Partitioning stopped in middle

[Guest]

Using PartitionMagic on an external USB drive, I have shrunk a FAT32
partition and expanding the NTSF partition. Right after the NTSF partition
was expanded, it is "moving" the data as it's suppose to (presumeably to the
beginning of that parition). Problem. My USB drive got unplugged at the
power cord when "moving data" was at 32%. The autoplay feature started
reading the directory, as it does when it gets turned on, so I cancelled that
reading and said take no action. I had hoped that ParitionMagic would be able
to pickup where it left off, but it didn't error out and nor is it accessing
the USB drive at the moment. It's been this way for about 10 mins now and I
haven't done anything yet to it. Still sitting like that. What is my next
step? Can I get it to pickup where it left off, or do I have to reboot the
computer? will I lose information or will something like Defragmenting put
it back together?
Thanks for any replies.
Kevin

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Using PartitionMagic on an external USB drive, I have shrunk a FAT32
partition and expanding the NTSF partition. Right after the NTSF
partition was expanded, it is "moving" the data as it's suppose to
(presumeably to the beginning of that parition). Problem. My USB
drive got unplugged at the power cord when "moving data" was at
32%. The autoplay feature started reading the directory, as it
does when it gets turned on, so I cancelled that reading and said
take no action. I had hoped that ParitionMagic would be able to
pickup where it left off, but it didn't error out and nor is it
accessing the USB drive at the moment. It's been this way for
about 10 mins now and I haven't done anything yet to it. Still
sitting like that. What is my next step? Can I get it to pickup
where it left off, or do I have to reboot the computer? will I
lose information or will something like Defragmenting put it back
together?

Human error is often more damaging than any other.

I would hope that before you started such a delicate and uncertain task as
resizing live partitions (with all your data) - you would have thrown in an
extra backup into your periodic schedule - just to be safe?

The problem is - what you are asking is how to fix damage done by a third
party application that was doing something *not* built into Windows. Your
best source for assistance with said application and its nuances would not
be a Windows support group - as what you were doing is not a feature built
into the OS in question - but the FAQ/support pages for the product you are
attempting to utilize.

I will say that I wouldn't think doing a defragmentation would be
advisable - if even possible.

 

[Guest]

Human error is often more damaging than any other.

I would hope that before you started such a delicate and uncertain task as
resizing live partitions (with all your data) - you would have thrown in an
extra backup into your periodic schedule - just to be safe?

The problem is - what you are asking is how to fix damage done by a third
party application that was doing something *not* built into Windows. Your
best source for assistance with said application and its nuances would not
be a Windows support group - as what you were doing is not a feature built
into the OS in question - but the FAQ/support pages for the product you are
attempting to utilize.

I will say that I wouldn't think doing a defragmentation would be
advisable - if even possible.

I wouldn't have used a third party software if Microsoft provided a working
one to begin with. Microsoft expects people to buy third party software. In
these newsgroups, I've come across people with knowledge and experience
outside the little box of features that MS puts into their OS. I can
understand to "go talk to the vendor" if that caused something not to work
possibly having a compatibility issue, but the fundamental idea of
partitioning disks is general knowledge and part of the installation feature
of MS OS. MS newsgroups wouldn't be needed if you can only talk about the
retail version of an OS and sending people of an OEM version back to the
manufacturer.
In line with the subject of 3rd party software, MS Backup has failed to
recover a full system for me on multiple attempts, thus leaving me to
purchase another program.

What I have now is a 381GB partition that is formatted as "other" which is
unaccessable by Windows. No Chkdsk or defrag possible. The only thing I
suspect that MS software can do is format that partition placing an OS on it,
which isn't what I want on it. I'm wondering if another OS can read it to
extract the data, then somehow place it back into a NTSF partition. But
thinking about it now, while it did contain data not stored in either of the
internal drives, most of it was file backups using MS Backup, which I'm
giving up on anyway. I'm not happy, but I've learned something. Backup the
backups, and continue to use DVD disks as OS's and backup softwares change.

My thanks to all who read this and responded, inluding you Shenan, for
giving it your best.

Kevin

 

[JS]

Googled:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=partition+recovery+software

Hope this helps
JS

 

[Ron Badour]

I've read your response to Shenan and while I sympathize, the fact remains
that it is a PMagic problem and your best bet for info will be from (ugh)
Symantec. Absent help from them, I think I would use a data recovery
product to retrieve any needed info from the drive
and then wipe it (make a fresh partition and format it).

 

[Guest]

Ron,
I appreciate your suggestion, even that given by another that I'll likely
lose it and chaulk it up to experience. I totally forgot about partitioning
recovery program(s) and will give that a try. I still have newsgroup
messages from you saved on my computer since 2001 as they have been
informative enough to keep. I figured Shenan is relatively new and you want
me to take it easy on her. But I thought something needed to be said as "go
somewhere else to find help" was not just mentioned in my thread. Just a
little "try harder to help" was intended, but nothing meant to demean the
person.
Take care!
B.rgds,
Kevin

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Kevin wrote:

I figured Shenan is relatively new and you want me to take it easy on her.

Incorrect - two counts.

But I thought something needed to be said as "go somewhere else to
find help" was not just mentioned in my thread. Just a little "try
harder to help" was intended, but nothing meant to demean the
person.

You didn't demean me at all - you just tried to get help in a newsgroup
originally setup strictly for the "Help and Support" feature in Windows XP
for a snafu you created using a third party product (partition magic.) As I
stated before - Windows XP does not have the innate ability to do what you
were trying to do with Partition Magic - which is change/migrate/resize
live/used data partitions. I suggested - quite correctly - that you do two
thnigs:

1) Restore from the backup you should have made before doing any of this.
2) Ask for assistance from Symantec.

Personally - what I would do is first see if any imaging programs could
image it - and get the data off that way. Secondly - I would likely use
some data recovery/partition rebuilding utilities to TRY and get myself back
out of the mess I got myself into.

The only reason I did not respond to your response to me is because it was
one excuse for what you did after another. "Microsoft expects people to buy
third party software." <- Yes - it's going to happen. You neglected to read
the documentation and back up before performing anything with the software
in question. So perhaps 2 wouldn't help you because you didn't do 1... But
it is not necessarily an issue that anyone here would/should take their
volunteer time and help you with - nor would I expect the experts with
partition resizing using Partition Magic hang out here *more* than they
would an actual forum for such things. Therefore it would be wise, but not
expected, for you to go to a place where people might tell you what
happened.

Yes - partitioning is a basic hard drive necessity. They are practically
worthless without partitions. However - what you did was to resize two
different file-system based partitions and then accidentally unplugged the
power to a drive in the middle of the operation.

Your data is likely recoverable - I've recovered worse. Failed Software
RAIDs with Dynamic Disks... I had to pull one file at a time off using
command line utilities. You just have to find the right utility to rebuild
the partition table/correct it.