Partition Magic trashed Lacie

[ric_deez]

Hi there,

I am running Windows XP SP2 Home Edition on a Compaq Presario. I also
have a Lacie D2 Firewire 400/800 USB2 device which is connected via a
firewire 400 port. The Lacie has a 250GB NTFS partition which I
attempted to resize to create room for a 50GB FAT32 partition that I
could also access from my Mac.

I used PM 8.0 to do this and it got stuck at 62% and hung. After
waiting for a few hours without making any further progress I aborted
the process. I then discovered that Windows XP was no longer able to
read the Lacie drive, which failed to mount even after a reboot. It
turns out that MS has built a 30GB limitation on FAT32 volumes under
Windows 2000/XP. That also seems to explain why the process hung at
62%... Pity PM doesn't seem to know about this!!!

Anyway, I now have about 80GB of data on the Lacie which has been
trashed as I don't seem to be able to get Windows to mount this drive.

I am using a product called Handy Recovery 2.0 but it seems to take
quite a while to recover partition information so I don't really know
how this is going to pan out.

I would love to get some advice on the following:

- Alternatives to Handy Recovery (just in case)
- Any advice on how to get my Lacie in a state where it can be seen by
the OS

I assume that the partition table on it has been fried so I am guessing
that I will need to recover the files (any files?!?) to another disk
(using handy recovery et al) and then re-format the Lacie and start
again. The problem is how do I do this if Windows does not seem to see
the drive? Disk Manager seems to think it is there but no properties
are accessible.

Any advice would be greatly welcomed.

Best Regards.


Ric

 

[bxf]

Hi there,

I am running Windows XP SP2 Home Edition on a Compaq Presario. I also
have a Lacie D2 Firewire 400/800 USB2 device which is connected via a
firewire 400 port. The Lacie has a 250GB NTFS partition which I
attempted to resize to create room for a 50GB FAT32 partition that I
could also access from my Mac.

I used PM 8.0 to do this and it got stuck at 62% and hung. After
waiting for a few hours without making any further progress I aborted
the process. I then discovered that Windows XP was no longer able to
read the Lacie drive, which failed to mount even after a reboot. It
turns out that MS has built a 30GB limitation on FAT32 volumes under
Windows 2000/XP. That also seems to explain why the process hung at
62%... Pity PM doesn't seem to know about this!!!

Anyway, I now have about 80GB of data on the Lacie which has been
trashed as I don't seem to be able to get Windows to mount this drive.

I am using a product called Handy Recovery 2.0 but it seems to take
quite a while to recover partition information so I don't really know
how this is going to pan out.

I would love to get some advice on the following:

- Alternatives to Handy Recovery (just in case)

I've used a couple myself, and I think it's worthwhile mentioning that
it appears that all recovery programs are not created equal, in that
one product (came free with my Sandisk Extreme SD card) recovered more
files than another product (can't recall the name). Googling for "file
recovery" or "recover deleted files" will yield many results, and you
may want to try more than one program.

- Any advice on how to get my Lacie in a state where it can be seen by
the OS

I assume that the partition table on it has been fried so I am guessing
that I will need to recover the files (any files?!?) to another disk
(using handy recovery et al) and then re-format the Lacie and start
again. The problem is how do I do this if Windows does not seem to see
the drive? Disk Manager seems to think it is there but no properties
are accessible.

It may sound like you are in a catch-22 situation, in that your only
way out is to format the drive, yet you need the files that are on it.
However, I suspect (and that is all!) that a QUICK format will not
actually destroy the data on the drive, so that subsequent use of a
recovery program should still be possible. This Quick format may be
enough to make Windows see the drive. It's your call.

 

[ric_deez]

Hi bxf,

Thanks for your response. Yes, I guess a quick format will not destroy
the drive, but I may postpone this until after I have tried to recover
some of the files that are important to me (mainly photos and a few
backups).

Regards,

Ric

 

[Richard Urban]

Any use of the drive, at this point, will likely cause further loss of
information. The way to handle the problem is to run a file recovery program
from a bootable floppy and see what can be saved. Then go from there. You
don't need a partition table or even a MFT to recover competent files if you
use a quality recovery program.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[ric_deez]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the post! Can you recommend any file recovery programs worth
their salt? Also, given that this is only a data drive, why would you
bother running the recovery program from a bootable floppy?

Regards,

Ric

 

[Jonny]

XP's built-in partitioning software has the 32GB limitation, not XP itself.
Look elsewhere for the cause.

 

[ric_deez]

And further to my previous email...

Purchased both Handy Recovery 2.0 but it took over 8 hours to scan the
disk and I found that the registration process did not go smoothly at
all with the software failing to register online automatically as it is
supposed to. This must be a major occurrence as there is also an email
option. Out of frustration I went and purchased Active @ UNDELETE. It
turns out that this software was able to do a quick scan taking only
about 15 seconds and I have since recovered most of my most valuable
data. The user interface of Active @ UNDELETE is also a lot more
polished than HR 2.0. I am guessing that HR2.0 may be able to recover
some of the files that the Active won't... Anyway, when one considers
the value of the data, the software licenses are worth it, although I
would suggest that the Active Data Recovery Software be your first
port of call...

Now all I have to do is re-format my Lacie, copy all of the files back
in there and I am back in business (after wasting the better part of
the afternoon and evening!!!)

Regards,

Ric

 

[ric_deez]

Hi Johny,

I found that out on Scott Mueller's "Upgrading and Repairing PCs", 16th
Edition at the bttom of page 1374. I guess if you format it elsewhere
you could have XP accessing the full 2 TB of information available for
FAT32 volumes, BUT how can you be sure that Partition Magic isn't using
some API call that would impose the 32GB limitation? Isn't it funny
that the operation stopped just after 62% (i.e. 0.62 x 50 GB = 31
GB)???

I actually think that if this is the case, then Symantec has a lot to
answer for as it should either prevent users from attempting to create
a FAT32 partition greater than 32GB or should be configured so that it
does not rely on the native functionality (and limitations associated
therewith).

Regards,

Ric

 

[Peter A. Stavrakoglou]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the post! Can you recommend any file recovery programs worth
their salt? Also, given that this is only a data drive, why would you
bother running the recovery program from a bootable floppy?

Regards,

Ric

I've used "Easy Recovery" on two occassions. One was when I formatted the
wrong partition of my system (don't ask me how I managed to do that) and
needed to recover the files, it worked very well. The other time I used it
was with an external USB drive in my office that I keep about 30 gigs of MP3
files on. One day while listening to an MP3, the song stopped. I could no
longer see any data on the drive, nothing. There was no power failure or
anything of the sort, just some fluke I guess. I used the recovery software
to retrieve all the files onto another drive and then was able to restore
them to the external drive.

 

[Richard Urban]

I exclusively use EasyRecovery Professional from www.ontrack.com. It is
expensive but I have used it to save attorney records, wedding/honeymoon
pictures, home video's etc for my clients. I charge a stiff fee but the
program cost a small fortune. It has never let me down. If the files have
not been corrupted, the hard drive spins and the drive electronics are
functional, this program will recover the files.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Richard Urban]

The Partition Magic instructions tell you to backup before working with
partitions.

Every MVP here will tell you to backup before you work with partitions.
Anything can happen, including a power outage or a lightning strike while
you are in the middle of resizing a partition. Symantec, and previously
PowerQuest, are not responsible for incorrect usage. This includes failure
to backup pertinent files before working with partitions.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[ric_deez]

Hi Richard,

Point taken and lesson learnt!!!

Regards,

Ric