help:data loss....

[darkcoder]

hello

 I acted very stupidly, and lost a partition full of Amiga stuff.

I had a 2G SCSI HD from a friend of mine. It had a single FFS partition, filling all the space, containing 1.4 G of data.
I connected to my A4000T, and all was fine. I wanted to backup it on CDs, but the buring software complained about something wrong in the config of devices (the CDRW is on the same SCSI bus as the new HD). I launched HDInstTool, and it recognized the new HD as "modified". This is normal, in my experience, whenever a new HD is connected to the system. I thought that "saving" it could solve the buring software problem, and I thought that it was a safe operation since I had not changed anything in the partition nor in the other setting.
But I was wrong. The partition is disappeared.
HDInstTool, see the HD as empty.
With HDToolBox, instead, if I try to enter the partitioning window, I get a system crash.
I am almost sure that there is nothing to do to recover data, but who knows...maybe  I am wrong again.

Notice that I didn't change partition...what if I re-create the partition?

regards
Luca

[Thomas]

You must not use HDInstTool if you used HDToolbox before and vice versa.

If you have a full version of RDB-Salv, now it is time to use it.

Otherwise you can use RDBRecov which does the same but is not as comfortable.

RDBRecov needs a partitioning tool to recover your partitions. You should use HDToolbox for that as HDInstTool does not let you change the drive's geometry.

You can use KillRDB in order to wipe the old partition table so that HDToolbox does no longer crash.

Because you only had one partition, you should first give this a try: use KillRDB, run HDToolbox as usual and create one big partition which covers the entire space. If this is how the HDD was partitioned initially, then it will bring your data back without running any recovery tool.

Bye,
Thomas

[darkcoder]

Thomas wrote:

You must not use HDInstTool if you used HDToolbox before and vice versa.

I knew but thought it would be safe if not changing partitions... :-(

If you have a full version of RDB-Salv, now it is time to use it.

Otherwise you can use RDBRecov which does the same but is not as comfortable.

RDBRecov needs a partitioning tool to recover your partitions. You should use HDToolbox for that as HDInstTool does not let you change the drive's geometry.

You can use KillRDB in order to wipe the old partition table so that HDToolbox does no longer crash.

Because you only had one partition, you should first give this a try: use KillRDB, run HDToolbox as usual and create one big partition which covers the entire space. If this is how the HDD was partitioned initially, then it will bring your data back without running any recovery tool.

thanks for the suggestion. The partition was FFS, but I don't remember whether it was international or not. Does it matter?
If your suggestion does not work, can I then try with RecoverRDB ? (which, BTW, is made by you, isn't it)? :-)

regards
Luca

[zipper]

Notice that I didn't change partition...what if I re-create the partition?

I always wrote the information about cylinders start/end re every partition to be able to recreate them if the RDB were destroyed. And also made a copy of RDB. And had an identical drive for backups. So at least three different backup procedures - never lost anything.

[lurkist]

Thomas wrote:

You must not use HDInstTool if you used HDToolbox before and vice versa.

This is very interesting, it may explain some problems I've had with the OS3.9 HDToolbox.
After installing a new hard drive with HDInstTool and then OS3.9, I was unable to properly use the HDToolbox (crashing, generally being a pain).  However I found that an older version worked, so I've been using that instead.
Next time I install I'll be more careful.

Cheers

[Thomas]

The partition was FFS, but I don't remember whether it was international or not. Does it matter?

No, it does not matter. Partition borders (first cylinder, last cylinder and number of blocks per cylinder) matter, as well as the block size.

But you should choose "international" now, because I think that FFS-INTL can read FFS-NON-INTL partitions, but not vice versa. But I could be wrong here.

If your suggestion does not work, can I then try with RecoverRDB ? (which, BTW, is made by you, isn't it)?

Well, there are many programs on Aminet with "RDB" and "Recover" in their names. The one I wrote is called "RDBRecov". There is another one called "RDBRecover" IIRC which can only be used if you saved the RDB before. And the same applies to "RecoverRDB" IIRC.

So if you want to try "RDBRecov", then yes, it might help, although it was not meant for FFS partitions originally.

But you'll get free support from the author :-D

Bye,
Thomas

[Brian]

Sounds like the job for DiskSalv... I managed to retreive almost everything from a HDD I changed partision sizes on and formatted.