How can I get my data back?!?!

[electroplated]

I've got a brand new 500GB firewire/USB external hard drive that had a FAT32 formatted partition on it that had all my important data, which now has disappeared (all partitions on the drive have dissapeared, but I only need the contents of this one)

I'm hoping there's some way of fixing this (repair partition table/MBR??) but I really don't know where to start, without possibly making things worse.


Exactly what I did to break the disk:

The disk was came formatted as 1 single 500GB FAT32 partition, but I used partition magic (on a pc) to resize it so I could then format the remaining space for use exclusively with my mac. I formatted the new partition in partition magic as NTFS (no option for HFS+ under XP) and then plugged it into my mac and tried to use disk utility to format the newly created NTFS partition as J HFS+ but at the end it gave me an error, unmounted the drive and pops up with an error whenever it's plugged back in.

Partition magic now shows the entire disk as being unallocated space.

I'm hoping my data is all still there, but don't know the best way to get to it....can anyone help please???

 

[ExtraRefined]

It sounds like your mac has fucked the partition table, as you suggested. How to proceed depends largely on how valuable the data is, and what you've got to hand. Ideally you'll want to make a sector for sector copy to another 500GB drive with dd or ghost or whatever, and then try to rebuild the table on the copy with something like spinrite.

 

[electroplated]

well i've got another empty 180GB disk that would be just too small for this partition, by about 10GB, but big enough to hold the actual data that's on it....

The data is CRUCIAL to me both for personal and work reasons.

I'm currently thinking about using Partition Table Doctor to fix it though, it seems to have recognised the missing partitions correctly so far, just waiting for it to finish its checking...

 

[ramjamclub]

did you make backup floppies/cd in partion magic?

 

[ExtraRefined]

The data is CRUCIAL to me both for personal and work reasons.

You should probably pay for professional data recovery, and consider it a lesson in why you don't try to repartition drives full of unbacked up critical data. Either that or blame Apple, which is always a fine option.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

there are forensics tools available but they ain't simple, which is why Extrarefined's point above is probably the only option you are looking at. Stop trying to recover the drive and go here http://www.ontrack.co.uk/media-recovery/

 

[Crispy]

Don't fuck with partitions on a disk with data on. I let Boot Camp set up a partition for windows, but even that scared the living shit out of me.

On a side note, FAT32 sucks and I wish there was a better 'universal' filesystem.

 

[moon]

I've used this type of tool to recover lost files in the past

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

 

[electroplated]

IT WORKED!!!!

phew!

and @myself

Thanks for the replies everyone

Don't fuck with partitions on a disk with data on. I let Boot Camp set up a partition for windows, but even that scared the living shit out of me.

It's to sort out the trouble that boot camps in that I started trying to split this disk and reformat it originally! Boot camp worked like a charm till I started using Parallels to also run the boot camp xp install, which it says is allowed.... any ideas about that?

On a side note, FAT32 sucks and I wish there was a better 'universal' filesystem.

Apart from FAT32, is there anything that will work on OS X and XP?

 

[Crispy]

It's to sort out the trouble that boot camps in that I started trying to split this disk and reformat it originally! Boot camp worked like a charm till I started using Parallels to also run the boot camp xp install, which it says is allowed.... any ideas about that?

No, and I was planning on doing exactly that - so now I'm worried. What went wrong, exactly? and why was an external drive involved?

 

[electroplated]

No, and I was planning on doing exactly that - so now I'm worried. What went wrong, exactly? and why was an external drive involved?

I installed XP under boot camp, making a 40GB partition using the boot camp assistant.
That worked perfectly, no issues at all

then I installed parallels, and pointed that at my boot camp partition.
That worked fine too, but then after a few days use, i realised when i tried to boot into xp, i get a BSOD during the windows startup sequence, but starts up fine under parallels to this day, without any issues.

An external HD was involved cos I wanted to make an image of my OSX partition, copy it onto the external drive, wipe my laptop HD to remove all the partitions and then put the disk image back onto the laptop HD (I couldnt remove the patitions with the boot camp tool, possibly cos I used the command line diskutil to add a 3rd small 5GB FAT32 partition I intended to use under both OSes, which didnt work out, and may also be what screwed boot camp...)

 

[Pingu]

i have used a prog called "GETDATABACK" successfully in the past. you can download a free version that will tell you if it can see the files but if you want to recover them you then have to buy the full version

done by a company called runtime software

 

[electroplated]

i have used a prog called "GETDATABACK" successfully in the past. you can download a free version that will tell you if it can see the files but if you want to recover them you then have to buy the full version

done by a company called runtime software

Cheers Pingu, I've sorted it - I used an 'evaluation version' of Partition Table Doctor and it sorted everything right out, in 2 clicks

Thank FUCK!

 

[Kanda]

Now back your data up

 

[electroplated]

I'm on the case as we speak!!

The annoying this is that I bought this external drive to avoid this exact situation, then made a really stupid mistake, and nearly lost the last 7 years
of work, music (mp3 and my own creations), pictures and all the rest....

EVERYONE NOT BACKED UP BACK UP EVERYTHING NOW!!!!

don't say we didnt warn you...cos I nearly cried when I thought about what I might have lost.

unfortunately shortly after getting my files back, I found out I might lose my job! I was happier to have my files back to be honest, but that might encourage a few of you to back your stuff up now, before disaster strikes!

(plus I've already been offered another job already, but that's not the point!)

 

[WWWeed]

did you make backup floppies/cd in partion magic?

I dont mean to take the piss, but how do you suppose we back up 500gb in floppys!?!



But seriously its a problem we all have. I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking of buying hard disks just to back hard disks up. Anyone know any feasable ways of backing 600GB+ up for the home user, that doesnt involve buying more harddrives?

 

[ramjamclub]

I dont mean to take the piss, but how do you suppose we back up 500gb in floppys!?!



But seriously its a problem we all have. I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking of buying hard disks just to back hard disks up. Anyone know any feasable ways of backing 600GB+ up for the home user, that doesnt involve buying more harddrives?

the backup floppies = rescue floppies. they are for the partion table not your files.