FDISK will totally remove all the data from the drive if there is any left. I'm not sure if he is just trying to redo his drive here and make a better plan for the future, or if he is still trying to find a way to recover the data. Possibly a data recovery program could find it. However once we get past trying to restore data I would be worried that it's just going to happen again. What is known as a low level format of the drive may be in order to restore the integrity of the drive itself. Possibly a few bad sectors have shown their true selves, not uncommon, and a low level format will get rid of them, or at least make them so the computer doesn't attempt to use them. On a Maxtor it's also known as the write test on their utility. Most every manufacturer makes available a utility for this purpose. Scandisk etc on Windows programs may cure this as well, but are not near as reliable as the low level format. Once done with the low level format you need to do a standard format, set up partitions and go from there.
I also wonder which OS your working with? If it's win 98 your stuck with fat 32, however if you have 2000, or xp you have the options of using NTFS file system, which although is said to be a slight bit slower is infinitely more reliable and not as prone to errors as fat 32 is. When I still ran win 98 I lived for Nortons Ghost. It's a wonderful program to restore and backup your drive(s). You can back them up to cd, another drive, or even a different partition on your drive. As I remember the identical size drive was not required to do this. > -----Original Message----- > From: Herb Chong [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 7:31 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: I'm sad & plea for help (disk problems) > > > if it is just the partition table, the repartitioning the drive with FDISK > will bring it back. always do this on a clone of the drive. make a clone > using Norton Ghost or something equivalent that knows how to do sector > copies. also, you have to be copying to an identical model of drive. > > Herb... > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Frantisek" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "PDML" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 4:00 PM > Subject: I'm sad & plea for help (disk problems) > > > > Hi, > > during an upload of most recent pictures, my old system made a > > digital equivalent of a chuckle or hiccup and rebooted. > > Subsequently, partition table on my brand new 80GB drive which > > hosts my photographs (most backed up, but not the last few > > shootings which I had to yet backup from it, including the latest > > I have - fortunately - still on the CF) got erased. It was FAT32 > > system. I have tried few utilities to peek around, and it seems a > > copy of the information (BR) residues on the disk still. Could some > > of the more computer-savvy please recommend what to do? How I could > > restore the second copy? I do not want to mess around much with > > either the free or paid utilities to not break something up before > > I know more. > >
