Rookie mistake, reinstalling windows and removed the wrong partitions.
Have tried at least 5 different restore programs to get my McShizzle back.

2 Sata hdds
Windows XP

Tried so far:
Multistage recovery
Restore my files data recovery
Acronis's restore prog
and others

All the Programs I've been recommend found via google etc need the drives to be formatted to see them.
So i ended up doing Quick Formats on both which of course only create a file table and partition size etc.
The info is still there i just need a program that will look directly on the hdd rather than look in recycle bins and old file table records etc.

pro-tip bad idea on the quick format

Yea no doubt Scuzzy :(

R-Studio?

R-Studio is a family of powerful and cost-effective undelete and data recovery software.
...
It functions on local and network disks, even if such partitions are formatted, damaged or deleted

http://www.r-studio.com/

I've used it and it seems very comprehensive.

stellar phoenix, reads the physical data on the disk rather than relying on what windows or dos tells it is a partition. Even works on discs where the partition table has eaten itself. At least the trial found s***, not sure if it can actually restore it I never bothered buying it since it wasn't my hard drive I was testing.

active partition recovery werked for me last time my usb hdd mysteriously lost it's partitions.

easy recovery pro..

I work with some guys that swear by r-studio, but I've yet to need to try alternatives. the quick format is never a problem - with some of the recovery tools people load into their systems (ie GoBack), a quick format actually speeds up the recovery process I've found.

ERP is 'professional' level software, yet it's hardly the kind of stuff professional data recovery guys actually use themselves. still - those guys can perform miracles with busted raid configs :/

last edited by koopz at 00:20:28 30/May/07

scuzzy, or anyone, what is the difference between slow and quick formats?

Ask your girlfriend the difference between a slow and a quick root, the answer is applicable to formats as well.

quick format doesnt scan for bad sectors

Anyone know the reason behind partitions/file tables just disappearing?

Has happen to me twice now on a 160gb Seagate Sata drive.
So frustating.

But both times I've used FINAL DATA to get my shiz back.

Reads both formated and physical drives.

Don't take this the wrong way, but are you sure you did it right with Acronis? Acronis worked fine for me with a similar problem, and every other partition problem I've thrown at it.

Partition Magic maybe? It's not as good as Acronis from what I remember though, don't know how good it will be.

Anyone know the reason behind partitions/file tables just disappearing?

virus, windows f***up, dodgy hard drive, power outage during file table write, driver/hardware issue like with that old KT7 + sound blaster = file system death.

As far as I know a quick format just wipes the file table without actually touching the data, a slow format writes 0's to the entire surface I think, or it could just check for bad sectors maybe both.

Thanks for the help guys r-studio is working so far everything else i tried just said no :|

I'd like to restore YOUR fat fukkles, if you know what I mean

crikey

THATS HAWT

fnuckle i pm'd u yesterday if u need anymore help.

he's got a rangie to fix, he doesn't have time to be messing around with nerd stuff