Right i really need help.
My brothers external hard drive which he lets me use has now gone mad!
After trying to repartitioning it and accidentily cancelling it half way everythings gone.

The hard drive now shows up as
60GB Unallocated
180GB Unformated

So all my data has been lost, and more importantly, my brothers too!
I used paragon partition manager to partition it and ive been trying to "copy hard disk" to one of my dads portable hard drives but it just copies how the partitions are instead of copying the data in the partitions.

So im asking if anyone knows of a programme which will copy all the data inside the partitions and just dump it on another drive.

If i can get that to happen then i can just format his drive and move it all back on.

If anyone can help i will be eternily greatful.

Acronis True Image could be what you are after.

I've not used it myself though.

Quote from Bean0 :

Acronis True Image could be what you are after.

I've not used it myself though.

Thank you, im downloading the trial now.
If it works i will be eternally grateful and will owe you a huge favour !

Nope does not work :/
When i tried to backup my hard drive it did it and it was only 512kb, i somehow doubt all my files are in there.
And i cant seem to find any other options or tools which lets me just copy the data off my hard drive.

Edit: Perhaps if i format the drive then try to undelete the data, would that work?
Or am i just going to end up losing everything?

Seagate makes a program for free.

I cant seem to find a programme by them that does it.
All i can find is a service where they take over my computer and do it, or something along those lines.

You need to try to recover the files, not just copy them. The data is still there (unless your problem is reality a hardware failure) but some information may be gone like folder and file names.

Try Acronis Disk Director Suite and PC Iinspector File Recovery.

BTW, using repartitioning tools on non backuped data is just asking for it.

The seagate tool is just a rebranded trueimage and I think it only works on Seagate drives. Acronis Disk Director Suite uses a slightly different set of tools, that seem to work much better in my experience.

Quote from J.B. :

You need to try to recover the files, not just copy them. The data is still there (unless your problem is reality a hardware failure) but some information may be gone like folder and file names.

Try Acronis Disk Director Suite and PC Iinspector File Recovery.

BTW, using repartitioning tools on non backuped data is just asking for it.

I thought they were the same thing? Either way i just want to get the data back from the hard drive.

Its defintly not a hardware error so thank god its still there.

Im downloading both of those now, ive also go "EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Proffesional Demo" Scanning the drive and its finding the files, its currently found 4345 files and theres anohter 2 hours to go, but that programme wont let me get the data back, it only finds it :/

I could back up the drive even if its unusable?

Quote from J.B. :

The seagate tool is just a rebranded trueimage and I think it only works on Seagate drives. Acronis Disk Director Suite uses a slightly different set of tools, that seem to work much better in my experience.

I cant even find the tools that do this.

this freeware doesn't look too bad:

http://odin-win.sourceforge.net/

Quote from rediske :

this freeware doesn't look too bad:

http://odin-win.sourceforge.net/

Only runs under 32Bit i think :/
Im on 64Bit

Edit: Pc inspector file recovery doesnt seem to work, when i select the hard drive it doesnt let me accept it, it only has the option to "find logical drives" or "rescan drive" whichever i click on doesnt do anything.

Dounble Edit: Becuase it only reads fat16, fat 32 and ntfs :/ my hard drive is just none of them.

lemme guess... ext3? youre effed in that case

R-studio NTFS is my recommendation (ntfs, fat, ext2fs - x86 & x64) - that if you want to recover files.
It is searching for deleted partitions on the entire disk so don`t be scared when it detects partitions deleted x years ago.

I think you could use something like Partition Magic and force the "unformated" partition, to be recognized as NTFS, change its type.. can`t remember right now, it`s been a while since i was in your shoes.

Quote from J.B. :

The seagate tool is just a rebranded trueimage and I think it only works on Seagate drives. Acronis Disk Director Suite uses a slightly different set of tools, that seem to work much better in my experience.

When I was upgrading my hard drive, I used the Seagate tool to copy a WD drive to a Seagate drive. It may have worked between two WD drives too but I'm not certain.

