Dear all,
I tried to install Windows on a different partition, in fact on a second disk that was slave on the system. Although, I selected a partition that was formatted and empty, the Windows setup tool (white text on blue screen) after asking to perform a format on the selected partition performed a quick format on C, instead of the partition that I selected.
I manually switched of computer after the format, when the system was about to restart, in order to interrupt the process, as didn't want to install Windows on this drive, as long as the files are potentially still accessible. As quick formats - from what I know - only kill the FAT, the data on the drive should still be accessible. However, I tried File Inspector Recovery and Disk Investigator to examine and copy the files to no avail. And when I used HDHacker (to replace the MBR), I held back, as I gathered that this could potentially destroy access to the other partitions.
Does anyone have an idea how to get to the data on this partition, when I cannot access the partition. Currently, the above programs tell me that the partition needs to be formatted. However, this would destroy the data - or am I wrong?
Thanks in anticipation.
ainstein
Archiv Windows XP 25.916 Themen, 128.567 Beiträge
If you dont regularly backup your files, you should ad least make a backup before experimenting like that.
I dont think that writing the mbr new would have an effect. As far as I now, the Mbr doesnt include infos about the file system, just about the partition sizes in the hd and of course the boot loader.
If everything else fails, I would try a quick format under windows. Then you can access the hd an try to recover data with comercial programs.
blz