HD Corrupted - lost all my stuff!
Discussion
I'll make this short.
I was using my PC, and out of the blue on one day it would not load XP. I got a BSOD saying that the XP installation was damaged or corrupted. When I put in my recovery CD (provided by my computer maker), and proceeded with reinstalling XP, I formatted an E partition (which came out of nowhere, all my stuff was on a C partition) and proceeded to install XP on this E partition.
The problem is, as I did this a few weeks ago, I cannot remember if I formatted the C drive or not. I tried to install XP on the C Drive, but it said something about the XP installation or the drive being too damaged (works fine now - getting a new PC though). Even if I did format the C Drive (worst scenario), can I salvage anything from it?
Is there any software to recover files (such as my music) from a damaged/corrupted HD? And is there software to do the same with a formatted HD? When I search on google there is software that says this can be done but I am not sure (might just be a marketing trick to get me to try the software). I don't want to buy software and then find out it's useless.
Thanks!
I was using my PC, and out of the blue on one day it would not load XP. I got a BSOD saying that the XP installation was damaged or corrupted. When I put in my recovery CD (provided by my computer maker), and proceeded with reinstalling XP, I formatted an E partition (which came out of nowhere, all my stuff was on a C partition) and proceeded to install XP on this E partition.
The problem is, as I did this a few weeks ago, I cannot remember if I formatted the C drive or not. I tried to install XP on the C Drive, but it said something about the XP installation or the drive being too damaged (works fine now - getting a new PC though). Even if I did format the C Drive (worst scenario), can I salvage anything from it?
Is there any software to recover files (such as my music) from a damaged/corrupted HD? And is there software to do the same with a formatted HD? When I search on google there is software that says this can be done but I am not sure (might just be a marketing trick to get me to try the software). I don't want to buy software and then find out it's useless.
Thanks!
Plotloss said:
Take the drive out and stick it in another machine.
Or get hold of a Live CD distribution of Linux, boot from that and copy the data across to another machine via network (if you have one)
Or get hold of a Live CD distribution of Linux, boot from that and copy the data across to another machine via network (if you have one)
Wow very quick reply!
The question is though, is the data there? Because I cannot see it - then again , I haven't taken any action since I have got this same machine back up and running.
What bugs me is "Can I get the files back?" and if so, "How?". Because I cannot see the data, so I don't think I could see it if I boot from a Live CD Distribution of Linux.
I hope that makes sense (not been in the right frame of mind since the accident).
Your first mistake with this was writing data to the HDD after if failed. If you have data you need on it you may well overwrite it. Hopefully that hasn't happened in this case.
As Plotloss says, take the HDD out of your machine and install it in another as a non-bootable HDD. You can use Active@ UNDELETE to have a go oat getting your data back. I recently recovered 300GB of data with this tool and it's very neat. Use the demo version to scan the HDD and see what files can be found. If it lists files you want back, then buy the full version. At only $40 (about £23) it's not expensive and their support is pretty good too.
As Plotloss says, take the HDD out of your machine and install it in another as a non-bootable HDD. You can use Active@ UNDELETE to have a go oat getting your data back. I recently recovered 300GB of data with this tool and it's very neat. Use the demo version to scan the HDD and see what files can be found. If it lists files you want back, then buy the full version. At only $40 (about £23) it's not expensive and their support is pretty good too.
Oh, the next thing is, backup from now on! There are lots of ways you can backup - if you want to automatically encrypt and backup your data off-site to be safe and have a broadband connection then take a look at remote backup solutions. My company offer RemoteReplicator which can protect your a Gigabyte of data for £5.75/month but there are other solutions out there too.
Thanks for the advice.
BTW, my dad (I'm not blaming anyone but this is fact) said he would get an external HD for protecting my data as I had some quite sensitive data on my PC (degree work, songs, and so forth). But my dad didn't do this (and I was naive enough to trust him) so I was at a loss when what happened, happened - now he does things quicker, for once...
I wrote to my HD as I had to get it back up and running as the laptop was down with seperate problems, I had a foot injury meaning I could not go out, and I was really tempted to install Flight Simulator as I was bored to death (only had the TV to entertain me and that was all about the world cup).
