Accidently deleted my entire storage drive... how to recover?

hat · Jan 20, 2013, 05:37 AM

I did a simple delete command by launching Diskpart, and "cleaning" a disk. I wanted to clean a different drive, but what I did was wiped out my entire storage drive. Since this is not quite a secure erase function, I'd imagine the data should be easy enough to recover... but I've never done this before.

What would be the best tool to use for this? Also, this disk is being treated like a new hard drive by my system. I would have to make a new partition on it to be able to access it. Would this have any bearing on my file integrity?

natr0n · Jan 20, 2013, 05:51 AM

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Try this. I used it with great success.

newtekie1 · Jan 20, 2013, 05:55 AM

http://www.icare-recovery.com/

I use icare, it isn't free but it lets you scan the drive and tells you what files it was able to find before you pay for the software.

Whatever you do don't create a new partition and format it, the more you use the drive the less data you will be able to recover.

hat · Jan 20, 2013, 06:07 AM

Did a bit of poking around and tried a program called Testdisk. It rewrote the partition in a flash and so far everything seem intact. I guess all Diskpart's "clean" command does is wipe out the partition.

de.das.dude · Jan 20, 2013, 06:36 AM

i laugh at your pain hat

lyndonguitar · Jan 20, 2013, 06:41 AM

I use Pandora Recovery, I always delete using shift-del so I had similar problems when accidentally deleting files, I am always using Pandora to recover files and so far I get all of it back.

The largest one that I recovered was my whole steam folder. I accidentally uninstalled it(I thought you would be given the option to backup your games. but it didnt)

RejZoR · Jan 20, 2013, 08:45 AM

Whatever you do, DON'T TOUCH THE DRIVE AND DON'T INSTALL ANYTHING ON THAT DRIVE!

First, get a same sized or bigger portable HDD and make a 1:1 clone of the drive (sector by sector copy). It might take few hours to copy but if the data is important, do it. Install the backup software on other drive.

Why? So you can freely poke the ruined drive and try to recover it. If you make things worse for whatever reason, you just recover the 1:1 copy and start over. This way you assure you can't lose the data during recovery process itself.

qubit · Jan 20, 2013, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hat

Did a bit of poking around and tried a program called Testdisk. It rewrote the partition in a flash and so far everything seem intact. I guess all Diskpart's "clean" command does is wipe out the partition.

Great you got your data back - I feel your pain man!

But you know what I'm gonna say now, don't you...?

MAKE BACKUPS!!!

And keep them reasonably up to date.

I can't stress this enough.

I use the freebie Karen's Replicator which has done me proud for over four years now. I generally make a backup once a day and sometimes more often. On top of this, my data drive is actually two drives in raid 1, for extra protection.

Aquinus · Jan 20, 2013, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qubit

MAKE BACKUPS!!!

This.

Always backup your stuff before you consider doing anything to your drives. Even if you don't mean to touch the drive you want to be working with.

Mussels · Jan 20, 2013, 10:51 AM

as george takei would say

Oh my

:/

...PACMAN... · Jan 20, 2013, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mussels

as george takei would say

Oh my

:/

Made me lol, just having a nice Sunday morning coffee browsing the forum and Mr. Bloody Sulu makes me spit it everywhere

qubit · Jan 20, 2013, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ...PACMAN...

Made me lol, just having a nice Sunday morning coffee browsing the forum and Mr. Bloody Sulu makes me spit it everywhere

Yeah, ya gotta watch out for Mussels, he's like that. He should really come with an impending joke warning.

de.das.dude · Feb 27, 2013, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by de.das.dude

i laugh at your pain hat

me and my big mouth.

i deleted the partition of my download folder

Jetster · Feb 27, 2013, 09:41 AM

Sad just Sad. Backups are for when I do shit like this

de.das.dude · Feb 27, 2013, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jetster

Sad just Sad. Backups are for when I do shit like this

and it was the un-backed up part

test disk is too slow... more than an hour and only 7% passed

LAN_deRf_HA · Feb 27, 2013, 11:10 AM

I backup every hour. Annoying when I'm watching a video because it will pixelate but I can't get around that with my settings.

de.das.dude · Feb 27, 2013, 11:43 AM

:S just figured i was using test disk wrong. following their tutorial. i got the deleted partition back, but i tried to skip some time and ended up deleting another partition from the bootsector XD

Jan 20, 2013, 05:37 AM	#1
hat Maximum Overclocker Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Ohio Posts: 12,247 (5.10/day) Thanks: 2,056 Thanked 2,045 Times in 1,555 Posts System Specs	Accidently deleted my entire storage drive... how to recover? I did a simple delete command by launching Diskpart, and "cleaning" a disk. I wanted to clean a different drive, but what I did was wiped out my entire storage drive. Since this is not quite a secure erase function, I'd imagine the data should be easy enough to recover... but I've never done this before. What would be the best tool to use for this? Also, this disk is being treated like a new hard drive by my system. I would have to make a new partition on it to be able to access it. Would this have any bearing on my file integrity? __________________ My Heatware “Inb4 smartphone LN2 overclocking.” -radrok

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Jan 20, 2013, 05:51 AM	#2
natr0n Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: FL,USA Posts: 1,172 (2.31/day) Thanks: 261 Thanked 597 Times in 311 Posts System Specs	http://www.piriform.com/recuva Try this. I used it with great success. __________________ My Youtube Channel

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Jan 20, 2013, 05:55 AM	#3
newtekie1 Semi-Retired Folder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 17,904 (6.47/day) Thanks: 785 Thanked 5,185 Times in 3,754 Posts System Specs	http://www.icare-recovery.com/ I use icare, it isn't free but it lets you scan the drive and tells you what files it was able to find before you pay for the software. Whatever you do don't create a new partition and format it, the more you use the drive the less data you will be able to recover. __________________ Rig1: System Specs. Rig2: A8-5600K@4.4GHz / AsRock FM2A75 Pro4 / 8GB Corsair DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 / HD7560D / Samsung DVD-Burner / 1.5TB WD Green + 3x3TB WD RED in RAID5 Rig3: Athlon X2 4200+ / M4A79 Deluxe / 4GB G.Skill Pi DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 / GT430 / Sony DVD-Burner / 500GB WD Rig4: Phenom II x6 1605T @ 3.6GHz / Asus M5A99X Evo / 8GB PNY DDR3-1600 9-9-9 / GTX470 & GTX470 / Samsung DVD-Burner / 1.5TB Seagate

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Jan 20, 2013, 06:07 AM	#4
hat Maximum Overclocker Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Ohio Posts: 12,247 (5.10/day) Thanks: 2,056 Thanked 2,045 Times in 1,555 Posts System Specs	Did a bit of poking around and tried a program called Testdisk. It rewrote the partition in a flash and so far everything seem intact. I guess all Diskpart's "clean" command does is wipe out the partition. __________________ My Heatware “Inb4 smartphone LN2 overclocking.” -radrok

Jan 20, 2013, 06:36 AM	#5
de.das.dude Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Wild Wild East Posts: 4,859 (4.41/day) Thanks: 2,447 Thanked 1,421 Times in 978 Posts System Specs	i laugh at your pain hat __________________ Join the TPU GRID 2 ClUB T0D4Y!

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Jan 20, 2013, 06:41 AM	#6
lyndonguitar I play games Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Philippines Posts: 1,255 (1.07/day) Thanks: 264 Thanked 264 Times in 183 Posts System Specs	I use Pandora Recovery, I always delete using shift-del so I had similar problems when accidentally deleting files, I am always using Pandora to recover files and so far I get all of it back. The largest one that I recovered was my whole steam folder. I accidentally uninstalled it(I thought you would be given the option to backup your games. but it didnt) __________________ Steam - lyndonguitar Origin - lyndonguitar Battlefield 3 Profile Battle.net - lyndonguitar#1663 Diablo III Profile Guild Wars 2 - lyndonguitar.6947

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Jan 20, 2013, 08:45 AM	#7
RejZoR Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Europe/Slovenia Posts: 3,980 (1.25/day) Thanks: 39 Thanked 758 Times in 542 Posts System Specs	Whatever you do, DON'T TOUCH THE DRIVE AND DON'T INSTALL ANYTHING ON THAT DRIVE! First, get a same sized or bigger portable HDD and make a 1:1 clone of the drive (sector by sector copy). It might take few hours to copy but if the data is important, do it. Install the backup software on other drive. Why? So you can freely poke the ruined drive and try to recover it. If you make things worse for whatever reason, you just recover the 1:1 copy and start over. This way you assure you can't lose the data during recovery process itself. __________________ RejZoR's Little Secrets @ rejzor dot tk

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Jan 20, 2013, 10:51 AM	#10
Mussels Doctor Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Bendigo, Australia (NOT THE USA) Posts: 34,594 (10.88/day) Thanks: 3,708 Thanked 8,714 Times in 6,407 Posts System Specs	as george takei would say Oh my :/ __________________ Edumacational thread about PC Audio My external HDD's.5x samsung 1TB + 2x Seagate 1.5TB = 8 TB external storage 32 Bit OS vs 64 bit OS information How to get hardware accelerated H264 playback (DXVA) Netbook Owners United!

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Feb 27, 2013, 09:41 AM	#14
Jetster Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Oregon Posts: 2,952 (2.36/day) Thanks: 979 Thanked 898 Times in 656 Posts System Specs	Sad just Sad. Backups are for when I do shit like this

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Feb 27, 2013, 11:10 AM	#16
LAN_deRf_HA Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 4,076 (2.14/day) Thanks: 295 Thanked 853 Times in 595 Posts System Specs	I backup every hour. Annoying when I'm watching a video because it will pixelate but I can't get around that with my settings.

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Feb 27, 2013, 11:43 AM	#17
de.das.dude Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Wild Wild East Posts: 4,859 (4.41/day) Thanks: 2,447 Thanked 1,421 Times in 978 Posts System Specs	:S just figured i was using test disk wrong. following their tutorial. i got the deleted partition back, but i tried to skip some time and ended up deleting another partition from the bootsector XD __________________ Join the TPU GRID 2 ClUB T0D4Y!

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