Hard-Drive Recovery after Accidental Format with Other OS DVD

[jeanpave]

Hi.

I was trying to install Mac OS X on a PC secondary local disk, and I stupidly formatted to HFS the primary local disk, the one on which Windows (XP) was installed. (I know, I'm the dumbest **** on the face of the Earth!...)

Is there any way to recover it? (The OS X erase lasted a few seconds only. Maybe that's good.)

Thanks in advance.

[AlanHK]

Try TestDisk which will analyse your hard disk and if it can deduce the partition structure it can recreate the partition table.

May take a few hours.

Of course, you'll need to have a working system to run this. Set up your scrambled disc as a secondary on another PC. Or use one of the bootable CDROM rescue discs linked from the site.

[lordsmurf]

Erasing for just a few seconds is probably good, yes.

[jeanpave]

Thanks a lot, guys.

AlanHK, I'm currently trying TestDisk.
I'm not sure it's going to help me, though.

The first time, I selected the partition as being 'Intel/PC', and TestDisk found nothing. (Even the 'Deeper Search' was really fast.)
And now, the second time, I selected the partition as "Mac", and TestDisk is really slow. Just a few moments ago, it was stuck at 64% for a couple of hours, so I thought it crashed and I restarted the program. It's analyzing again now, but it is awfully slow.

You see, I only used the Mac OS X installer to 'Erase' the drive (- I actually wanted to erase the other drive in the computer, but... -) so I could have a Mac partition for the OS X installation. As soon as I saw I deleted the wrong disk, I rebooted. So, there's no Mac operating system or boot sector there.
And I've never used TestDisk before, so hopefully I'm not using it wrongly.

Anyway, thanks again, AlanHK. I hope to hear from you again.

[aedipuss]

hehe. you aren't even trying to recover files in the original file system they were written in now. all it's going to find is pieces of garbage. the drive is toast. re-format it ntfs and re-install windows.

[jeanpave]

So, it's definitely a lost cause, huh?

I could try to run the Mac version of TestDisk, but is it worth the time?

[AlanHK]

Thanks a lot, guys.

AlanHK, I'm currently trying TestDisk.
I'm not sure it's going to help me, though.

The first time, I selected the partition as being 'Intel/PC', and TestDisk found nothing. (Even the 'Deeper Search' was really fast.)
And now, the second time, I selected the partition as "Mac", and TestDisk is really slow. Just a few moments ago, it was stuck at 64% for a couple of hours, so I thought it crashed and I restarted the program. It's analyzing again now, but it is awfully slow.

You see, I only used the Mac OS X installer to 'Erase' the drive (- I actually wanted to erase the other drive in the computer, but... -) so I could have a Mac partition for the OS X installation. As soon as I saw I deleted the wrong disk, I rebooted. So, there's no Mac operating system or boot sector there.
And I've never used TestDisk before, so hopefully I'm not using it wrongly.

Anyway, thanks again, AlanHK. I hope to hear from you again.

You're trying to restore the original partitions, which were "PC", so it should scan through looking for patterns that indicate a PC partition, then offer to write a new partition table to match that if it finds any.

It's read-only until you do that, and even then it only writes the partition table, which is already trashed, so it's pretty safe.

But it is slow, several hours is not unusual, last time I used it was for a 20 GB drive, which is small by modern standards. So give it a try overnight and see if it comes up with anything.

The idea is that erase or formatting usually only resets the FAT and partition tables, the file data is still where it was, you just have to recreate the indices.

You could try emailing the author for advice, he is responsive. Recovering from a Mac format is a bit unusual.

[RABinMS]

You might also try this:

http://www.easeus.com/try.htm

Not freeware, but you can download it free and run it to determine if you can recover what you're looking for before having to license it. If it can't get to your data it costs you nothing.

I haven't used it, but a friend did and it worked where nothing else did. He had run a Win reinstall 2-3 times on an existing disc before realizing that he didn't have the backups of pictures, etc. that he thought he had.

[aedipuss]

So, it's definitely a lost cause, huh?

I could try to run the Mac version of TestDisk, but is it worth the time?

no. there is nothing mac on there to recover. the big problem is that when you erased the disc with a mac utility it overwrote the old pc file allocation table with a mac version. only the black hats with a scanning electron microscope could get back the data under the mac fat.

a pc "erase" would have just zero'd out the fat entries files first letters and they would still be there and recoverable.