BTW, my dad (I'm not blaming anyone but this is fact) said he would get an external HD for protecting my data as I had some quite sensitive data on my PC (degree work, songs, and so forth). But my dad didn't do this (and I was naive enough to trust him) so I was at a loss when what happened, happened - now he does things quicker, for once...
I wrote to my HD as I had to get it back up and running as the laptop was down with seperate problems, I had a foot injury meaning I could not go out, and I was really tempted to install Flight Simulator as I was bored to death (only had the TV to entertain me and that was all about the world cup).
Too late to be any help to you this time, but if it's that important to you, put it on a memory stick or (if you can afford the bandwidth) upload it to a Gmail drive. It's a cheap/free way to back up a few hundred MB of data off-site. (Remember that Gmail drives are completely unsecure so don't put anything sensitive on there.)
aldi said:
Just to be methodical about this... what's on the E drive now?
The Windows installation. This partition is very small, and the bulk of the hard drive's space is on the C Drive.
I must sound really naive in these posts I have made. Tis a shame as I am quite computer literate. Oh well.
Have a look in c:documents & settings, see if there are any old profiles in there with stuff in the 'my documents' or 'my music' folders. Might also be worth using the search tool in the start menu to search the entire PC for *.mp3
If the c: partition has been quick formatted theres a chance of getting the odd thing back off it using certain software, if it was full formatted no realistic chance. If it wasnt formatted at all that's where stuff will most likley be. Sorry if this is sucking eggs a bit, I like to be very clear about things when working things out
If the c: partition has been quick formatted theres a chance of getting the odd thing back off it using certain software, if it was full formatted no realistic chance. If it wasnt formatted at all that's where stuff will most likley be. Sorry if this is sucking eggs a bit, I like to be very clear about things when working things out
aldi said:
Have a look in c:documents & settings, see if there are any old profiles in there with stuff in the 'my documents' or 'my music' folders. Might also be worth using the search tool in the start menu to search the entire PC for *.mp3
If the c: partition has been quick formatted theres a chance of getting the odd thing back off it using certain software, if it was full formatted no realistic chance. If it wasnt formatted at all that's where stuff will most likley be. Sorry if this is sucking eggs a bit, I like to be very clear about things when working things out
If the c: partition has been quick formatted theres a chance of getting the odd thing back off it using certain software, if it was full formatted no realistic chance. If it wasnt formatted at all that's where stuff will most likley be. Sorry if this is sucking eggs a bit, I like to be very clear about things when working things out
Actually tried that before, but nothing there. I'm thinking of sending my hard drive off to someone, to try to salvage files from it.
Also, I am now adament that I did not format the C Drive. Because I knew what was at stake (my songs and stuff), and after XP was up I was looking for these songs - I wouldn't do this if I just formatted the C Drive (and I'm sure when I tried to format the C Drive I got an error saying the windows installation is damaged).
Edited by z064life on Saturday 1st July 12:18
You might reconsider sending it off once you've had a few quotes 
You could use the search tool to find any files with a 'created' date of before the incident. That will tell you if anything is left from before.
Ps: is this XP Home? If so can you definatley access all the profiles under documents & settings? If not then the search tool won't penetrate them either.
You could use the search tool to find any files with a 'created' date of before the incident. That will tell you if anything is left from before.
Ps: is this XP Home? If so can you definatley access all the profiles under documents & settings? If not then the search tool won't penetrate them either.
What is the C drive now may not be the same partition as the original C drive - windows will normally call the drive it boots off the C drive, and assign any other drives it finds incrementing letters. If it hasn't been able to mount the file system, it won't have been assigned a drive letter and it won't be visible. This doesn't necessarily mean that the data is irretrievably lost, although it's a bad sign that windows won't mount it. I'd use fdisk to list the partitions and see whether there are any extra ones or a big unused space that may be your old damaged one. Don't do anything that writes to the disk though (such as attempting to repair the partition) as this will reduce your chance of recovering the data.
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