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Thread ID: 93437	2008-09-16 08:03:00	recovering partition	JL98 (13902)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
705789	2008-09-20 11:56:00	Let me get this clear. You have a laptop that has a single SATA hard drive. The drive was partitioned into two. You have not stated how the drives were originally formated (NTFS or FAT32). You have not stated what size the partitions originally were. Windows Vista was originally installed as the OS. You attempted to "rebuild" the partition table and now have 23Mb of 100 available. You have not stated what the 23Mb is - if it was an earlier partition or a resized partition. You have not stated if you can access the partition and look at the data. The presumptions arrived at however seem to indicate that you have removed access to a partition and want to regain access to the partition. Hmmm. And you want to attempt reconstruction yourself without having any prior experience. Excuse my approach but I find this an interesting concept. I suggest whatever you do - either contract a professional or DYI - that you don't rush. An initial option may be to fit a replacement drive to the laptop till either you gain experieince (and confidence) or find a professional.	merlin (256)
705790	2008-09-21 01:11:00	Let me get this clear. You have a laptop that has a single SATA hard drive. The drive was partitioned into two. You have not stated how the drives were originally formated (NTFS or FAT32). You have not stated what size the partitions originally were. Windows Vista was originally installed as the OS. You attempted to "rebuild" the partition table and now have 23Mb of 100 available. You have not stated what the 23Mb is - if it was an earlier partition or a resized partition. You have not stated if you can access the partition and look at the data. The presumptions arrived at however seem to indicate that you have removed access to a partition and want to regain access to the partition. Hmmm. And you want to attempt reconstruction yourself without having any prior experience. Excuse my approach but I find this an interesting concept. I suggest whatever you do - either contract a professional or DYI - that you don't rush. An initial option may be to fit a replacement drive to the laptop till either you gain experieince (and confidence) or find a professional. I have a single 100gb sata drive. Originally partitioned into a C drive and D drive. Both 45gb each formatted as NTFS. I need to recover C drive as it has all my programs and OS. D drive is OK-not a problem if it cannot be recovered.	JL98 (13902)
705791	2008-09-21 03:37:00	To reconstruct the partition - that is recover the root directory index that NTFS formated drives use - the drive can be left in the laptop. While this overcomes the need to install the drive in a recovery computer, there are some calculations to be made to establish the size of the drive to locate the backup boot sector. MS give a guide here - support.microsoft.com I personally use NDD, diskprobe and bootable DOS floppies but then I'm old school. Recovering data on the drive without recreating partitions - this requires a data recovery program. Personally I use Easy Recovery Pro (Windows based and good for NTFS) or Lost and Found (Bootable floppies for FAT) depending on how the drive was formated. There are two options here: 1. installing a second hard drive on the laptop (not a great idea), or 2. putting the laptop drive into a recovery computer (better way). I recommend option 2. The recovery program is then installed on the recovery computer keeping installation well away from the laptop drive. Recovered files are then stored on a separate drive/drivespace. Specs for the recovery computer - needs drive space at least 1.5 times the laptop drive size plus as much memory as possible. Again - don't rush. Take your time.	merlin (256)
705792	2008-09-21 05:06:00	thanks for all your advice merlin-also I used that "easeus" bootable CD to "rebuild" the partition. What actually did I do?	JL98 (13902)
705793	2008-09-21 05:15:00	I have no idea. Without examining the drive I'd be guessing, but you do appear to have possibly overwritten the master boot record, possibly deleted one or both root directory indexes and possibly rewritten or resized one partition. Be prepared for the worst however, since Easeus is advertised as a data recovery program and may have done funny things.	merlin (256)
705794	2008-09-21 09:00:00	I tried "slaving" the drive but this (www.imagehostie.com) error comes up when I plug it in.	JL98 (13902)
705795	2008-09-21 09:10:00	I tried "slaving" the drive but this (www.imagehostie.com) error comes up when I plug it in. That is because as mentioned earlier you have damaged or blown away the partition - the working PC has no idea what is attached. If you load the getdata back on another PC with the drive slaved - as mentioned earlier on it will see the drive,then you will be able to scan it and may recover your data, thats the whole Idea of data recovery software - it can sometimes see data when a normal working operating system wont. BUT if I have read your posts correctly you say you already have the data saved else where?? ( post 17) As merlin mentioned, in option 2 - which is the same thing I mentioned earlier (post 18) this is to recover your data only. By damaging the partition with easeus bootable CD - where you mention "rebuild" - that effectively wiped your drive. With out going into a lot of technical detail the data should still be there - getting back the damaged partition for all intense purposes is highly unlikely. Your best bet is to recover what data you can, reinstall windows and all the programs and then copy the data back - data can be copied back, programs cant. One question - I asked this before but it was never answered - Why did you select "rebuild" the partition in the first place ??	wainuitech (129)
705796	2008-09-21 10:37:00	Probibly, I wonder what this dose and double clicked on it. :)	Trev (427)
705797	2008-09-22 05:51:00	One question - I asked this before but it was never answered - Why did you select "rebuild" the partition in the first place ?? *sigh*:groan: What I did. 1. Every time I turned on my computer it went from boot screen to a black screen. Never loaded into vista itself. Safe mode didn't work-it froze on a file. 2. There was a "EASEUS Bootable recovery CD" (www.giveawayoftheday.com) on GAOTD. 3. Downloaded and burned iso and booted from CD. 4. Selected "rebuild partition" I thought I had nothing to lose. turns out I had EVERYTHING to lose. 5. Now, everytime I try boot up it has this "memory checking utility" thingy. No more vista now :( 6. Some guy from another forum told me to use the "Vista Recovery CD" from neosmartfiles to fix my problem. 7. Didn't work-didn't find any vista installations to fix!:mad::confused: :( 8. Told me to do a "repair" installation with a vista DVD 9. Scared it'll do something to worsen my problem, so haven't done it.	JL98 (13902)
705798	2008-09-22 06:11:00	Hmmmm hate to say it, but when it didn't boot, the boot CD from neosmartfiles may have been able to get it going - thats actually the first part of the Vista DVD, that contains the inbuilt repair function, sometimes it works other times it doesn't. In simple English / Non Technical - the Partition is like a container that holds the OS, when there is a boot problem its usually fixable depending on what the problem is. By "rebuilding" the partition, you removed the original container and replaced it with another - hence basically a empty drive. BUT the data is possibly still there - sitting outside the container - windows cant see it thats all. A data recovery program sometimes can. While you may be able to recover the data - recovering the partition is questionable - Never used that program but looking at what it's meant to do, you can try the following - NO IDEA what will happen, so do this AT YOUR OWN RISK - as long as you want to risk losing every thing on the Drive that may be recoverable - boot from the CD - look to see if there is an option to "undo- Reverse" the last action you made. If there is it may put things back to how they were. If not then it may be gone and need to be completely reinstalled - OR need the services of a Computer repairer that knows what they are doing to recover the data. Any decent repair place will have Vista DVD's or copies of them as "workshop's" and be able to use your own product key thats on the back of the laptop to reinstall Vista. Its the product key thats important- not the DVD. To do a repair install wont work, it will see the drive as blank and simply format it and load Vista back in - all data /programs will be gone. To do a repair install with Vista is not as easy as XP - you need a retail version, as OEM and Upgrades dont have the option for repair installs.	wainuitech (129)
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