BleepingComputer.com: New Partition, but files on Old Partition

Jump to content


Register a free account to unlock additional features at BleepingComputer.com
Welcome to BleepingComputer, a free community where people like yourself come together to discuss and learn how to use their computers. Using the site is easy and fun. As a guest, you can browse and view the various discussions in the forums, but can not create a new topic or reply to an existing one unless you are logged in. Other benefits of registering an account are subscribing to topics and forums, creating a blog, and having no ads shown anywhere on the site.

Click here to Register a free account now! or read our Welcome Guide to learn how to use this site.

  • 2 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

New Partition, but files on Old Partition

#1 User is offline   JustMyAlias 

  • Forum Regular
  • PipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 188
  • Joined: 01-September 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:ATL

Posted 01 September 2010 - 10:51 AM

long story short
I had a Disk Read Error yesterday on our old pc
could not re-boot
used the install disk and created a new NTFS partition and re-installed Windows XP
all seems well now

however,
there were still some files
(not lots, but still of relative importance - and no - I KNOW - no backup)
on/in the old FAT partition

is there a way to retrieve these files???
(and please hold my hand and walk beside me through any detailed responses - i am a slow learner...)

TIA!

#2 User is offline   jnk1296 

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 130
  • Joined: 28-December 09
  • Gender:Male

Posted 01 September 2010 - 11:24 AM

First i need to know what operating system your computer used to have.
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1, NZXT Tempest Evo, Lite-On Black 24x DVD Multi-burner, ASRock H55M-LE Micro-ATX MoBo w/ VIA High Definition Integrated Audio, 480W Black Beauty ATX 20+4 PSU, Intel Core i5 660 3.33Ghz, NVidia (EVGA) GeForce GT 430 1GB Dedicated, 2x 2GB (4GB total) DDR3 Crucial RAM @ 669mhz, 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue, Saitek Eclipse II, Logitech M570, LG FLATRON W2253VP

Posted Image

#3 User is offline   dc3 

  • Recalcitrant
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 9,476
  • Joined: 04-March 05
  • Gender:Not Telling

Posted 01 September 2010 - 11:48 AM

If you can access these files transfer them to an external storage device, like a flash drive, CD/DVD, or external hdd.

You can do this by going to Start and right click on it, click on Explore. Look in the left side pane for the location of partition that you want and click on it. This will open in the right side pane. You can just click on and drag the files to the storage device that you wish to use.

#4 User is offline   JustMyAlias 

  • Forum Regular
  • PipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 188
  • Joined: 01-September 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:ATL

Posted 01 September 2010 - 01:32 PM

WinXP
Version 2002

The pc is a Dell Pentium - it had XP and that is also what i re-installed, from the original disk.

I cannot actually "see" the partition or the files from Windows or DOS.
That is the problem.

I tried to use "TestDisk" to write (re-write?) the files, but I am not doing something correctly.
It (TestDisk program) does see the partition.

Also, if I go into Computer Management, and Disk Managment, it shows Disk 0 divided -one volume is not named(!) - Layout=Partition, Type=Basic, File System=FAT, Status=Healthy (EISA Configuration); the new partition is C:, Layout=Partition, Type=Basic, File System=NTFS, Status=Healthy (System).

Is it simply a matter of renaming that volume??

I hope this is what you needed.
Tx!

#5 User is offline   JustMyAlias 

  • Forum Regular
  • PipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 188
  • Joined: 01-September 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:ATL

Posted 01 September 2010 - 01:38 PM

I forgot to add - if it's relevant -
the old partition is 31 MB,
the new is 37.25 GB.

#6 User is offline   dc3 

  • Recalcitrant
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 9,476
  • Joined: 04-March 05
  • Gender:Not Telling

Posted 01 September 2010 - 07:57 PM

Can you see the FAT partition in Explore?

#7 User is offline   JustMyAlias 

  • Forum Regular
  • PipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 188
  • Joined: 01-September 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:ATL

Posted 03 September 2010 - 11:13 AM

No.
Only the folders on the new partition.

And sorry for the delayed response - I am not receiving any e-mail notifications - I just assumed there had been no response...

#8 User is offline   jnk1296 

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 130
  • Joined: 28-December 09
  • Gender:Male

Posted 03 September 2010 - 11:32 AM

I understand Disk Management says that it is FAT, but if my knowledge serves me correctly, plain old FAT was only available for DOS. Also, i believe that XP only allows for NTFS and FAT32. So is this partition FAT16 or FAT32?

