Recover files after cluster resize went wrong

[Guest]

Using Partition Magic 8, I resized the clusters on NTFS partitions from 2k or
4k to a uniform 512 across all partitions. Three of my partitions (music and
video files) are now messed up.

1, A straight conversion from 4k to 512 failed and the computer restarted.
it still says the clusters are 4k and all the files are there and the
partition completely as it was apart from the fact that every file reads 0
bytes and won't open.

2, Another straight conversion, said there was no free space and failed. Now
the drive is unreadable and chkdsk says the mft is corrupt.

3, Merged the boot partition with the first one from the extended. Now
explorer shows the directories but when you click into the directory of music
it says it's not accessible and properties shows 0 bytes. There are several
*.pqe files in the root.

The data is replaceable but I would like to know if there is anything I can
do to recover the files.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Only way is to use NTFS is with 4K clusters.

 

[John John]

Using Partition Magic 8, I resized the clusters on NTFS partitions from 2k or
4k to a uniform 512 across all partitions. Three of my partitions (music and
video files) are now messed up.

1, A straight conversion from 4k to 512 failed and the computer restarted.
it still says the clusters are 4k and all the files are there and the
partition completely as it was apart from the fact that every file reads 0
bytes and won't open.

2, Another straight conversion, said there was no free space and failed. Now
the drive is unreadable and chkdsk says the mft is corrupt.

3, Merged the boot partition with the first one from the extended. Now
explorer shows the directories but when you click into the directory of music
it says it's not accessible and properties shows 0 bytes. There are several
*.pqe files in the root.

The data is replaceable but I would like to know if there is anything I can
do to recover the files.

Thanks

Man, talk about a complete disaster! The easiest thing to do will be to
blow away everything on the hard disk and rebuild the disk from scratch!
There is no way that this disaster can ever be contend on to be
reliable for your files. You did have backup of your files before you
tried to do the disk work?

What on earth ever possessed you to resize the clusters from 4K to 512
bytes? That is not a very good idea, why are you wanting to do this?
If you are using NTFS format the disk with the default 4k clusters and
leave it like that.

John

 

[John John]

Only way is to use NTFS is with 4K clusters.

That isn't so, Mark. Sql often use 64k clusters for increased disk
performance. Fat to NTFS conversions can also leave the disk with a
much smaller (and most inefficient) 512 byte clusters. The default
maximum size is 4k but that isn't an absolute maximum size. Most users
should not use any other cluster size other than the default 4k.

John

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Yep, you're right, of course, but then I do think his problem is in his
cluster size. As you told him, it's not going to work for him that way.