Can I recover data from a partition displaying GB Raw?

Download and install trial version of Paragon Backup & Recovery Home www.drive-backup.com
Then start it - switch to advanced interface. There in vertical tabs find Volume Explorer. Browse with it your RAW partitions. Does it enter them?

Hey noxcho,
damn glad to hear from you...
Will do on the Paragon,
back in a bit

if its apple, did you try to read the harddirve via firewire?
as an external harddisk?
if its intel based computer connect the harddisk to external jacket via usb and try to see if you can browse anything?

Before doing anything create a full harddrive image in this condition

Thanks shahzoor,
It is intel based. I can't get the apple tag to delete, so sorry.
But I'm trying to think if I have a good usb-sata drive set up.  I like the idea though, and yes a friend has my hard drive to Usb case, I forgot.

Right now I'm in the middle of the paragon install recommended by noxcho. Somehow machine rebooted in middle of installing it earlier, but now wants to reboot.

I'll post those results probably tomorrow as it's getting late in Central time.

Tomorrow I'll repossess my ext. harddrive rig.

I've requested attention to get the Apple Software tag off...fyi

Now I don't understand =)
Is it Mac machine or just normal PC? Was the drive originally NTFS or HFS+?

always NTFS, just tagged in question as Apple software and I could not delete the tag or zone we use to call it. Got a pix of Paragon showing drive, coming up...

Ok, I can't see, or explore, data in either Raw partition, but one says it's unformatted the other says its invalid, see screen shot.
The raw data is in the H: and L: drives.

This drive is a mess.

I can't seem to attach a file. When I click attach file or the little pix icon above in dialog box, I just get taken to top of page. Hmm.
I'll post this and re-try in IE. If no luck, I'll load to imageshack and link it I guess.

Wow note sure that's helpful at all. So sorry.

I'll wait for feedback, got to call it a night.

What are these primary NTFS drives? I see there data structure, is this what you are looking for?

Both of  those NTFS drives are Operating System C: dirves. 4.Primary was the OS I was using.
Long story but my MS Word quit saving docs, so I ran a SFC /fix (not exactly that command, but close) looking for corrupt Net files. Somehow that run destroyed my boot record and I could no longer boot the 4.Primary.

I used a back of that partition to try and restore to the unallocated space at the front of the disk (see SS) but it didn't work. I just got that duplicate NTFS drive.
?

But no they're not the ones I'm looking for.... unfortunately

Ok, now the picture is a bit clear. Did the restore complete or did you interrupt the restore process? You have here not only boot sector crap but the whole file system damaged.
Get Recuva on this drive www.recuva.com and see if it can find any of your missing files.

The first image I used for restore "failed." I then tried a slightly older image and it said it worked but wouldn't boot.
Both OS images will mount and I can copy from them but they won't boot.

I'll pull out the Recuva ...
Thanks

So it means that your data is in backup and you are originally not able to restore from backups to the bootable state, right?
Were these images taken from this drive exactly?

Right, I have at least 3 images of the OS from this drive, and none will boot.

As I look at them in Recuva though, they are not in perfect tact.
About 5% or so of the files are labeled unrecoverable and overwritten by what seem random files, maybe confirming your suspicions in comment ID: 37711604.

Ok, I'll make sure those images are accessible. I see them in my Acronis but can't tell exactly where it's storing them. The secure zone where they should be is NOT on this drive, but something is screwy.

I'll investigate.

I could copy the accessible but non- bootable partition to a another disk or an exterior drive for safe keeping. ?

Yes, good plan. Just make the images available and browsable and we will check why it cannot boot from restored drive.

Ok, been studying the drives.
I think I'm covered, still validating a thing or two.

Will post psr recording when done.

Well, I cleared a 300 gig empty space at front of the drive, and instructed, so I thought, Acronsis to restore there.

For some reason, it chose to restore elsewhere, and I've lost my A:\Archive partition. Fotunately it's backed up .

Maybe I messed things up here. I chose to give the soon-to-be restored partition the unusued drive letter o:\.

Anyway it's restored but won't boot.

I've got the psr zip, and I'll upload here.
TempUiArchive.zip

RESTORED!

Finally got the backup to a partition that would boot it, it seems.

Thanks so much.

Bare metal says the drive "may not boot" becuase it ends on 615144911.
The LBA begin is 63, end 615144914.

I don't really understand this, but it did boot.
Should I leave well enough alone or post a new qustion to try and get the LBA problem fixed?

I can explain this to you. Actually the problem is with Acronis. They should notice that partitions are overlapping to which they warning refers to.
And they must warn you before taking backup that fixing this issue is a nice MUST BE DONE because later you could fail to restore the image to smaller drive.
In shot the issue was with partition overlapping and thus it showed it as RAW because this is not normal.

Acronis huh? Likely candidate, its taken me 3 years to slightly grasp their system. Though I know people who love Acronis, or use to...

Anyway, Paragon seems better on a many levels, though I haven't done much partitioning or backing up yet. I like their interface, etc.

Recuva is great too, you turned me on to that a few disasters ago. Ha

Anyway I'm starting to get permission errors, from various applications when running the restored OS. I doubt that's related to overlap or LBA. Or might it be?

I guess "MUST BE DONE" means correcting this overlap.
So I'll  close here and post a new question. Thanks so much.

Thanks so much noxcho!! Great work as always...