Did I just lose a bunch of my data?

Ok so there's this 250 HD I've had for a while and I planned on backing all the data up on another HD I just bought until I was ready to archive the information and then burn it. I initially just tried to copy and paste everything but that didn't work, I got some weird error. My attention got diverted and then I didn't get back around to thinking about it... until now.

The last noteworthy thing I did was install Power ISO and my comp told me I needed to restart. I did so and now the HD... is showing up as a generic unformatted "Local Drive"...ugh does that mean that I've lost all the data on there? Or is it just something weird going on with the partition info that some easy fix will be able to get back?

I could really use some help here as there was alot of good stuff on that drive that I'd care to not have to hunt down again, thanks.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

First of all thanks in advance. Just as I kinda suspected the stuff is still there which is why I didn't go into total panic mode. I tried GetDataBack the only problem is it says that the only way I can copy stuff is to get the full version and thus I'm stuck at step 3. I can view the HD just fine though.

While I don't mind copying I'd also like the drive to just go back to normal as well. ( Although I could just copy it and then copy it back.) Which program on that list will allow me to do that without needing a full version?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thanks again

I haven't tried the crack yet, but judging from the demo I'm pretty sure this is gonna work. Not only was I able to view the drive I was able to access the info.

Zergrinch:

As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. Though in hindsight I believe it was my fault. Although I had windows do a soft restart I should have closed uTorrent. I run my torrents off of that HD and it probably had a brainfart due to the sudden shutdown.

Still the drive is about 4 or 5 years old. The question is what to do with it now? I don't want to just discard a working 200 Gig HD... but it probably is in the twilight of it's life. Any suggestions?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Alright, everything went fine except that I've got one minor problem.

The disk is no longer showing up under My Computer. It shows up in the bios and even in hardware profiles, but it wont allow me to format it in Windows. I looked at Maxtor software, but to use the programs I'd either have to borrow a floppy drive or use up a CD.

I COULD do that, but I have a feeling there's a simple windows based solution I don't know of.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Bigblah

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management

See if you can find it there.

That was the very first thing I tried and it wasn't there.

Quote:

If your mobo supports booting from USB you might be able to use a thumbdrive to boot off of, hotobu.

Yeah it does and I'm gonna get on that soon. I thought about doing that soon after I posted up the question.

Oh and I came up for a use with the HD too. I'm on a new comp now because my old mobo had a stroke and took down my OS HD down with it. A friend of mine happened to have an old comp he no longer needed so I swiped the (18gig) HD and am running Windows XP on it now.

I think I'm just gonna run XP on a 30Gig partition, use the other 170 as storage, and then use the 18 gig as an emergency backup in case that HD mysteriously fails someday.

I was speaking idiomatically.