Author Topic: Devastating Data Loss  (Read 5987 times)

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Offline Armin

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Devastating Data Loss
« on: December 30, 2009, 12:26:23 am »
(10:22:17 PM) Metal Militia: Windows 7 deleted one of my partitions with hundreds of hours of unbacked up work on it
(10:22:24 PM) Metal Militia: do you know how to recover the data?
(10:22:35 PM) Metal Militia: I know I never talk to you, but this is devestating
(10:22:38 PM) Metal Militia: so I'm asking everyone
(10:23:01 PM) Metal Militia: Data Carving seems to be the only solution, but I have no idea how to go about doing it
(10:23:02 PM) Metal Militia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_recovery#Data_carving
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Offline Armin

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2009, 12:47:40 am »
Problem resolved; I got my data back. I'm off to back everything up.
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Offline Blaze

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2009, 01:04:50 am »
Good luck!  :D
And like a fool I believed myself, and thought I was somebody else...

Offline warz

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2009, 01:19:11 am »
That wasnt a very descriptive first post. I'm guessing you're metal militia. Either way, very poorly executed.
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Offline Armin

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2009, 03:14:14 am »
That wasnt a very descriptive first post. I'm guessing you're metal militia. Either way, very poorly executed.
Indeed. I was rather distraught and in a hurry. :D
« Last Edit: December 30, 2009, 03:16:07 am by Armin »
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Offline rabbit

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2009, 08:30:33 am »
I'd be kind of annoyed if I lost hundreds of hours of pornwork.

Offline iago

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2009, 08:43:26 am »
Wanna post your solution in case others have the same issue?

Offline Armin

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2009, 02:10:44 pm »
Sure.

Problem: Windows 7 Disk Management apparently fudged the partition table when I shrunk the partition by 9GB. Windows XP install on this new 9GB free space deleted the important partition, leaving me with 180GB unpartitioned space.

Solution: Install TestDisk, run a quick scan, navigate to the "deleted" partition table, and "write".
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Offline iago

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2009, 05:30:22 pm »
Nice, good to know :)

For what it's worth, you should never try editing partitions (especially shrinking) without a backup handy. :)

Offline Newby

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2009, 06:52:48 pm »
You should never do anything risky without backups handy. Hell, I still get scared when I type commands like "cfdisk /dev/hda" even when I know I have no intentions of modifying anything. Opening Disk Utility on Mac OS X still freaks me out, and all I plan to do is usually burn an .iso.
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Quote
[17:32:45] * xar sets mode: -oooooooooo algorithm ban chris cipher newby stdio TehUser tnarongi|away vursed warz
[17:32:54] * xar sets mode: +o newby
[17:32:58] <xar> new rule
[17:33:02] <xar> me and newby rule all

I'd bet that you're currently bloated like a water ballon on a hot summer's day.

That analogy doesn't even make sense.  Why would a water balloon be especially bloated on a hot summer's day? For your sake, I hope there wasn't too much logic testing on your LSAT. 

Offline iago

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2009, 08:48:47 pm »
Heh, true enough -- I get scared when I'm doing *nothing* and don't have a backup handy. I always have that sinking feeling whenever I know I don't have a backup.

Offline Armin

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2009, 09:02:44 pm »
Noted. While we're on the subject of backups, anyone one give suggestions of different backup configurations?
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Offline Joe

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2009, 10:20:12 pm »
You should never do anything risky without backups handy. Hell, I still get scared when I type commands like "cfdisk /dev/hda" even when I know I have no intentions of modifying anything. Opening Disk Utility on Mac OS X still freaks me out, and all I plan to do is usually burn an .iso.

By the way, Disk Utility can now resize partitions, even the one booted from, with enough accuracy to be called a main feature of Snow Leopard. If you know Apple, that's near 100%.
I'd personally do as Joe suggests

You might be right about that, Joe.


Offline iago

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2009, 10:49:47 pm »
Noted. While we're on the subject of backups, anyone one give suggestions of different backup configurations?
I have a usb harddrive and a nightly task that copies my home folder to it. Pretty simple, but effective (and free :D).

Of course, if my apartment burns down, I'll be outta luck. I'll probably just commit suicide.

Offline Blaze

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Re: Devastating Data Loss
« Reply #14 on: December 31, 2009, 02:33:07 am »
It truly is the best option after data loss.
And like a fool I believed myself, and thought I was somebody else...