venkateshsridhar
asked on
Unformatting a Maxtor 200 gb external usb drive
Hi guys,
My maxtor 200 gigs ext usb drive's partition table got conked off and then I tried to use data recovery tools to recover and none of them were helpful, so I formatted it, coz I had found out that by formatting u dnt erase data from the drive instead u clear the os's reference to the sectors. Hence, I have kept it completely empty. I tried to use GetDataBack for NTFS and FAT and i tried but it does not display all the folders, there are no bad sectors on the drive. Also, whenever i used GetDataBack for NTFS it was recovering the thing on my D:. I was unable to boot XP pro from my c: so I had installed another copy of XP onto my d: and in that my external hdd was detected as D: and my internall hard disk 2nd logical partition was detected as E:. Later on, after moving data onto another safe location (a different ex. usb) I reinstalled xp into my c: and later on found out that the new xp recognizes the ext hdd as f:.
Would this have affected it? Also, I am not sure as to what was the previous partition type FAT or NTFS. Can anyone help me with this? A lot of important data is lying around on the external hdd.
My maxtor 200 gigs ext usb drive's partition table got conked off and then I tried to use data recovery tools to recover and none of them were helpful, so I formatted it, coz I had found out that by formatting u dnt erase data from the drive instead u clear the os's reference to the sectors. Hence, I have kept it completely empty. I tried to use GetDataBack for NTFS and FAT and i tried but it does not display all the folders, there are no bad sectors on the drive. Also, whenever i used GetDataBack for NTFS it was recovering the thing on my D:. I was unable to boot XP pro from my c: so I had installed another copy of XP onto my d: and in that my external hdd was detected as D: and my internall hard disk 2nd logical partition was detected as E:. Later on, after moving data onto another safe location (a different ex. usb) I reinstalled xp into my c: and later on found out that the new xp recognizes the ext hdd as f:.
Would this have affected it? Also, I am not sure as to what was the previous partition type FAT or NTFS. Can anyone help me with this? A lot of important data is lying around on the external hdd.
"... A lot of important data is lying around on the external hdd ..." ==> and you FORMATTED it on purpose !!???
Depending on just how important your data is, you may want to simply send the drive off to Gillware (http://www.gillware.com/) => for about $379 they'll recover it all for you, and you won't be taking more chances with the data. Remember that the #1 rule for Data Recovery is STOP !! Do not do ANYTHING that might possibly write to that disk. (Formatting clearly wrote a LOT to that disk !!)
But if it's not THAT important, you can try a few other techniques -> although since GetDataBack can't "see" the data there's a good chance other utilities won't either (GetDataBack is one of the best). Since you've destroyed the basic file system (formatting did that), a lot of the information that GetDataBack or other utilities could have used to help with recovery is gone.
A couple of other utilites you might want to try:
http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/6.html
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm
Depending on just how important your data is, you may want to simply send the drive off to Gillware (http://www.gillware.com/) => for about $379 they'll recover it all for you, and you won't be taking more chances with the data. Remember that the #1 rule for Data Recovery is STOP !! Do not do ANYTHING that might possibly write to that disk. (Formatting clearly wrote a LOT to that disk !!)
But if it's not THAT important, you can try a few other techniques -> although since GetDataBack can't "see" the data there's a good chance other utilities won't either (GetDataBack is one of the best). Since you've destroyed the basic file system (formatting did that), a lot of the information that GetDataBack or other utilities could have used to help with recovery is gone.
A couple of other utilites you might want to try:
http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/6.html
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm
ASKER
gary,
i did some research and found out that it could be unformatted and I had tried every other method, I live in India so getting the entire data is going to be tough. GetDataBack tells me it can recover 429 gb frm the disk :0 .But i cant see the names of the files or anything, so I can't decide which to restore which not to... It shows me some .CHF extension
i did some research and found out that it could be unformatted and I had tried every other method, I live in India so getting the entire data is going to be tough. GetDataBack tells me it can recover 429 gb frm the disk :0 .But i cant see the names of the files or anything, so I can't decide which to restore which not to... It shows me some .CHF extension
ASKER
And I forgot to mention, the error that windows used to give me was "The drive is corrupted or not available. Try formatting the drive."
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ASKER
gary,
I do not have a hdd of that size man. I am using a laptop so I cannot upgrade it much. That's the whole bloody problem.
I do not have a hdd of that size man. I am using a laptop so I cannot upgrade it much. That's the whole bloody problem.
Well ... ANY good recovery program will require a location to store the recovered data. You could recover a few GB at a time to your laptop drive, and perhaps burn them to CDs or DVDs, and simply repeat that process.
I agree with gary, recover chunk by chunk, or get another HD, they shouldn't be much more expensive in india as anywhere else. You can connect that other HD to another USB HD case, or if there is a desktop somewhere connect it to that and use the network to transfer the data.
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ASKER
djrogi,
Can you explain the procedure to me?
Can you explain the procedure to me?
ASKER