80 GB partition lost (became 'free space') HOW!? possible to recover data!?

[Rawan AbuSalman]

Hi...

I was fixing the partitions on my 500 GB hardrive...since vista's disk management tool pretty much sucks, it only let me create 3 partitions (primary)...i already had 2 logical drives but i needed a 3rd...n there was no way for doing it...

i tried parition magic...but only works on XP...so i created a 20 GB primary partition n installed XP...still partition magic didnt work...I searched around and realized that if a windows vista partition is present, partitoin magic wont open...

so i deleted the partition to which vista is installed...still didnt work...

so cut it short, i decided to go without creating that extra partition...

but somehow along the process, an 80 gb partition disappeared!!! i thought if i install vista it would 're-appear'...

i did that...to no avail!

if i go to disk management, theres an 80 gb towards teh end of the timeline that says 'free space' (in lime color)

HOW did this happen!?? im almost 100% sure i did NOT delete that partition my self.... (and even if I did, it would give 'unallocated space' not 'free space'

IS THERE ANY HOPE my dad can be recovered!?? it was 80 gb worth of data!!

thanks a lot...

any help much appreciated...

 

[S0ULphIRE]

If you formated over the partition, it'd be very hard to get anything back much. perhaps if you'd only deleted it then yeah. but as it is, you can consider all that lost. soz

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

You can try Recovery My Files or Get Data Back. There is also Pandora Recovery. But if you have put any information on the drive since the format it could be lost.

Soul you can recovery stuff froma format. As long as nothing has been re-written to that drive. Only then will the sectors where the storage space was used be truley over written with new information. A format just removed the data from view of the OS. IT really isnt gone. Not till the sectors are over written.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[Rawan AbuSalman]

Hey...

Thank you for your replies...

I just want to make one thing clear...i did NOT format the partition! it simply dissapeard! ie...if i go to My Computer, i CANT find the hard disk partitoin there!!

when i go to Disk Management in Control Panel's "Administrative Tools", i see that in place of what WAS my 80GB partition is now called 'empty space'....

(the partition does not even exsist any more...though it doesnt say 'unallocated space'...it says 'empty space'....)

please check the attachment...i took from disk management...

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

What you did do when messing with all the patitions, is made it so that the partition was considered unallocated space or RAW format. Which is why it was not recognized by Windows. Messing with all the partitions the way you did cause the partition tables to be lost. It is not that uncommon when trying to mess with them when you do what you did.

Check Google. You will see this happen lots of times when you mess with the partition tables.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[Rawan AbuSalman]

any suggestions on how to 'fix' that!? or at least what exactly to look for when searching for a solution on google!?

thanx again....

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

That space that is considered unallocated. You have to create a partition there. Right click on it and create a new simple volume. Then use Recovery software like Get Data Back or Recover My Files to get the data back.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[Rawan AbuSalman]

ok...i dont run a risk of losing the data once I create a partition in the empty space??

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

The data was already lost once the partition table was lost. That is why you need to use the Recovery Tools to get it back.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[Rawan AbuSalman]

Thanx...

I got the partition back...

Just in case any one experiences a similar problem, I used 'active partition recovery' and it worked like a charm...

I ran a thorough scan on the 'unallocated space' where my partition was, it found the files, and recovered the entire partition..

Cheers!