Computer help!

Community
#1

To all you computer-knowledgeable nerds out there (and I know you’re out there) - I need help

It all started with my brilliant plan to reinstall windows (XP - yes, I know, just get over it). In doing so, I rather stupidly ended up accidentally deleting my partition table. Using an excellent program from www.partition-recovery.com I got the 3rd of my partitions back (with all data) but due to the stupid way I installed windows (that got me into this mess in the first place) I ended up overwriting the master file table of the 2nd partition - at least I’m 99% sure that’s what happened. There’s really no way to rescure it, so now I’m trying to get all the data off and I’ll repartition everything. I’ve tried about 20 different data recovery programs, most of them suck and do nothing or come up with error messages. One of them, Ontrack Easy Recovery, managed to get data off but without any file names and some of the files don’t seem to be complete.
One magical magical program from www.recoverdatatools.com shows me all my data, sitting there complete with file names and directory structure, just waiting for me to reach out and grab it - AND IT’S THE ONLY ONE I CAN’T FIND A CRACK FOR ANYWHERE ON THE INTERNETS. I really really don’t want to spend the US$70 to buy it.

So, solutions? Any favourite data recovery programs (that hopefully won’t screw up or write over anything)? If anyone can get me a crack for this one program, or help me out in any other way that would be great. I have an external drive I can move stuff too.
I have really important and irreplaceable footage on this partition, and no good backup (except on the actual tapes, and if I have to go back to them it essentially means re-capturing and then re-editing the ENTIRE THING).

And please - useful advice. I know I really fucked up, I’m kicking myself about it already and I don’t need to be reminded. Yes, I use XP and no, I’m not going to change it. I would prefer to avoid installing linux if possible, since I really have no idea how to use it.
Thanks!

#2

I say pay the money and buy the software.

#3

Well, yes. I mean, how valuable is your data to you?

#4

Very valuable, and yes if it comes to it I will cough up the money. I did ask for useful advice though, so if you have nothing new to add please don’t bother posting.

#5

Honestly, that part can be solved in an afternoon. It takes about as long to learn as using a new cellphone, and it’s a fairly satisfying process. The recovery program for Linux is more likely to be free, so if you were having this problem on Linux you would probably be sweet. It gets frustrating hearing people talk about computer problems when they don’t want the best long-term solution.

In the mean time, if you need to return to Windows for a specific application you are an expert at, I would suggest paying the money.

#6

I would prefer to avoid installing linux, maybe this is the best solution and if it comes to it it’s something I will try. I happen to like XP and find more convenient to use, and am not intending to switch permanently to linux no matter how many people tell me it’s great. Thanks for your opinion and input, but again - this doesn’t constitute actually helping me in any way.
I would rather this didn’t turn into a ‘which OS is better’ or an anti-piracy rant, or any kind of lecture. I’m just asking for a little help :frowning: - if anyone who knows about stuff like this can suggest a practical solution that hasn’t been mentioned, I’m listening.

#7

Since the cost is only $70 I would advise to pay for it. After all, you’re data’s worth it. This isn’t a case of a 5-min test drive, its the specific and only reason to buy the software in the first place. Also you’ll get the soft, warm fuzzy feelings that come with actually paying for something you’re using.

And take more backups of valuable data in the future, particularly when you’re about to do something as major as an OS upgrade. But I’m sure you know this already :unamused:

#8

70.00 USD = 88.7862 NZD.

This is less than or around about what most places that can do data recovery will charge per hour.

Not sure on the legality but you may be able to sell the software on ebay after you’ve finished with it anyways.

#9

sigh :frowning:
Thanks for your opinion, everyone but I realise now I’m obviously asking the wrong people. So far the only advice I’ve seen was “buy the software”, even though I specifically asked for advice OTHER than things like “buy the software” or “install linux”. :frowning:
As far as long-term advice, like “backup your data” or “install linux” - thanks, but unfortunately not really relevant to the current problem! :confused:
Also, for the record, I have no qualms about pirating software and am far more likely to get a warm, fuzzy feeling from successfully cracking an illegal copy of XP (which I have done) than actually buying it. I consider it a learning experience! :smiley:
Thanks anyway

#10

[shrugs]
Point 1. Pirating software is unethical and illegal. Insulting people because they do have ‘qualms’ isn’t going to make you popular.
Point 2. This is a Larp site, not an IT site. We have a few IT geeks who post here (and we love 'em) but it isn’t my first choice for technical advice. You could maybe see if Experts Exchange is still up and running, the last time I needed to solve a coding issue (which was some years ago) it was really useful, and they had a lot of different categories to get advice in.
Point 3. Why are you still going on about this? Time = Money just as much as Data = Money. As far as I can tell you already know the best, easiest and fastest solution, you’re just complaining about doing it.

