Saving data on bad partition

[Tokelil]

Hope some of you know some tricks so I can save the data from a "bad" partition...

I wanted to split my brothers harddrive into two partitions so I installed Partition Magic 8 on it and split the drive. (Have done this without problems a lot of times before) To do it, it restarts the computer and runs 1 of 3 jobs (which is resizing the C partition I guess) and then fails. (Didn't read to carefully what the error was Im afraid) After restarting the computer it can no longer boot into windows. It starts loading for 2-3 sec and the restarts. (Was wondering whether it was hit by Zotob at the same time) Trying to load into failsafe mode doesn't change much. (think it comes a bit futher loading some drivers etc.)

Using a DOS bootdisk doesn't change much of course since its NTFS.
I created the Partition Magic boot disk but that didn't help much either. (It says the C partition is still there, but totally filled... Maybe that's why Windows can't boot)

Okay on to solutions. Any advice would be really appriciated!
Have been thinking about creating a Linux CD (Cant remember the distro that can run on a CD, so help here would be good also), but Im not sure if it can read NTFS. Dont know if there's any tools under Linux to read from foobared partitions.

 

[StefanS]

Hope some of you know some tricks so I can save the data from a "bad" partition...

I wanted to split my brothers harddrive into two partitions so I installed Partition Magic 8 on it and split the drive. (Have done this without problems a lot of times before) To do it, it restarts the computer and runs 1 of 3 jobs (which is resizing the C partition I guess) and then fails. (Didn't read to carefully what the error was Im afraid) After restarting the computer it can no longer boot into windows. It starts loading for 2-3 sec and the restarts. (Was wondering whether it was hit by Zotob at the same time) Trying to load into failsafe mode doesn't change much. (think it comes a bit futher loading some drivers etc.)

Using a DOS bootdisk doesn't change much of course since its NTFS.
I created the Partition Magic boot disk but that didn't help much either. (It says the C partition is still there, but totally filled... Maybe that's why Windows can't boot)

Okay on to solutions. Any advice would be really appriciated!
Have been thinking about creating a Linux CD (Cant remember the distro that can run on a CD, so help here would be good also), but Im not sure if it can read NTFS. Dont know if there's any tools under Linux to read from foobared partitions.

O.K, the thing you need is Knoppix or Mandrake Move (both Linux CD distros that boot from the CD). It can be found here http://www.linuxiso.org/. Then you'll have to try to mount it. This worked for me once.
This might also help http://sourceforge.net/projects/mkcdrec it is a Linux Boot disk with recovery tools.

 

[Guden Oden]

I think the lesson of the day here is, DON'T use black magic programs like PM8 and such. I've had friends using previous versions of that program and ending up with borked partitions, seems it will NEVER become reliable. EVER.

Move the borked disk to another connector, install another harddrive as a boot device and run a disk recovery program to extract any important stuff from your borked disk. Then repartition and do a full format on the sucker and never EVER use PM for anything again!

 

[Tokelil]

I would have done if I could, but it's a laptop so it means I have to go buy special cables etc. to do it. (Though a full repartition is going to happen)
As said I have used Partition magic quite a few times before and the only time it has had weird side effects was when I was stupid and enlarged a NTFS partition into an old ext3 partition without formatting.

Anyway, created a DOS boot CD that can read NTFS and ran a chkdsk which seems to have cured it. (Best 4$ used on software so far)

 

[Frank]

Those special cables are actually pretty cheap, for about $2 you have a 2.5 -> 3.5 IDE converter. And then you can try again with PM. Or try Ntfsresize from a Live Linux CD.

If those all fail, you can use GetDataBack to recover as much as possible (you probably need a converter for that) and make a new partition.

Edit: ah, too late. Good luck with your disk!

 

[_xxx_]

Those special cables are actually pretty cheap, for about $2 you have a 2.5 -> 3.5 IDE converter. And then you can try again with PM. Or try Ntfsresize from a Live Linux CD.

If those all fail, you can use GetDataBack to recover as much as possible (you probably need a converter for that) and make a new partition.

Edit: ah, too late. Good luck with your disk!

GetDataBack is THE thing. Helped me a few months back as well.

 

[Sxotty]

Instead of buying cables you can also buy a 2.5" USB enclosure, the only reason I suggest this is then afterwards you will still have a useful item that you can use a scavenged laptop drive in or buy one later. They are like $13.00 shipped or something.