"Lost" Hard Drive....again!

bartman

I got a message to say that I was running out of space on drive C. The onboard HD is 250gb, and has 2 partitions.
The last time this happened I tried using Partition Magic to decrease the size of the other partition (F) and increase partition C. This resulted in partition F disappearing altogether, and I had to post a cry for help on this forum, to which Browtoa and others responded and bailed me out!

Despite this warning I have now tried again. This time I thought it would be safest to back up the F drive first. I have a 1tb external HD, which was something like 1/2 full, so I thought I would use Partition Magic to back up the F drive onto a new partition on that drive (drive L). Having tried to create that partition, I now can't see any of the files on the external drive - which among other things has all of my photographs and home movies. Yes, I know, I should have backed them up onto DVDs - I never got round to it.
I thought I was leaving the existing drive L as it was, and creating a new partition on it called G - but I've ended up with nothing.

If I go into My Computer there is the G drive, in that there is just a system folder which I cannot go into. Drive L has disappeared.
I have tried using Partition Find and Mount, but it doesn't seem to be much use for this problem.

If somebody can help me out of this mess, I promise I will uninstall Partition Magic and never dabble with it again!

fwor

You could try SystemRescueCD, which includes a program called Testdisk which will scan any drives connected to your PC to see if there are valid partitions on each.

It may be that the problem is that Windows may not be properly mapping a partition to a drive letter such as L: - in which case knowing which version of Windows you have would help.

sharkie

Personally, if someone told me this, I'd either boot off a linux cd, or plug it in as a secondary disk and then just see.

I definitely would not just keep writing to the disk, even just to get it looking the same. Last time I used partition ??? I was asked to make recovery floppies, just in case something went wrong - suppose now it is a usb thingy, and did you???

Like you avatar! So you have done this before two weeks ago, and the words "Darwin awards" just for some reason keeps crossing my mind.

Tried the fix Browntoa told you the first time around-it is still good advice! https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2648405

Version 11 of hiren is here http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f36/very-useful-boot-cd-hirens-boot-cd-v11-155845/ - thanks to richie-from-the-boro for the link

huntstop

linux ... hope thaat helps

bartman

Thanks very much for the suggestions.
Linux.....just went into it using the Hiren boot disk - it frightened me to death, haven't got a clue what to do with it and would probably do the wrong thing and make it worse!

I'll have a look at the other suggested programs now.

I forgot to say I'm using XP.

I just had a look at the Windows "Disk Management" - it says that "Disk 1" (the external one) is healthy, and has a partition G which has 706.9GB, plus 224.61 free space. I think the "free space" is where my files are; when I go into G through My Computer it tells me that the 706 GB on G is free space - which is logical if that's the partition I created with the idea of backing up the F drive onto it.

swvillafan

huntstop wrote: »

linux ... hope thaat helps

How is that going to help?

rhythmsoup

bartman wrote: »

Thanks very much for the suggestions.
Linux.....just went into it using the Hiren boot disk - it frightened me to death, haven't got a clue what to do with it and would probably do the wrong thing and make it worse!

Its not that difficult, have a look at this old post i made about recovering data. I asked for it to be made a sticky, but no luck yet

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2359753

bartman

rhythmsoup wrote: »

Its not that difficult, have a look at this old post i made about recovering data. I asked for it to be made a sticky, but no luck yet

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2359753

Thanks! I've just had a very quick look, but it appears to be directed towards a problem where the computer won't boot - my computer boots OK, I'm using it now - the problem is with a USB external HD. Sorry if the info I need is in there somewhere, I'll continue reading, but the first impression I got was that it was for a slightly different problem.

rhythmsoup

bartman wrote: »

my computer boots OK, I'm using it now - the problem is with a USB external HD.

Correct this post is more for recovering off a PC that fails to boot, but Ubuntu does have some clever tools for probing a disc and checking the partitions etc. You could try running the "disk utility" from the "system --> administration" menu in Ubuntu. If you connect your external drive linux will auto-mount it and then show it up in the disc utility. Its compatible with FAT and NTFS file systems, you may find you can see the files in here rather than in Windows.

Im not sure why you had to create another partition on your external drive, if that is what you did. Re-partitioning a drive can be rather destructive, its possible you may have lost some data.

"photorec" is a useful tool ive heard a lot of people have had success with under Ubuntu, see this note

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

You should be able to install the application from the "Applications --> software centre" menu even when running up on the boot CD if I remember correctly.

You can scour the web and try downloading some windows based file recovery tools, but you'll need disc space to install it first which it sounds like you dont have.

bartman

Thanks. I'm not now sure why I thought I needed to create a partition - I could have simply copies the files from the F drive into a new folder on the external. My brain must have been switched off.

I've got to leave it shortly, gonna be away for a couple of days. If the missus finds she can't access all of our photos I may be looking for a lawyer when I return. I just hope I haven't lost 'em!

I'll have a look as you suggest when I get back.