Have a nice day.

#11

The “right” people in this case:

mirc.com/

Now find a good “hackers and crackers” channel.

…Btw, what computer are you using to post from? I hope its a drifferent one to the broken computer.

#12

Can you point to the insult ? All I get is “please RTFI” and complaints about unhelpful posts, which I wouldn’t go as far as to classify as an insult.

I would advocate NOT doing this. To get the answers, you have to sign up (IIRC about USD15.00) and then they hit your credit card each month until you remember to unsubscribe. And this is the Chit-Chat section, where anything goes so IT questions are as valid as anything else.

[quote=“Stephanie”]Point 3. Why are you still going on about this? Time = Money just as much as Data = Money. As far as I can tell you already know the best, easiest and fastest solution, you’re just complaining about doing it.
[/quote]
It all depends if you’re money-rich or time-rich, doesn’t it ? Me, I’m time-poor, which is why I recently spent USD400.00 on some software to assist my productivity.

#13

After talking to the computer professionals up here, if what you described is correct then ,quote, you are screwed, unquote.

Their advice is clone the disk, (also known as ghosting the disk), then try and recover the data. That way if you screw up you can try again and again and again.

The only program they could recommend was called ‘Partition Magic’. I’m not sure where you get that from. If that doesn’t work, then you are in really, really expensive territory, ie four figures or more.

Good Luck.

#14

[quote]Can you point to the insult ? All I get is “please RTFI” and complaints [/quote]More that he kept accusing people of launching into anti-piracy rants when nobody was. It was getting annoying.

[quote]I would advocate NOT doing this. To get the answers, you have to sign up (IIRC about USD15.00)[/quote]Oh, okay. Back when I used it it was a free site. But that was some years ago so I guess they wanted more income out of it.

#15

I highly agree with this. The other reason to do this is that every time you spin your disk (like, do anything on your computer) you risk loosing data. An OS will see your hard drive as blank and ready to be written anywhere, so be careful what you run.

Partician magic is no longer in development. It was bought by Symantic a while ago and watered down into some of their software and the product was never really continued. If your working with partitions I would reccomend Gparted. Its free and works really good. You can download the live CD here… Link. That said, partition software isn’t what you need here.

#16

Sorry if it sounded like I was accusing people of anti-piracy rants, I wasn’t intending that at all I was just clarifying my position on piracy. I don’t think anyone was ranting about anti-piracy, but perhaps I was a little oversensitive that it might be heading in that direction (it so often does). My apologies if I seem tetchy or irritable - very frustrating situation + same unhelpful advice over and over again does not a patient person make! Even though I realise this is the first time any of you will have heard this.

Atm, money is much much more expensive than time. I can easily spend a month or two trying to figure this out, whereas a spare $90 is hard to come by as a student. The data isn’t going anywhere, as best I can tell it’s still on the disk.
My initial post was directly aimed (as I stated) at the IT geeks. This was so hopefully it would be them that took it upon themselves to post rather than larpers who are less familiar with computers. I really don’t want to get into the ethics or legality of pirating software, I don’t see that it would achieve anything or help me in any way. If people want to discuss that I suggest they start a different thread.

[quote] mirc.com/

Now find a good “hackers and crackers” channel.[/quote]
Thanks, I’ll try this.

I have Partition Magic, unfortunately it doesn’t do data recovery in any way. If I were to use it, it would wipe everything! Thanks for the suggestion, though. Cloning the disk is something I’m investigating.

#17

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
I got all my data back, perfectly! All correctly named and everything.
Courtesy of an wonderful wonderful program called GetDataBack - try it if you ever need to do any data recovery!

#18

Did you purchase it or did you steal it?

#19

I used to work in a computer shop and we used GetDataBack all the time. I would have suggested this if I had remembered at all what it was called…