My data is all gone

[motorollin]

Only one word can sum up how I feel at the moment, and I think it will be censored. But I'll try anyway.

BOLLOCKS.

In the process of trying to get my 4-way IDE interface working, Elbox have suggested that the problem was caused by the RDB of my hard drive. So I plugged in another hard drive, installed and partitioned it, and copied all my data over.

I then rebooted to the backed up data, ran HDToolBox and reinstalled the RDB on my main drive. I then recreated the partitions and rebooted, planning to boot up to the backup drive again, and copy the data back over.

I rebooted, and the machine hung. Wouldn't boot. Powered off and back on again, floppy started clicking, hard drive light flashed, then the power light started flashing on and off, and the machine hung.

I then decided my first priority was to make sure my data was ok on the backup drive. So I reconnected my CD-ROM and booted to an OS3.9 Emergency Disk. No partitions showing on Workbench. If I run Setpatch from the CLI so I can see it's output, I see an error something like "Failed to activate BD1:" (the second partition on the backup drive).

Is my data gone forever?  :-?

--
moto

[motorollin]

So you're saying that if I put the RDB back how it was on the original drive, it would be as if I had never formatted it? How do I do that?

--
moto

[motorollin]

I did reinstall it and created FFS partitions (I didn't have SmartFileSystem handy and just wanted to get it working). I also quick formatted the FFS partitions. Does this destroy any data? Can it still find SFS partitions if FFS ones have been created?

--
moto

[motorollin]

Why :cry:

--
moto

[motorollin]

I have a backup of the system partition on a Zip disk, so at least I don't have to set up all my drivers. And I have just found an ABackup image of my other partition dated 31 December 05. The only thing that has changed is I've added some games. So it's not a disaster after all :-)  Just extremely inconvenient.

Thanks for the replies.

--
moto

[motorollin]

I don't have enough information to recover the original drive. However, I see no good reason why the backup drive isn't working, as the partitions are still there and haven't been formatted since the data was copied on to them.

In HDToolBox, I can see that SFS is installed in the RDB with the identifier "0x444F5303". The partition is set to use the filesystem "SFS/00" with identifier "0x5346300". Could this be the problem, that the partition's filesystem identifier is incorrect? If I change the identifier to match the one for SFS and then save the changes, will it destroy any information in the partition, or can I safely change the identifier to get it working?

--
moto

[motorollin]

FFS has already been removed from the disk. Can I change the identifier on the partitions to match the one SFS is set to in the RDB?

--
moto

[motorollin]

Great! I can't do this yet as I don't have SFS on a floppy disk, and I have no floppy drives except the one in my Amiga! I'll copy SFS to a DOS floppy tomorrow at workand copy it to my OS3.9 Emergency Disk.

Thanks a lot - here's hoping it works :-)

--
moto

[motorollin]

Yep will do, I'll format PC0 and put sfs.lha on it. Then I open HDToolBox, remove the existing SFS from the disk, re-add it using L:SmartFileSystem, give it the same identifier as the partitions are using, and then it should find the filesystem and mount the partitions. I hope I got that right :roll:

--
moto

[motorollin]

Well I brought my company laptop home complete with floppy drive and did the following:

1. Booted a Workbench floppy.
2. Mounted and formatted PC0:
3. Copied SmartFileSystem from the PC to my CrossDOS floppy
4. Copied SmartFileSystem from my CrossDOS floppy to RAM:
5. Copied SmartFileSystem from RAM: to my OS3.9 Boot Floppy
6. Booted from the OS3.9 Emergency Disk
7. Ran HDToolBox
8. Removed SFS from the backup drive
9. Re-added SFS to the backup drive, making sure the identifier matched the one the partitions were looking for.
10. Saved changes
11. Rebooted

Guess what... the backup drive now boots and my data is all there  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D

Thanks all for the suggestions!

--
moto