Help! my sister is gonna kill me..

[ilgulamc]

My amiga4k, can't find the partitions on my harddisk anymore.

Problem is that that harddisk contained the scenes recorded with a Vlab motion card for my sister wedding. The movie was almost over.
The other day I turned my computer on and suddently I couldn't access the data on my harddisk.
Now my amiga cannot find the partitions on that harddisk anymore.
I think it's because the first block of the harddisk got deleted..
I would be happy with recovering at least some of the data on that harddisk.

Please help me, or my sister will kill me!

[odin]

Oh dear :-o

Have you tried salvage tools such as DiskSalv?

[ShadesOfGrey]

Before you try using DiskSalv, what version of AmigaOS are you using?  DiskSalv can do more harm than good if you're using Amiga OS 3.9, 3.5, or 3.1 w/TD64 (in other words any patch for FFS baraking the 4GB barrier).

[Thomas]

DiskSalv can do nothing if there is no partition to work on.

You need something like RDB-Salv (commercial, with GUI) or RDBRecov (freeware, shell only).

Important is that you think about how the partition table got deleted. Perhaps the drive is larger than 4GB but your software is not able to handle such large drives. You must not use old software on partitions above the 4GB limit. This software will access the area below 4GB, without any message. This applies to programs like Format, ReOrg, DiskSalv, ShapeShifter, PC-Task etc. and probably also the Vlab software. Every software that does low-level access to the drive without knowing how to use 64bit-commands.

BTW, only a dead brother is a good brother. :-D

Bye,
Thomas

[QuikSanz]

Depending on OS, do the partitions show up when using a boot disk?. If so, you might be able to copy them via the cli.

Chris

[jdiffend]

Can you hear the hard drive spin up?  The drive could just be stuck (stiction).

[z36ra]

jdiffend wrote:
Can you hear the hard drive spin up?  The drive could just be stuck (stiction).

Yeah, just give it a whack on the side just as you turn it on.

[Alkemyst]

Try ftp://de.aminet.net/pub/aminet/disk/moni/DiskMonTools.lha

DiskMonTools (DMT) is a program, which has many tools for
Floppydisks, Harddisks, CD-drives, RAM-Disks etc.


With DMT you can edit data on any drive (hexadezimal and ascii).
Supports all block-orientated devices, such as FloppyDisks,
Harddisks, RAM-Disks, CD-ROMs, File-Partitions, etc.
All Amiga-FileSystems (OFS, FFS, INTL OFS, INTL FFS, DirCache OFS
and DirCache FFS) are supported as well as partitions with
blocksizes other than 512 bytes and you can edit the harddisk's
Rigid-Disk-Blocks.
You have additional functions, for example search data, find file-
headers, jump to Parent-/Header-/DirChache-/... Blocks, etc.

You may also edit data in files. With DMT it is possible to edit
files that are larger than the availible RAM. In the FileMonitor
you may search for data (hex and ascii).

With the MfmEditor you may even edit the MEM-Encoded Data on
Floppy-Disks (the format, data is stored physically on the drive).
It has additional features, such as sorting the data, move data,
index-sync read/write (for PC-Disks), check the checksumms (for
trackdisk, diskspare and mfm.device disks), ...

Read-/Write-Errors on Floppy-Disks (only DFx:, trackdisk.device) may
be corrected using RepairTrack.

On DD-Disks and compatible File/Ram-Disks (880 KB) you can view/edit
the BAM (Block-Availible-Map) with the BamEditor.

Deleted files can be recovered using Undelete.

If you have errors on a filesystem (disk not validated) you may use
Salvage to restore all files of a Partition.

howa bout trying to connect the amiga to a network, maybe a linux or windows machine would be able to read it?

[neonblaze]

lucky i'm an only child

that is him in his avatar, don't trust him

[neonblaze]

that is not me, i am not a 40 year old russian on-line dictionary programmer

but you are.... you're called vladamyr boskonowicz and live on 25 gliwice road Moscow

[neonblaze]

I live in London and i am not russian!

anyway that's enough