Problems with Partion"Magic" :)

[Shizzle]

I should have hit up the forums first instead of after...

I have two hard drives (IDE) one is a 40Gig and the other is 200Gig. The way my partitions were setup is that the 200Gig contained two partitions C: & E:. The 40Gig HD was D:, yes I know wierd setup, so what I did was remove everything that was was D: and formatted it made sure that I had everything backedup to C: E:. I then switched the IDE cable making the D: the primary master and then preceeded to install XP Pro. After installing XP and all the drivers I then installed Powerquest's PartitionMagic 8.0 and preceeded to do a merge of the old C: and E:.

Now I have done this process many times using the PM software. So waited for it to do its "Magic" and when I come back to the screen it said that there was an error. I believe it was #562 which is not in the error codes in the user guide. So I continue to boot up into XP and take a look at the drives, now I currently have C: and D:. The D: drive 111GB and now I have an Extended and Unallocated drive which total 80,003.4MB. All my backedup data is gone...which must be the "magic" part .

So here is my question. I have left the way it is in case any recovery is possible. Here is what my Partition Information for both drives at their current state:

General System Information:
Total Physical Memory (bytes): 1,073,205,248
Used Physical Memory: (bytes): 351,805,440
Maximum Page File Size: (bytes): 2,581,561,344
Current Page File Size: (bytes): 297,291,776

===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 1: 4865 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head Sect StartSect NumSects
===========================================================================================================
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254 63 63 78,156,162
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 4864 254 63 63 78156162

===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 24792 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track
Warning: Logical drive chain points to sector without partition table.
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head Sect StartSect NumSects
===========================================================================================================
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254 63 63 234,436,482
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 14592 254 63 63 234436482
0 1 00 1023 0 1 0F 1023 254 63 234,436,545 163,846,935
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 1 00 14593 0 1 0F 24791 254 63 234436545 163846935



===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 1: 38,162.2 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
C: NTFS Pri,Boot 38,162.2 0 0 63 78,156,162


===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 2: 194,474.4 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
D: NTFS Pri,Boot 114,470.9 0 0 63 234,436,482
ExtendedX Pri 80,003.4 0 1 234,436,545 163,846,935
EPBR Log 0.0 None -- 234,436,545 63
Unallocated Log 80,003.4 None -- 234,436,608 163,846,872


===========================================================================================================
Boot Record for drive C: (Drive: 1, Starting sector: 63, Type: NTFS)
===========================================================================================================
1. Jump: EB 52 90
2. OEM Name: NTFS
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 0
6. Number of FATs: 0
7. Root Dir Entries: 0
8. Total Sectors: 0
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)
14. Total Sectors (>32MB): 0 (0x0)
15. Unused: 0x80008000
16. Total NTFS Sectors: 78156161
17. MFT Start Cluster: 786432
18. MFT Mirror Start Clust: 4884760
19. Clusters per FRS: 246
20. Clusters per Index Blk: 1
21. Serial Number: 0x34A8A0EAA8A0AC34
22. Checksum: 0 (0x0)
23. Boot Signature: 0xAA55

===========================================================================================================
Boot Record for drive D: (Drive: 2, Starting sector: 63, Type: NTFS)
===========================================================================================================
1. Jump: EB 52 90
2. OEM Name: NTFS
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 0
6. Number of FATs: 0
7. Root Dir Entries: 0
8. Total Sectors: 0
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)
14. Total Sectors (>32MB): 0 (0x0)
15. Unused: 0x80008000
16. Total NTFS Sectors: 234436481
17. MFT Start Cluster: 786432
18. MFT Mirror Start Clust: 14652280
19. Clusters per FRS: 246
20. Clusters per Index Blk: 1
21. Serial Number: 0x7E6CBA466CB9F8CB
22. Checksum: 0 (0x0)
23. Boot Signature: 0xAA55

___________________________________________________

Is the reason why this happened is because the drive was a primary boot disk? Also is there anyway to recover the data that was on the disk. The partition that I need to recover is the 80,003.4 which contained all my backup information. Any and all help is GREATLY appreciated!!!

 

[Samstoned]

File Scavenger
http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm
setup your OS using 1 HDD
then add the HDD that you need to get info off of
the more yo uneed to get the longer it takes
make a file on first HDD call it something like ( recoveredFiles )
I have tried other programs this one works the best
warning do not write to disc you want to recover info from
may take hours to get it all back
I recover files for clients all the time using this program it has never failed
I use ( Paragon )partition manager also seems to work the best.
http://www.paragon-gmbh.com/

 

[Rick]

Since I'm retty sure Parition Magic physically relocates data on the disk, these files may potentially be very tough to get back.

I was going to suggest a program like Active@Partition Recovery, but it may not work in the instance since the data could have been physically shuffled around. It might be worth checking out the free version though, which won't recover your files, but gives you a glimpse of what it can restore.

You'll probably have to use a program that searches for "lost files" and ignores the MFT etc.. I haven't used File Scavanger, but it might be worth a shot.

I've had a number of probems with partition magic giving errors like this one.. It's always frustrating. To minimize the chance of this happening, I always run a full drive diagnostic, chkdsk to analyze the file system, and backup the customer's important data before I proceed to repartition the drive. I haven't really had a problem since I've started doing that procedure, but might just be coincidence.

 

[Shizzle]

Well I tried the File Scavenger Version 2.1 and when doing the Defunct volume search and inputted the proper sector numbers, low and behold all my data is there. I was able to recover a couple of files for testing purposes to see if indeed they were uncovered, when I recover a image or an mp3 to c:\recoveredfiles\ the mp3 will not play and the image file doesn't show. So I believe that Rick is right that it may have become all shuffled up. I tried the other software Active@Partition Recovery and I got an error message at the end of the long scan that went something like error with sector # or boot sector is invalid error #0 so I believe that I may have lost everything permanently. I really hate to blame PartitionMagic, however I can't think of anything that I did wrong. If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. I will still play around with the File Scavenger a little bit more to see if it will recover other things mainly I just want my word documents and some utility applications that I saved, I could care less about the mp3's and images that I had. Thank you Rick and Samstoned for your help!!! I will make sure that I stop by here before I do anything like this again so that I know what to expect... major lesson learned here