Partition Recovery?

[jgerber]

Hi,

Recently I have lost access to a secondary HDD in my system. (was working fine for a while, then started getting buggy when trying to access files, then eventually complete loss of drive). I was able to get the drive visable again in Windows (Vista), but the drive was now unaccessable. The Drive was for data/files only, and was never used for OS/Bootup.

I ran SpinRite, and the disk checks out perfectly (no errors).

I installed the HDD into a different system (One with XP), and tried accessing it windows xp sees the HDD, but will not access it. (Get an "Disc is not accessable or corrupt" error)

I tried downloading Active Partition Recovery demo, and it appears it can see all the folders on the HDD.

My question: Should I purchase Active Partition Recovery software... and get the files back that way? Or is there a different way?
Secondly, if the APR software is able to see my files, do you think it will recover them? Or is it possible it can see them in the demo, but not necessarily be able to recover them.

Here are the screen shots:
Firstly.. how Windows viewed the drive, but would not access it:
http://www.creativemill.ca/jg/screenshots/drive_e.gif
How APR views the drive:
http://www.creativemill.ca/jg/screen...screenshot.gif

Also, does the fact that I have multiple boots happening on a primary HDD, as well as an external e-sata HDD have any play in originally messing up this HDD?
(ie: primary hdd has Vista64 and WinXP, and e-sata one has Vista32)

Thanks,

James G.

[kingnubian]

The files may in fact be accessible with a tool such as Active Partition Recovery but as for purchasing it I personally wouldn't.
In cases like this I usually boot the system with Linux, puppy being one of my favs being bootable from a usb stick, mount the drive, pull off the needed info & redo the drive afterwords.

You may also want to try UBCD4Win which will create a bootable cd with a pretty complete windows environment loaded with all the tools you choose & may need in cases like this.

Save your $$$$, there are other ways to get this done besides draining your wallet.

[jgerber]

Thanks Kingnubian... I ended up checking out that second option you mentioned... and noticed it had this app in it:
TestDisk - CGSecurity
(Perhaps I can even just download that app on it's own and use it?)

(I forgot to mention this, but I just remember the last thing I did before the HDD became "unaccessable", was ran "Scandisk" from vista... is it possible for Scandisk to mess up a HDD? or perhaps my mixture of booting up from different operating systems and different HDD's had it's toll on the secondary HDD's?)

[Squeetard]

I use acronis disk director and it works great.

[kingnubian]

Originally Posted by Squeetard

I use acronis disk director and it works great.

Isn't Acronis Disk Director retail software ($$$) ?

[jgerber]

Originally Posted by kingnubian

Isn't Acronis Disk Director retail software ($$$) ?

Yeah... but I haven't ruled out that as an option. I'm familiar with DOS-like apps.. but not well versed in how they work. If I can get a graphical windows app, that's "safe & easy" it's $$$ might be worth the 3 hours of sleep I'll save by not mucking around with unfamiliar apps ;p

I was looking into the TestDisk application... and I'm just concerned that I might mess something up and loose all my data. And fearful of the same thing wither other free/complex (complex for me), apps.

[kingnubian]

Have you heard if Hiren's Boot cd?

[jgerber]

Originally Posted by kingnubian

Have you heard if Hiren's Boot cd?

Nope, but will look into it.
(turns out I won't be doing anything with my HDD until early next week.. so I'll have more time to explore options).

[Chilly]

Try a bootable Linux CD to see if you can access the file, and if not use one of those programs. Personally, the program I own and use is GetDataBack by runtime. When it comes to data recovery, no one does it better than GetDataBack IMO.

GetDataBack - Data Recovery Software

[jgerber]

Just to update... I tried booting up my system with a Linux cd (Ubuntu was the one I ended up trying), and still could not see my drives.

- Got Active@ Partition Recovery, cause in the demo I could see the drive/files. (Acronis partition software could not see the disk at all)
- Turns out.. it could not retreive files either.
- Got Active@ File Recovery
- Successfully recovered all but 2 files off the drive with it (recovered approx. 80gig of video, audio, photoshop files, etc..)

Although in retrospect, wishing i had used the partition recovery demo more correctly (to know that it wasn't the app I needed), I'm much relieved to have this all sorted out, and data back intact ;p