recover partition(s) deleted during window xp pro resintall

  • Thread starter Thread starter foggy_sun
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foggy_sun

This got to be the biggest ball I dropped ever - during a recent
restall of window xp pro at home, I lost sight that the external USB
hard drive (Maxter one tough 120GB) was still plugged in, and managed
to delete the sole partition on it, along with the sole partition on
the internal EIDE (or IDE) drive. And of course, a second later, I
realized what I have done and quit the windows set up withOUT
reformatting. I have not tried fdisk either.

Can anyone help me recover the files on EITHER drive?
Thank you sooo much!

- Foggy
 
This got to be the biggest ball I dropped ever - during a recent
restall of window xp pro at home, I lost sight that the external USB
hard drive (Maxter one tough 120GB) was still plugged in, and managed
to delete the sole partition on it, along with the sole partition on
the internal EIDE (or IDE) drive. And of course, a second later, I
realized what I have done and quit the windows set up withOUT
reformatting. I have not tried fdisk either.

Can anyone help me recover the files on EITHER drive?
Thank you sooo much!

- Foggy
Click to expand...

Here are a couple of tools:
www.acronis.com (RecoveryExpert)
http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm

I have used RecoveryExpert myself - it worked very nicely.
Restorer2000 has attracted some good reports too.
 
Hi,

Mbrwork from www.terabyteunlimited.com may be able to help you recover the
partitions that were deleted. It's in the freeware download section. You run
it from a bootable floppy.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Will this work, considering that the OP is dealing with
a USB disk? I assume that "bootable floppy" means
"DOS bootable floppy", but DOS does not recognise
USB devices.
 
Depends on the Motherboard BIOS, & if Legacy USB is enabled.
A DOS boot may see the drive, but it may not detect it correctly.

I use a DOS based bootable CD-R, with tools like SpinRite and
DImage 6.0, etc). If I boot with it, I can see my Maxtor 5000LE
but it doesn't correctly detect it's size. I suspect that allot of it
depends on whether the tool itself has native support for USB
drives.

There is a set of DOS boot mode drivers for USB. I've used them
before but they are cumbersome to configure. I believe they (drivers)
were created by Panasonic.
 
Your comment makes me wonder whether the tool suggested
by Rick might not be counterproductive: Instead of restoring
the lost partitition, it might destroy any trace that was left of it.
 
There's that possibility. I'm no drive expert, but would be leery of
attempting partition recovery without reading up on the tool and it's
recommendations on use. Most of those operations are like the
signs that read "Last Gas for 200 Miles", think it over carefully.
 
This got to be the biggest ball I dropped ever - during a recent
restall of window xp pro at home, I lost sight that the external USB
hard drive (Maxter one tough 120GB) was still plugged in, and managed
to delete the sole partition on it, along with the sole partition on
the internal EIDE (or IDE) drive. And of course, a second later, I
realized what I have done and quit the windows set up withOUT
reformatting. I have not tried fdisk either.

Can anyone help me recover the files on EITHER drive?
Click to expand...

What I would use is BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35
shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

Download, to its own folder, extract from the zip, run the bootitng to
make a boot floppy.

Boot the floppy, Cancel Install, entering maintenance, then click on
Partition work. There highlight the free space on the device (select on
the left if needed_ and click Undelete
 
They may, like Norton, load USB drivers in the config.sys so DOS (Norton
uses PC-DOS, not MS-DOS) can recognize USB devices, such as external hard
and cd drives.
 
HI,

Actually the file, when run, relies on what the BIOS will recognize, as will
any tool that works with partitions. The poster mentions both a USB drive
and an IDE driver, so I'm sure it will work for the latter, and quite
possibly the former. I don't see where it can damage anything any further,
as that has already been done.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
I suggest you use Partition Table Doctor to resolve your
problem.The software provides very useful functions:
Backup partition table, Restore partition table, Rebuild
partition table, undelete partition, Fix boot sector,
rebuild mbr,etc.

First thing I recommend you download the demo version of
Partition Table Doctor.( http://www.ptdd.com/download.htm )

Run the program and select "Rebuild Partition Table",
then choose "Interactive" mode.

See more: http://www.ptdd.com/recoverylostpartition.htm
http://www.ptdd.com/recoverdeletedpartition.htm
http://www.ptdd.com/partition-recovery.htm
http://www.ptdd.com
 
Jan 21 of this year was when this was originally posted.

You're getting hotter.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

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