This post has been edited by jnk1296: 03 September 2010 - 12:25 PM

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1, NZXT Tempest Evo, Lite-On Black 24x DVD Multi-burner, ASRock H55M-LE Micro-ATX MoBo w/ VIA High Definition Integrated Audio, 480W Black Beauty ATX 20+4 PSU, Intel Core i5 660 3.33Ghz, NVidia (EVGA) GeForce GT 430 1GB Dedicated, 2x 2GB (4GB total) DDR3 Crucial RAM @ 669mhz, 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue, Saitek Eclipse II, Logitech M570, LG FLATRON W2253VP

Posted Image

#9 User is offline   Romeo29 

  • Learning To Bleep
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: BC Advisor
  • Posts: 2,814
  • Joined: 06-July 08
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:127.0.0.1

Posted 03 September 2010 - 11:32 AM

Open a command prompt (Start Menu -> Run, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter)

Report here what you see (number of disks and partitions(volumes) and their file system type and sizes).

This post has been edited by Romeo29: 03 September 2010 - 11:39 AM

[url="http://www.avast.com/"]avast! free antivirus[/url]

#10 User is offline   JustMyAlias 

  • Forum Regular
  • PipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 188
  • Joined: 01-September 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:ATL

Posted 03 September 2010 - 03:22 PM

same as before:
Disk 0 divided -one volume is not named(!) - Layout=Partition, Type=Basic, File System=FAT, Status=Healthy (EISA Configuration); the new partition is C:, Layout=Partition, Type=Basic, File System=NTFS, Status=Healthy (System).


at the top:
Volume (BLANK - unnamed), Partition, Basic, FAT, Healthy (EISA Configuration), 31 MB, 24 MB, 77% Free, No (Fault Tolerance), 0% (Overhead)
Volume (C:), Partition, Basic, NTFS, Healthy (System), 37.25 GB, 32.94 GB, 88%, No, 0%

then at the bottom:
Disk 0
Basic
37.28 GB
Online

then shows the 2 partitions 31 MB FAT Healthy (EISA Config) shaded, and (C:) 37.25 GB NTFS Healthy (System) not shaded

#11 User is offline   JustMyAlias 

  • Forum Regular
  • PipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 188
  • Joined: 01-September 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:ATL

Posted 03 September 2010 - 03:27 PM

that volume shows only FAT
not FAT 16 or FAT 32

now if I plug in one of my flash drives
it DOES say FAT32...

#12 User is offline   Romeo29 

  • Learning To Bleep
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: BC Advisor
  • Posts: 2,814
  • Joined: 06-July 08
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:127.0.0.1

Posted 03 September 2010 - 08:07 PM

31 MB FAT EISA partition is a utility partition which is present in some Dell notebooks. There is nothing on this partition but some Dell related stuff.
The next partition is 37.25 GB is NTFS which you created yourself. By creation of this partition, unfortunately you destroyed all the data on last FAT32 partition.
The hard disk size is 37.28 GB which is approximately equal to the total size of the two partitions, so there is no other partition.

I am sorry to say it is impossible to recover any data from your hard disk in any known practical manner.
[url="http://www.avast.com/"]avast! free antivirus[/url]

#13 User is offline   hamluis 

  • Forum Addict
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Moderator
  • Posts: 30,392
  • Joined: 03-September 05
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Killeen, TX

Posted 03 September 2010 - 08:13 PM

Well...you could always try data-recovery software (in theory)...but the programs I am familiar with do not allow search and recovery to the same partition/drive.

Louis
Am I Infected, What Do I Do?
Preparation Guide, Malware Log Topics
Using The Report Button
Discussion Forum Rules
Misplaced Malware Logs

#14 User is offline   Romeo29 

  • Learning To Bleep
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: BC Advisor
  • Posts: 2,814
  • Joined: 06-July 08
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:127.0.0.1

Posted 03 September 2010 - 09:29 PM

Deleting old and creating new partition, formatting it as NTFS (if full format was done then the entire partition was overwritten) and then overwriting it with Windows files (and possibly other software files) leaves very little to hope.
[url="http://www.avast.com/"]avast! free antivirus[/url]

#15 User is offline   JustMyAlias 

  • Forum Regular
  • PipPipPip
  • Find Topics
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 188
  • Joined: 01-September 10
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:ATL

Posted 03 September 2010 - 09:46 PM

ok
but that doesn't seem quite right...
first, it's a Dell pc, not a notebook - not sure if that matters...
but when I created the new partition, I created it in an unused area, and left the other area alone
so i should not have overwritten anything...

and think I did a quick format
and have only re-installed Windows, Google toolbar, and Crap Cleaner (which I have not used yet)
no other significant files or software

Share this topic:


  • 2 Pages +
  • 1
  • 2
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users