[jeanpave]

You're trying to restore the original partitions, which were "PC", so it should scan through looking for patterns that indicate a PC partition, then offer to write a new partition table to match that if it finds any.

It's read-only until you do that, and even then it only writes the partition table, which is already trashed, so it's pretty safe.

But it is slow, several hours is not unusual, last time I used it was for a 20 GB drive, which is small by modern standards. So give it a try overnight and see if it comes up with anything.

The idea is that erase or formatting usually only resets the FAT and partition tables, the file data is still where it was, you just have to recreate the indices.

You could try emailing the author for advice, he is responsive. Recovering from a Mac format is a bit unusual.

I'll try it again, one last time. Thanks, AlanHK.


RABinMS: I'm trying to recover the whole installation, not just the files I lost (- which aren't that many or important). I think the program you are suggesting is just for lost files.

only the black hats with a scanning electron microscope could get back the data under the mac fat.

By that, do you mean that only the makers of the hard-drive could help me? And there's no way a regular user like me could get software to do this operation?
I can't really afford to waste more time, as I need to use that computer next week. (And, while one guy says I can recover the XP installation, another guy says I can't. Time passes and I have not accomplished anything - I think I'd better get started on a new installation.)


To everybody: Thank you for replying.

[aedipuss]

hehe no not even the drive manufacturer could recover it. only the nsa.

[jeanpave]

Okay.
Thank you.

[overloaded_ide]

Well don't give up till you try everything, don't make it any worse either.

I don't know about any Mac formats or what may have happened, but if you need to restore the windows formats give Disk Patch a try, made by DIY. Maybe it will find your partitions and reset your MBR etc..
It has worked wonders for me on various drive problems a few times over the years, including when an old XP version did not recognize a LARGE drive so just said "hey, lets wipe out that sucker for no reason"!

With Disk Patch read all the details and info stuff about it. You can get a scan of the drive and send it to them and they will even tell you if there is a chance of recovery and how to do it and they have a good refund policy also if you buy it and it does not work. You can use the free demo to get the scan before you buy it. It's not too expensive either to buy and been well worth the money for me!

DIY also has I-recovery which may find and restore lost files for you. So if the drive is still lost there may be a chance to get back some data.

I own both programs and really like them and they saved me allot of problems several times as well as I saved freinds that lost data with no backups!

[Bjs]

Testdisk can also unformat the drive ... as its been shot to mac format you need to select the options to unformat mac type ... once done exit and cold reboot system , rerun testdisk and see if it can pickup ntfs partition info ... if not give r-studio a look

R-studio for ntfs ... only demo mode ($49 buy) but it can be used with mac formatted drives and discover ntfs ... if it can find and save anything you know what next to do ... buy it and get your files back asap.

[kimco52]

Don't give up until you have tried every read-only thing you can.
As others have said. I have no experience with what they have recommended. However, I would suggest doing a Yahoo/Google search for "Data Recovery" or "File Recovery" and see what you can come up with. I have had a similar problem with a memory card from a camera. I could see the 1600 pictures in the camera but could not get them off the card using the camera and it's software, a card reader or anything else. The computer and other sources said it was unformatted or something like that. I had used the card with no problems several times and then something happened. I took it to the Best Buy Geek Squad, explained what I did and can't do and they said they would take care of it. Two days later they said they tried and could not get the files off of it. They said it could not be read with any card reader. I knew that. Eventually, I found a data recovery program that I downloaded and through the card reader, it found all the files and copied them to the computer. I don't have the info here but I have seen several other programs that do the same thing. They said they can get data from any disk. They do not look at the FAT. They look at the actual space on the disk.
I found the one I used through a forum on the Canon website.

[RabidDog]

Dont waste your time ..you stated the files lost were not important. Lifes too short . Get in there, re=install and download some fresh porn, sorry Data.
Altho of course a file recovery program should recover most of your files. I used one to recover lost photographs, and it recovered every single file, but when opened they were all junk/corrupt.

[MJA]

Dont waste your time ..you stated the files lost were not important. Lifes too short . Get in there, re=install and download some fresh porn, sorry Data.
Altho of course a file recovery program should recover most of your files. I used one to recover lost photographs, and it recovered every single file, but when opened they were all junk/corrupt.

I don't think he owns any OS.that's why he wanna recover xp