Quote from Shotglass :

lemme guess... ext3? youre effed in that case

Nope, in one programme its
182.7GB Unformattted
50.1GB Unallocated

And in another its
182.8GB FS: None partition: 0x7 (NTFS. HPFS)
50.13Gb Allocated

So thankfully im not effed

Quote from STF :

R-studio NTFS is my recommendation (ntfs, fat, ext2fs - x86 & x64) - that if you want to recover files.
It is searching for deleted partitions on the entire disk so don`t be scared when it detects partitions deleted x years ago.

I think you could use something like Partition Magic and force the "unformated" partition, to be recognized as NTFS, change its type.. can`t remember right now, it`s been a while since i was in your shoes.

I shall give that one a try. And i tried using Acronis Disk Director Suite to change the type but it just doesnt let me.

Quote from Forbin :

When I was upgrading my hard drive, I used the Seagate tool to copy a WD drive to a Seagate drive. It may have worked between two WD drives too but I'm not certain.

I cant even find this seagate programme :/ i can only find services offered by them.

Quote from Migz :

I cant even find this seagate programme :/ i can only find services offered by them.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/in ... 0VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Seems it is the same thing as Acronis. Apparently the license does apply only to Seagate and Maxtor drives, though.

Quote from Forbin :

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/in ... 0VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Seems it is the same thing as Acronis. Apparently the license does apply only to Seagate and Maxtor drives, though.

Any point in downloading & installing then?
Or will the current Acronis programmes i have do the same?


Edit: I have no clue what the R-Studio thing is doing right now, apparently their are no files that it can find, or something along those lines. Im doing a scan now though, no clue what its scanning for either, old partitions?
How will that help? :/

R-Studio really shines when it comes to data recovery. Highly recommended.

UPDATE: Yes it first scans your crashed HDD for fragments of filesystem (deleted/damaged partitions). It might take some moments but the waiting often pays off and then you will be offered a chance to copy lost files&folders of interest to another drive safely. Easy as that.

Quote from arco :

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Ill try that as a final solution as im in the middle of various scans and copies to reboot.

Quote from TV[cz] :

R-Studio really shines when it comes to data recovery. Highly recommended.

It seems so but i have no clue how to use it. Its looking for partitions and its finding sectors or something along those lines. And if i click on these little blocks it shows me the various file types its found.
And then even after its finished doing this scan i wont be able to use it to get my files back as the trial version fails at life.

Edit: just read your update. Ahah i see, i get what its doing now then, its going to take quite a while then.

...dont use a scandisk app on it

i'd use recova on the formatted partition and chance my arm with a quick format through gparted live cd. If you install or write anything on the drive 10mb of write will render 100mb of files undeletable.

but by now you've poked the b'jesus out of it with all sorts of scanning stuff

I don't know what the best un-delete app is, recova just workes for me, your friend is goin to go nuts

E;

...or just do what arco said

Advanced uses

Quote from SystemRescueCd Wiki :

SystemRescueCd is available for blind people...

heh, why do they never cater for the dumb instead of first concentrating on the blind...Linux...pffffffff

Hmm R-Studio has scanned the whole thing, and its found some files. And ive got it moving them onto another hard drive. But it seems like the folder structure is gone :|
Is this normal?
Am i going to have to arrange everything again?

Because for my files thats fine, but my brother used it for his itunes installion point. Meaning i dont have a clue how that would be arranged :/

It seems your hard disk is logically damaged so to solve this issue to need data recovery software. Data recovery software can be varying from the brand name to brand name and operating system to operating system. You should always go for a great and supportive data recovery software. I have used Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software, when I lost my data due to logical error. I installed demo version first from here: http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm after using it I was able to view my data but in preview mode. I was satisfied with the software so I purchased the full Version and saved my data. You can try this software too you’re your data recovery requirement.

I've managed to get the majority of my data back thanks to r-studio (although im sure Stellar Recovery Software would do the same stuff)

Thanks to those of you who helped I am now just trying to find if i can get some corrupted files back.

Thanks once again , the lfs community has saved my life

This is a highly respected program and veiwed as one of the best and cheapest.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm