I hate this!

[andrews2]

What OS are you using and what file system?

[wuensch]

there are several for Windows , some even free (helped me once: Restoration by Brian Kato, freeware, google it up).

But your success depends a lot on the reason for the data vanishing: if your hard drive hardware is dead,, you are lost.

File-system errors can be helped.

Just dont write ANY data on the drive , start from a system on a physically different hard-drive to restore data.

Olli

[andrews2]

Actually, a good place to look is at download.com. Search for file recovery. You can specify which OS you want and the licence (freeware, commercial, etc.).

I had success with GetDataBack a longwhile ago, although you will have to pay for the full version.

[Tugmaster]

I'm using Windows XP. I got the blue screen of death and had to reformat and reinstall Windows using my computers installation disks. Thanks for the help!

[imashination]

Why didnt you try recovering any of the data before you wiped the drive?

[Tugmaster]

Dammit Imashination, I'm a sea captain not a bloody Computer tech. ( I always wanted to say that ) I'm afraid I'm not very computer savy. I couldn't get in to the computer at all.

[wuensch]

uh-oh--- this sounds bad--
if you installed XP on the same disk, I hope you have not chosen to format the drive-- if you have, consider it lost.
There are (very expensive) ways to recover formatted data, but I doubt its worth it (and doubt it will be a success---

I feel your pain, I have been through it, too.
Remember the words my brother said to me (works for IBM):
"There are two kind of people: those who have a backup, and those who will wish they had made one" (my translation from German, hope it make sense ;-)

[sinai_1]

What you should have done is get yourself a new drive( they're way cheap these days, install the os) and use the one that crashed as a slave for the new one, that way you'll easily get to your files,.. i believe when you got the "blue screen of death, you couldn't get into the system" but all your files are intact(except the os)...be reluctant to format,..it should always be the last thing.


and www.motherboards.org (http://www.motherboards.org) has tons of info (on their forum)that'll help even a novice in matters concerning the computer( there many other sites too out there)

[AdamT]

There are firms that can retrieve a lot of data from a physically crashed drive (even drives that have been in fires or floods), but last time a checked it was a very expensive proposition.

[umblefugly]

Theres a program that can recover lost data on ntfs formatted drives. If I can remember the name ill post it here.

http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

[Tugmaster]

I guess I'll just start over. Maybe I can make it even better. Here's how far I got. I only needed to build a scene for the models. Thanks for the help guys!




http://img73.exs.cx/img73/1701/mgguitars.jpg

[alanmac]

If it's any consolation Tugmaster this is real great modeling and texturing. What is the Shipping worlds gain is the 3D worlds loss, Capt'in.

Up there with the great Cartesius on modeling etc. Way above my league at the moment.

Hope you get the willpower together to do it again.

all the best

Alan.

[I-NetGraFX]

Hi Captain Tugmaster!

Is there a program that is able to retrieve the lost data after the hard drive has been formated? I had something like that several times on my old (self-built-together) PC :argh:.
I've used Powerquest's Lost & Found and got back my data, that worked great even it boots via DOS! You need a second physical HDD or some other writeable diskdrive to rescue your data.

The second time I used Easy Recovery (McAfee I think), which even worked better.
That one recovers data as running windows program and I think it's very convinient to recover
stuff. If you haven't saved a large amount of data on your HDD after you've formatted it, your chances are very high to get back all your lost data!

That was two years ago, ... :shrug: I don't know about the current situation. There might be newer and better versions ghosting around.


Just my 2 cents, hope that helps you!


Cheers, Daniel :arteest:

[Erik Heyninck]

I had the same kind of problem about a year ago (chose the wrong HDD to format) and a tech friend of mine saved all my files with GetDataBack:
http://www.runtime.org/

[shakes]

Tugmaster, did you lose those guitars? what a tragedy, such beautiful work. I'll pray for a miracle for you!! I learnt the hard way too, and now I back up to an external Lacie
hard drive-if it's a big important job I do it every 10-15 minutes.I also burn every job onto CD in case they both die on me or get stolen! good luck

[Tugmaster]

Thanks once again for the help guys. Alanmac, thanks for the nice words. Damn near made me blush my friend. Shakes, I did lose these models but I do usually backup my stuff so these models are all I lost. I need to be a little more careful in the future about saving my work. I may upgrade my computer and also add a second harddrive for backup. I'm also thinking of trying a Mac for the first time as I'm tired of the problems associated with Microsoft software. My computer is like a little cyber police state with all the different programs I have to use to protect it.

[dann_stubbs]

There are firms that can retrieve a lot of data from a physically crashed drive (even drives that have been in fires or floods), but last time a checked it was a very expensive proposition.

the fact that he reinstalled onto the drive will probably put the majority of his data lost - the restoration can only be done if the data is still on the drive. if the data has been overwritten then it is gone.

most data "recovery" is just by recreating a catalog or index of a drive that has been "erased" i say that in quotes because to a computer erased just means taking the file out of it's master index or catalog - the data still being right were it was. like ripping the index page out of a book - the story is still right on the pages were it was last.

maybe various blocks or fragments of files will still exist but other then text or ascii files a binary file like c4d is done for.

dann

[AdamT]

Oh, I didn't pick up that he'd reinstalled on the same physical drive. Yeah, that'll pretty much kill any chance to recover the old data.

[basilisk]

Have you considered using camera/projection mapping to map the image you have created onto a simplified model? You wouldn't have to recreate all the fiddly detail, and it might not look too bad for limited camera angles. Probably work best if you have a higher resolution render. There are some good discussions of camera mapping on this forum - for example
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=147534

[Damsel]

Off topic question..not really off topic, but off topic for this problem. Dan... I have heard that before (that your data is still there and just one line or something overwritten to make it inaccessible (probably spelled that wrong). If that's the case, when we install, uninstall, and do that over and over with different things (well, I do) :) How can we still retain space on the hard drive and how is it that it shows I gained it back after uninstalling??? Is Windows doing a number on me? (wouldn't be surprised if it is) ;-)

[AdamT]

When you delete files Windows doesn't actually erase them from the hard drive. It just tells the OS that it's okay to use the space where those files are located. As you add or modify files that "empty" space will eventually be filled and your "deleted" files will be overwritten. This is why you so often see people getting in trouble (usually in court) over e-mails that they thought they had trashed.

[Elysian]

Shows again how important a backup is.

[Tugmaster]

Well it's all water under the bridge now. I just bought two new hard drives. One will be for backup only. I needed a bigger drive anyway. I'll not make the same mistake twice. Thanks to everyone that tried to help. Elysian, I liked it before the edit even though you exagerated slightly. You would have trouble finding two more as hairbrained as me. Heck, I haven't run over any sailboaters in months!

[caraffi]

Theres a program that can recover lost data on ntfs formatted drives. If I can remember the name ill post it here.

http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm
worked for me ...

http://www.runtime.org/

GetDataBack - Data Recovery for FAT V2.31
GetDataBack will help you retrieve your files if the hard drive's partition table, boot record, FAT, or root directory have been damaged by a virus, formatting, fdisk or power failure. GetDataBack can even recover your data when the drive is no longer recognized by Windows.

GetDataBack - Data Recovery for NTFS V2.31
Recover your files when the data is no longer accessible due to formatting, fdisk, virus attack, power or software failure. Get everything back even when the drive's partition table, boot record, Master File Table or root directory is lost or corrupt.

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