New Startup Disk Removed all files

[Guest]

I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot
Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the
advice.
I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning
what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost
all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

 

[Terry R.]

On 7/5/2007 5:18 PM On a whim, Bill S pounded out on the keyboard

I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot
Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the
advice.
I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning
what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost
all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

Hi Bill,

It sounds like you may have created a second installation, or if you
chose to format the drive in the beginning, you may have erased
everything. You can create a new partition in Setup, but you can't
re-partition (to me that means manipulating an existing partition which
you can't do).

Do you get a short DOS looking menu when the computer boots, asking
which XP to use? If so, select the second option and see if it will
boot into your old install. We can remove the new partition later.

If no menu appears, use the CD again but choose a Repair install and see
if it gives you the option of which install to Repair (only because you
said you were unable to use the Recovery Console for chkdsk). Select the
old partition to Repair.

Report back,

--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[chris]

I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot
Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the
advice.
I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning
what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost
all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

Doh, sounds like you might of repartitions you disk. If you didn't
format the volume then you might not of damaged too much of your
files.
If you have XP running now, look in Control Panel -> Administrative
Tools -> Computer management to see what the situation is with your
disks.
Are there partitions you can see which are not mapped to drive
letters, as you might of got away with it and just created a seperate
partition.

Second to this look for a product like winundelete (search google
"recover deleted files") which will display files that it can find
within the original file system, and give you means to recover as many
as you can.

Good luck

Chris - London

 

[Plato]

I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot
Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the
advice.
I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning
what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost
all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

Make a habit of backing up all your most important data to CDs and keep
them in a file folder with the dates on them. It's a good habit to get
into. Also keep a copy of those folders in a separate location, ie a
different home, a vacation home, your girlfriends home, your ex-wife's
home, etc. I've been hit by fire twice in the last 20 years and my habit
came in quite handy.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

As you found out, the hard way, Windows XP has no repartitioning tools that
are non destructive. For example a program like Acronis DiskDirector will
allow you to shrink and existing partition and then create a new partition
from the free space while retaining all the files on the original partition.
Windows XP can repartition but in doing so you have to first delete the
existing partition then create new partitions. There is no way to do the
shrink that a program like DiskDirector can do.

If you had simply deleted your partition and even created a set of new
partitions and even formatted these partitions you might be able to reverse
the process with a third party tool and have your files intact. But because
you installed Windows again after the partitioning job you will have
overwritten some files. These will not be recoverable. But using third party
software you might still beable to recovery alot of files. Just don't use
the system except when ready to see what can be found. Even booting the
system will cause further data loss as Windows XP creates the pagefile,
restore points and other disk writing it does during startup. Even a virus
scan will overwrite files. Try not to use the system as any use of it will
overwrite files that might be recoverable. There are many programs that will
find and attempt to recover deleted files even as in your case the files
were deleted due to a repartition/reformat. When trying to recover files off
a drive you should install the recovery software to a different computer,
then remove the drive from your computer and connect the drive to that
second system and recover the files that way. Or there are some recovery
tools that can be run from a bootable CD or floppy. This prevents writing to
the drive. But you can't recover the files back to the same drive
immediately as the act of doing so will over write other lost files.

Take a read through here for more info http://www.aumha.org/a/recover.php

 

[jm]

I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot
Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the
advice.
I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning
what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost
all myfiles--all of them. Can Irecover?

I doubt if you'll be able to get it back to the way it was originally
but you should be able to recover most of your data files. I think
Partition Recovery www.tech-pro.net/partition-recovery.html should be
able to do it.

 

[Guest]

Terry,
Followup...
Thanks for advice. I only get new XP. I could not get back old
installation. I am now trying undelete recovery programs to find old files
per other advice on this link. It is my wife's computer. She previously
backed up her files, but did not for the past year. Bad luck! I am suprised
I could delete my entire hard disc by simply installing the Startup Boot for
XP. Everything was erased, all operating systems and programs. I will have
to reinstall all the misssing programs. Ouch! Oh well, lesson learned.
Still working on it.

 

[Guest]

Plato,
Thanks for advice. This was my wife's computer. She did backup until a
year ago. She lost a year's data. Lesson learned.

 

[Guest]

Harry,
Thanks for advice. I have downloaded several trial recovery programs to my
other computer (this one). I'm using my CD and DVD drives to do this. I
will now try them out on the problem computer. I am still surprised that I
could erase everything from the computer (my wife's) by simply installing the
XP Startup Boot. Oh well. Lesson learned.


--
Bill in California

As you found out, the hard way, Windows XP has no repartitioning tools that
are non destructive. For example a program like Acronis DiskDirector will
allow you to shrink and existing partition and then create a new partition
from the free space while retaining all the files on the original partition.
Windows XP can repartition but in doing so you have to first delete the
existing partition then create new partitions. There is no way to do the
shrink that a program like DiskDirector can do.

If you had simply deleted your partition and even created a set of new
partitions and even formatted these partitions you might be able to reverse
the process with a third party tool and have your files intact. But because
you installed Windows again after the partitioning job you will have
overwritten some files. These will not be recoverable. But using third party
software you might still beable to recovery alot of files. Just don't use
the system except when ready to see what can be found. Even booting the
system will cause further data loss as Windows XP creates the pagefile,
restore points and other disk writing it does during startup. Even a virus
scan will overwrite files. Try not to use the system as any use of it will
overwrite files that might be recoverable. There are many programs that will
find and attempt to recover deleted files even as in your case the files
were deleted due to a repartition/reformat. When trying to recover files off
a drive you should install the recovery software to a different computer,
then remove the drive from your computer and connect the drive to that
second system and recover the files that way. Or there are some recovery
tools that can be run from a bootable CD or floppy. This prevents writing to
the drive. But you can't recover the files back to the same drive
immediately as the act of doing so will over write other lost files.

Take a read through here for more info http://www.aumha.org/a/recover.php
--


Harry Ohrn MS MVP [Shell\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot
Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per
the
advice.
I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning
what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have
lost
all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

 

[Guest]

jm,
Thanks for the advice.
I downloaded a trial version of the partition recovery program you
recommended to my other computer via CD & DVD and will now try it on the
problem computer.

 

[Guest]

Chris,
Thanks for the advice. I am working with some recovery software now to see
what I have. I looked at the disk management info and found FAT with 31 MB,
FAT 32 with 3.146 GB, and (C) with 71.32 GB, of which 69.50 GB is free.
(It's a 80 GB disk.) I'm not sure what that means.