Please help

[FiB3R]

please please help

[the problem]

I have corrupted around 200GB of files by trying to add another partition to an already partitioned SATA RAID0 NTFS setup.

The first partition which was C: is fine but all my personal files (bar 1 or 2) on the second partition which was D: are unusable.

[the process]

I was trying to add a 3rd partition to the drive using partition magic 8, but after applying the settings the comp wouldn't boot, it would just hang on the Windows XP boot screen.

I tried using the recovery floppy disks, but there was something wrong with disk 2

I then booted the comp using a knoppix live DVD (first time I've ever used linux) it could access my other drives F: and G: no probs but said that it could not recognise the 2 drives in question.

Next I got an old 10GB drive and installed XP on that, thinking that if I could install partition magic, it would be able to fix the problem, but I couldn't find any option to do that in the prog. But I could now access both partitions.

I restarted the comp telling the BIOS to boot from the RAID setup again rather then from the new pri master and all seemed to be going well.

Then all of a sudden, tons of text started scrolling up the screen, saying recovering orphaned file for each and every one of about 135346 files.

I thought everything was going to be fine, but alas it was not to be. All the files seem to be corrupt and unusable.

[the cure]

The good peeps of neowin (fingers crossed)

Edited June 13, 2006 by The Cub

[+BudMan MVC]

And this partition you were trying to create? Was it in unallocated space? Why would you not just use the disk manager or diskpart.. Which are the OS tools provided to create/delete partitions..

Did you resize your system partition? There is NO need to reboot anything when creating partitions in unallocated space.

[FiB3R]

I was trying to add it to the end of D: So yeah it was allocated, and full of files :'(

Edit: thanks for getting back to me so quick.

I really hope you or somebody can help. There are files on there that I really can not bare to lose.

Forgot to mention that I have now got a new 500GB drive installed if I need to copy the files over.

[+BudMan MVC]

So did you RESIZE an existing partition to make room.. If so - and that went wrong.. your pretty much out of luck..

You mention accessing drives with linux.. Are you talking physical drives? or a partition on the array.. or different physical disks?

What EXACTLY did you do with PM?

[FiB3R]

I have 2 x 160GB SATA drives in a RAID0 config

I had that partitioned into 2 drives of 50.6GB and 245GB (C: and D:)

I wanted to creat a new partition using the free space on D:

Actualy I remember now it wouldn't let me do it unless I used space from C: and D:

Also I think there was some sort of warning that I didn't take much notice of as I've used partition magic so many times in the past. Possibly somthing about no active partition being set.

what a fool :'(

[+BudMan MVC]

Sounds like you resized both partitions.. to gain unallocated space on your array..

How much space was available on your d: partition? what was the new partition you were trying to create?

If you crashed the machine during a resize of a partition -- yeah your going to have a issues trying to get anything back...

I would suggest you contact symantec support

http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/home_home...tact&wpath=tech

[FiB3R]

There was 37.5GB of free space on drive D: and 11.2GB on C:

I tried to make a 20GB partition

I've had a RAW recovery running since around 11.30pm last night and have no idea when it will be finished.

RawRecovery

The RawRecovery tool allows you to scan severely corrupted partitions for files using a file signature search algorithm. This tool will help you recover files from a partition with damaged directory structures. Over 290 popular file signatures are available for scanning for your file data in this tool.

NOTE: The number of file signatures available for scanning will depend on which EasyRecovery edition you have installed.

The RawRecovery tool should be used as a last resort in recovering data from severely corrupted partitions. This tool will read all sectors on the disk sequentially (sector-by-sector) looking for specific file header signatures. The RawRecovery tool will typically recover small files that are stored in one cluster or larger files stored in consecutive clusters on the disk, and the degree of fragmentation present on the partition before the corruption occurred will compromise the effectiveness of the tool. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently, creating, deleting and modifying files. If you have recently run a disk defragmenter utility on your partition, your chances of recovery are much improved.

I think this might be my last hope, and it's not looking good. I don't think the drive was that fragmented, but as the data spanned both the drives, it could be bad news.

If this don't work I've got a long road ahead of me trying to rebuild my MP3, image, p0rn collection. Some photos and documents will never be seen again. I really could cry :'(

This prog looks like it might be of some help too http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm so will be giving that a go next if this don't work.

Thank you for all your help BudMan

Edited June 14, 2006 by The Cub

[FiB3R]

ffs. Around 72hrs later and this prog is still reading the drive :'(

[+BudMan MVC]

Like I said early in the thread.. if your resize when wrong.. and then check disk ran and recovered "whatever" = "your pretty much out of luck.."

What exactly is you think this tool is going to recover??

" This tool will help you recover files from a partition with damaged directory structures."

You did not not have a corrupt directory stucture - windows fixed that for you ;)

You moved every file on the partition, or atleast quite a few of them to make room.. then windows did not like that - and went in and "fixed it"

We do not even know "exactly" what failed - or for that matter exactly what you did? If you had 37gig free on your d partition.. there should have been no reason for "unless I used space from C: and D:"

Not sure what this tool is doing - but 72 hours and nothing.. is there even a progress meter or anything showing that its still working?

Cut your losses and recover whatever you can from your last backup ;) Which should of be right before you did whatever it is you did.. Right there in the PM doc's -- always backup before performing functions.