Deleted partition by accident! Help!

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I was installing Windows XP on a computer that had my external Firewire hard drive hooked up and clicked delete partition before realizing it wasn't the internal disk but my Firewire with all of my apps and documents.

I immediately unhooked it so the files should still be there. Is there any way to restore the partition data in Windows XP so I can access my files???

I feel so stupid. I'll be more careful next time but I really need to get this fixed and hope I don't have to buy some expensive software to do it.

[Mr. C]

you could try the Disk Investigator;

http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html

See if you can read the data with that utility, if so, recover it to another partition.

The trick I think will be to get to the drive at all with the utility running under XP. Not sure if it will be able to find it or not?

[Lava Lamp Freak]

you could try the Disk Investigator;

http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html

See if you can read the data with that utility, if so, recover it to another partition.

The trick I think will be to get to the drive at all with the utility running under XP. Not sure if it will be able to find it or not?

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried that but it doesn't show the disk.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I recreated the partition but didn't format. I'm not able to select the disk in Disk Invetigator and also tried PC Inspector File Recovery. Both show the disc but won't open it, I guess since it isn't formatted.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I did a quick format so now I'm able to select and search my drive in the free tools I downloaded but still they don't show any files. This is very depressing because if a free tool can't recover my data I'll just have to accept the loss because I don't have the $80 to spend on software.

[VinnieVen]

I have a small dos based program that I have used in similar situations, however, I am at work right now and can't remember the name of that program. I can e-mail it to you whne i get home in about 8 hours if u wanna wait that long. It recreates the partitions and finds the lost files.

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I have a small dos based program that I have used in similar situations, however, I am at work right now and can't remember the name of that program. I can e-mail it to you whne i get home in about 8 hours if u wanna wait that long. It recreates the partitions and finds the lost files.

Thanks. I'm at work so it'll be 8 hours for me too. Do you have to boot a floppy to use this dos program? I don't have a floppy drive is why I'm asking. I've seen a few programs that require you to boot from floppy to use them.

[VinnieVen]

yeah, its a bootable floppy... so I guess thats not gonna work for u, unless u can make a bootable cd with it.

[asklepios]

you can always convert a bootable CD from a bootable floppy but for that also you will need a floppy drive.
if you can arrange to burn the CD at a friend's place who do have a floppy drive then you can look at this guide

[EDIT]Please note that the program you are using (i.e. the one that was supposed to be there on bootable floppy) should not try to write anything on the CD when it is used as a bootable media. In normal circumstances the program could have easily written on the floppy, but since you are using a CD out here, it will not be able to do so and this might lead to a crashed system. Just a caution :cheers: [/EDIT]