New Startup Disk Removed all files

[Guest Bill S]

I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

advice.

I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

--

Bill in California

[Guest Terry R.]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

On 7/5/2007 5:18 PM On a whim, Bill S pounded out on the keyboard

> I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> advice.

> I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

 

Hi Bill,

 

It sounds like you may have created a second installation, or if you

chose to format the drive in the beginning, you may have erased

everything. You can create a new partition in Setup, but you can't

re-partition (to me that means manipulating an existing partition which

you can't do).

 

Do you get a short DOS looking menu when the computer boots, asking

which XP to use? If so, select the second option and see if it will

boot into your old install. We can remove the new partition later.

 

If no menu appears, use the CD again but choose a Repair install and see

if it gives you the option of which install to Repair (only because you

said you were unable to use the Recovery Console for chkdsk). Select the

old partition to Repair.

 

Report back,

 

--

Terry R.

 

***Reply Note***

Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.

Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

[Guest chris@datography.com]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

On 6 Jul, 01:18, Bill S <B...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> advice.

> I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

> --

> Bill in California

 

Doh, sounds like you might of repartitions you disk. If you didn't

format the volume then you might not of damaged too much of your

files.

If you have XP running now, look in Control Panel -> Administrative

Tools -> Computer management to see what the situation is with your

disks.

Are there partitions you can see which are not mapped to drive

letters, as you might of got away with it and just created a seperate

partition.

 

Second to this look for a product like winundelete (search google

"recover deleted files") which will display files that it can find

within the original file system, and give you means to recover as many

as you can.

 

Good luck

 

Chris - London

[Guest Plato]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

=?Utf-8?B?QmlsbCBT?= wrote:

>

> I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> advice.

> I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

 

Make a habit of backing up all your most important data to CDs and keep

them in a file folder with the dates on them. It's a good habit to get

into. Also keep a copy of those folders in a separate location, ie a

different home, a vacation home, your girlfriends home, your ex-wife's

home, etc. I've been hit by fire twice in the last 20 years and my habit

came in quite handy.

 

--

http://www.bootdisk.com/

[Guest Harry Ohrn]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

As you found out, the hard way, Windows XP has no repartitioning tools that

are non destructive. For example a program like Acronis DiskDirector will

allow you to shrink and existing partition and then create a new partition

from the free space while retaining all the files on the original partition.

Windows XP can repartition but in doing so you have to first delete the

existing partition then create new partitions. There is no way to do the

shrink that a program like DiskDirector can do.

 

If you had simply deleted your partition and even created a set of new

partitions and even formatted these partitions you might be able to reverse

the process with a third party tool and have your files intact. But because

you installed Windows again after the partitioning job you will have

overwritten some files. These will not be recoverable. But using third party

software you might still beable to recovery alot of files. Just don't use

the system except when ready to see what can be found. Even booting the

system will cause further data loss as Windows XP creates the pagefile,

restore points and other disk writing it does during startup. Even a virus

scan will overwrite files. Try not to use the system as any use of it will

overwrite files that might be recoverable. There are many programs that will

find and attempt to recover deleted files even as in your case the files

were deleted due to a repartition/reformat. When trying to recover files off

a drive you should install the recovery software to a different computer,

then remove the drive from your computer and connect the drive to that

second system and recover the files that way. Or there are some recovery

tools that can be run from a bootable CD or floppy. This prevents writing to

the drive. But you can't recover the files back to the same drive

immediately as the act of doing so will over write other lost files.

 

Take a read through here for more info http://www.aumha.org/a/recover.php

--

 

 

Harry Ohrn MS MVP [shell\User]

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

 

 

"Bill S" <BillS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:A1DA6AE6-4968-4A5B-9D73-37281F0719A5@microsoft.com...

>I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per

> the

> advice.

> I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have

> lost

> all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

> --

> Bill in California

[Guest jm]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

On Jul 6, 1:18 am, Bill S <B...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> advice.

> I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> all myfiles--all of them. Can Irecover?

> --

> Bill in California

 

I doubt if you'll be able to get it back to the way it was originally

but you should be able to recover most of your data files. I think

Partition Recovery http://www.tech-pro.net/partition-recovery.html should be

able to do it.

[Guest Bill S]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

Terry,

Followup...

Thanks for advice. I only get new XP. I could not get back old

installation. I am now trying undelete recovery programs to find old files

per other advice on this link. It is my wife's computer. She previously

backed up her files, but did not for the past year. Bad luck! I am suprised

I could delete my entire hard disc by simply installing the Startup Boot for

XP. Everything was erased, all operating systems and programs. I will have

to reinstall all the misssing programs. Ouch! Oh well, lesson learned.

Still working on it.

 

--

Bill in California

 

 

"Terry R." wrote:

> On 7/5/2007 5:18 PM On a whim, Bill S pounded out on the keyboard

>

> > I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> > Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> > advice.

> > I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> > what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> > all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

>

> Hi Bill,

>

> It sounds like you may have created a second installation, or if you

> chose to format the drive in the beginning, you may have erased

> everything. You can create a new partition in Setup, but you can't

> re-partition (to me that means manipulating an existing partition which

> you can't do).

>

> Do you get a short DOS looking menu when the computer boots, asking

> which XP to use? If so, select the second option and see if it will

> boot into your old install. We can remove the new partition later.

