Data recovery possible???

So I screwed up the registrty which required me to apply an image. My image was actually a HD clone. My current PC had 2 HD. One was used just for extra storage so I thought I would apply my image to it, then pull what info I wanted off the other. So I started my image using Acronis 11. It rebooted and got to step 3 where it is suppose to start the writing. It was at this step for like 20 seconds. Completed % was at 0%. I realized I had the wrong HD plugged in tto image to. SO I pulled the power cord at of the back to stop it. I rebooted and it did not see the drive I needed to get the info from.It is a 80GHD so I know it didn't erase it all in 15 seconds. Is there anything I can do short of sending it off to get the data removed for me. Please help. Thanks

 

Sorry, Windows XP. Second drive does not show up under My Computer.

 

Absolutely! There are several programs you can use. You'll need to hook up the drive as a slave and boot into Windows from a different drive (of course) so the hard drive you want to recover would be drive E: or F: or whatever. Generally speaking, the drive MUST be recognized by Windows to recover the data from it. If it shows up in the Device Manager or Disk Management then you're OK; the drive does NOT have to show up in My Computer. Then download and install one of these FREE tools:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TestDisk_&_PhotoRec_d5561.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Data_Recovery_d5336.html
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm
The last link is for PC Inspector; it isn't the most user friendly, and it's a bit slow, but works great. I've used it numerous times with excellent results. If you don't mind paying for software (or if none of the freeware works) check the Data Recovery downloads here at Major Geeks (here http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads38.html). I have personally used Easy Recovery Pro from OnTrack many times, and it works great. It's easy to use, quicker than most, and has numerous recovery options and some other handy tools. Here's the link http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/file-recovery-software/ It's not cheap, but they have a free trial that you can run to test the functionality of the program. It will do everything but actually recover the data, but it does show you if the data is there and recoverable before you have to pay. If you think your data is worth $89.00, then you can purchase it online tonite and have your data recovered by tomorrow morning.

Good luck!
I hope this helps!

:major
[dlb]

 

Thanks! You were right. It didn't show up in my computer but did in device manager. It looked normal also, no yellow exclamation mark, properties said it appeared to be working normal. Anywya, started on the first link you sent and it seems to be going ok so far. I have a question though. It is a 80 G full hard drive. I am operating now on a 80 G @ about 50% capacity. Is this software going to pull in clusters so not to fill my current one up? Thanks again for the help! Awesome.

 

The software will scan the drive and show what's available for recovery. You can then choose what you want to save to the current working drive. If storage space is short, you may want to put everything on hold until you can get an external USB drive of some size for storage purposes. Saving the entire contents of the drive isn't recommended and really kind of pointless; lots of the data on the drive is the OS and it's related files (which are no use to you), some of the data is programs that were installed (which are of no use to you), some of the data is system temp files, registry files, system restore/paging files (which are of no use to you), so just look through the scan results of the recovery program you use, and select the stuff that most important. After the data has been recovered, you can always burn it CD/DVD to free up space, but (if it were me) I'd run out and grab an external hard drive. A 160gb external USB drive can be purchased for about $100 and is worth it's weight in gold if you value your data. You could also free up space on your current drive by moving documents, pictures, music, movies, etc to the external.

 

I am still sorting through all the data. I used the first one Test disk and recover. I don't recall it asking to selecting what to recover but it get 560 directories full of everything I guess.

I was wondering since Device Manager see the drive, would it be possible to just add the drive or would windows want to format it first? Just thining. Thanks for the help.

 

It doesn't really 'ask' what you want to recover, but you can usually select the files and folders you want to save, then choose a location to save it to. At least that's how PC Inspector and Ultimate Data Recovery work, I haven't used TestDisk in a while so I don't remember exactly how it works.
Just because the drive appears in the Device Manager, doesn't mean that you can simply add it and access it as you normally would access drive C: (for example). If the drive was in a use-able state, Windows would have added it in automatically and it would have been listed in My Computer. It wasn't, so you needed a 3rd party tool to access the data.