made me persevere to get my data back. So I tried taking the drive out and putting it in another machine. And guess what there lo and behold was my partition with all the files and folders in perfect order!!! And I was able to copy about 100GB off to another drive! And to think I had just about given up before lithium726 suggested that program. Damn, can't thank you enough bud!!! None of the other programs I tried even saw the files on the partition! This is just the best thing to happen to me in a long time, I can't tell you how bummed out I was. A big thanks goes out to all you guys for helping me out on this one!!! You are the best!
But the fact that it could see my partition and the files and folders on it made me persevere to get my data back. So I tried taking the drive out and putting it in another machine. And guess what there lo and behold was my partition with all the files and folders in perfect order!!! And I was able to copy about 100GB off to another drive! And to think I had just about given up before lithium726 suggested that program. Damn, can't thank you enough bud!!! None of the other programs I tried even saw the files on the partition! This is just the best thing to happen to me in a long time, I can't tell you how bummed out I was. A big thanks goes out to all you guys for helping me out on this one!!! You are the best! lithium726
[H]F Junkie
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very glad to hear it worked out for ya
Thanks Lithium! I'm very glad as well! Funny how we often overlook the simple solutions. Here I was trying all this different software that would take like an hour to scan my hard drive only to come up with nothing, when all I had to do was take the frickin drive out and put it in another box lol. Oh well, I am just happy to have not lost everything I had on my drive!
dolphumous
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After trying a number of tools I'm going to try this.
My problem was with Partition Magic...I wanted to merge 2 partitions and it got an error toward the end and it left the one with all the data 'unallocated' and empty.
I'm going to try this next.
I'd like to get my data back. :-/
My problem was with Partition Magic...I wanted to merge 2 partitions and it got an error toward the end and it left the one with all the data 'unallocated' and empty.
I'm going to try this next.
I'd like to get my data back. :-/