>

> If no menu appears, use the CD again but choose a Repair install and see

> if it gives you the option of which install to Repair (only because you

> said you were unable to use the Recovery Console for chkdsk). Select the

> old partition to Repair.

>

> Report back,

>

> --

> Terry R.

>

> ***Reply Note***

> Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.

> Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

>

[Guest Bill S]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

Plato,

Thanks for advice. This was my wife's computer. She did backup until a

year ago. She lost a year's data. Lesson learned.

--

Bill in California

 

 

"Plato" wrote:

> =?Utf-8?B?QmlsbCBT?= wrote:

> >

> > I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> > Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> > advice.

> > I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> > what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> > all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

>

> Make a habit of backing up all your most important data to CDs and keep

> them in a file folder with the dates on them. It's a good habit to get

> into. Also keep a copy of those folders in a separate location, ie a

> different home, a vacation home, your girlfriends home, your ex-wife's

> home, etc. I've been hit by fire twice in the last 20 years and my habit

> came in quite handy.

>

> --

> http://www.bootdisk.com/

>

>

>

[Guest Bill S]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

Harry,

Thanks for advice. I have downloaded several trial recovery programs to my

other computer (this one). I'm using my CD and DVD drives to do this. I

will now try them out on the problem computer. I am still surprised that I

could erase everything from the computer (my wife's) by simply installing the

XP Startup Boot. Oh well. Lesson learned.

 

 

--

Bill in California

 

 

"Harry Ohrn" wrote:

> As you found out, the hard way, Windows XP has no repartitioning tools that

> are non destructive. For example a program like Acronis DiskDirector will

> allow you to shrink and existing partition and then create a new partition

> from the free space while retaining all the files on the original partition.

> Windows XP can repartition but in doing so you have to first delete the

> existing partition then create new partitions. There is no way to do the

> shrink that a program like DiskDirector can do.

>

> If you had simply deleted your partition and even created a set of new

> partitions and even formatted these partitions you might be able to reverse

> the process with a third party tool and have your files intact. But because

> you installed Windows again after the partitioning job you will have

> overwritten some files. These will not be recoverable. But using third party

> software you might still beable to recovery alot of files. Just don't use

> the system except when ready to see what can be found. Even booting the

> system will cause further data loss as Windows XP creates the pagefile,

> restore points and other disk writing it does during startup. Even a virus

> scan will overwrite files. Try not to use the system as any use of it will

> overwrite files that might be recoverable. There are many programs that will

> find and attempt to recover deleted files even as in your case the files

> were deleted due to a repartition/reformat. When trying to recover files off

> a drive you should install the recovery software to a different computer,

> then remove the drive from your computer and connect the drive to that

> second system and recover the files that way. Or there are some recovery

> tools that can be run from a bootable CD or floppy. This prevents writing to

> the drive. But you can't recover the files back to the same drive

> immediately as the act of doing so will over write other lost files.

>

> Take a read through here for more info http://www.aumha.org/a/recover.php

> --

>

>

> Harry Ohrn MS MVP [shell\User]

> http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

>

>

> "Bill S" <BillS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:A1DA6AE6-4968-4A5B-9D73-37281F0719A5@microsoft.com...

> >I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> > Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per

> > the

> > advice.

> > I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> > what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have

> > lost

> > all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

> > --

> > Bill in California

>

>

>

[Guest Bill S]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

jm,

Thanks for the advice.

I downloaded a trial version of the partition recovery program you

recommended to my other computer via CD & DVD and will now try it on the

problem computer.

--

Bill in California

 

 

"jm" wrote:

> On Jul 6, 1:18 am, Bill S <B...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> > I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> > Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> > advice.

> > I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> > what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> > all myfiles--all of them. Can Irecover?

> > --

> > Bill in California

>

> I doubt if you'll be able to get it back to the way it was originally

> but you should be able to recover most of your data files. I think

> Partition Recovery http://www.tech-pro.net/partition-recovery.html should be

> able to do it.

>

>

[Guest Bill S]

Re: New Startup Disk Removed all files

 

Chris,

Thanks for the advice. I am working with some recovery software now to see

what I have. I looked at the disk management info and found FAT with 31 MB,

FAT 32 with 3.146 GB, and © with 71.32 GB, of which 69.50 GB is free.

(It's a 80 GB disk.) I'm not sure what that means.

--

Bill in California

 

 

"chris@datography.com" wrote:

> On 6 Jul, 01:18, Bill S <B...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> > I made a big mistake. I could not go online after an "Unmountable Boot

> > Volume" error message. I was then unable to run the Recovery Console per the

> > advice.

> > I reinstalled the Windows XP Startup Disk per other advice. repartitioning

> > what I thought was free disk space. Windows reinstalled, but now I have lost

> > all my files--all of them. Can I recover?

> > --

> > Bill in California

>

> Doh, sounds like you might of repartitions you disk. If you didn't

> format the volume then you might not of damaged too much of your

> files.

> If you have XP running now, look in Control Panel -> Administrative

> Tools -> Computer management to see what the situation is with your

> disks.

> Are there partitions you can see which are not mapped to drive

> letters, as you might of got away with it and just created a seperate

> partition.

>

> Second to this look for a product like winundelete (search google

> "recover deleted files") which will display files that it can find

> within the original file system, and give you means to recover as many

> as you can.

>

> Good luck

>

> Chris - London

>

>

>

>