Power loss during Partition re-sizing - PqRP format

[Andeh13]

Earlier on i was trying to re-size a partition i had using partition magic, half way through the partition process it froze up and i needed to pull the plug. I instantly knew it wasnt going to be pritty so booted up with the worse case scenerio in mind, me loosing 195 gigs of music, films, games & back up documents. Ironically enough, for once, it looks like i may well be right.

The 2nd partition(G) doesnt get detected under my computer now, opening up partition magic shows the partition is there but with the label 'PqRP'. It wont let you touch it with anything but the format key & assign drive letter though. Initially i tried to assign a drive letter to it, and half way through the process the partition appeared under my computer, i could open it and have a look at the files, but after a few seconds it got an error(error during the re-naming) and it disappeared again. This did prove that all my files are still there though.

Iv googled 'PqRP' and apparently its the name assigned [by partition magic] during alterations to a partition, it re-names the partition to that, does the job, then re-names it back to the original drive letter once its finished. Obviously when the PC cuts out half way through it didnt get a chance to name it back to the original drive letter.

The problem is, i dont really understand PCs enough to get me out of this situation, iv spent hours reading, re-reading and reading again up on ways of fixing it, yet the majority of it makes very little sense to me. Iv got a couple of links which seems to be the most usefull but neither make a great deal of sense to me(in terms of correcting the problem). Is there any chance someone with a bit more experience can give me a brief run down of what it is i should be doing?

thanks in advance guys.

edit: the links
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1940874.php
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=77451

edit: similar situations but with the answer the wrong side of a debit card(2 words: University student :/ )
https://secure.experts-exchange.com/...6y%3D7&rsid=10

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Oper..._20694789.html

[oralpain]

Get a second drive, that is large enough to hold your stuff. Then boot from that second drive. Use a recovery program to scan the drive and copy/restore all of it's contents to the new drive. Reformat your original drive, then put your stuff back and return the drive you borrowed.

I use restorer 2000 Professional v2.0; it cost about 20 dollars (just over 10 pounds).

[Fabula]

I had something similar happen once. With a partition merge of 2x30gig into 1x60gig, I ended up with 1x30and 1x60. On a 60gig drive. Neither partition accessible. Deleted partitions, formatted, and got 95% of data back.

You cannot restore onto your current drive, so need to borrow or buy one to restore onto.

I used getdataback to recover my files. Make sure you get the version for your filesystem, fat-32 or ntfs. You may be able to find getdataback, or similar tools, on Hiren's boot CD.

[Andeh13]

So whichever route i take i need a 2nd (bootable) HDD?

Just to make sure:

So i need to get hold of a new HDD, then use the new HDD to boot off, with my old one (the broken one) running as a slave. I use a program(any recommendations?) to then copy all of my files on my old HDD to my new HDD, before formatting the old one. I then use a data recovery tool(same again, any recommendations) to try and get back all the data on my old HDD?

Is there a way of doing it without the need for a bootable 2nd HDD? I have access to a mates 2nd external HDD with enough free space to copy the broken partition accross, but i cant install an OS onto it.

Iv had a look at getdataback but it is out of my price bracket(costs £40+ to use fully), Restorer 2000 looks good though, but at what stage would i use it? Once iv got both HDDs in, using the new one as the primary, i use Restorer 2000 to copy(?) the partition to my new HDD, format the old partition then try and recover the files using Restorer 2000?

thanks again.

edit: a mate has just pointed out, i havnt mentioned the fact that the PC i am on is the one with the broken partition. I have a 30gig partition for my essential programs(OS, MSN, virus, MSword etc) then the 2nd [broken] partition with all my games, music, films & back ups on. Does this make any difference in terms of needing a 2nd HDD?

[oralpain]

1. Boot from second drive (or your current drive, if your boot partition doesn't have anything missing) another drive with enough room to hold everything you want recovered is installed.

or

1a. Boot from a bootable CD that has a recovery program.

2. Run recovery program.

3. Recover files to the empty drive.

4. Format your old drive/partition.

5. Copy the stuff back.


DO NOT write anything to the partition you want to recover stuff from (untill it's all recovered).

[Andeh13]

excellent, got a mate bringing his external HDD round for me to recover everything to later on tonight.

Going to purchase restorer 2000 Professional( - anyone else ever used it before?), a bit later once i know for a fact it can recover the files.

thanks for the help guys, ill update this later on.

edit: Going to get the standard version and save myself 20$ ($30 rather then $50), in theory the standard should be able to do the job just aswell right?

[oralpain]

Unless the drive is pysically broken, or you copied over the files (formating or deleting a partition actually won't hurt much, but installing stuff or defraging will write over data), pretty much any recovery program should have no real trouble getting your stuff back.

In your situation, where only the partition table is fubar, everything should be recoverable.

In Restorer 2000 Pro you just scan the drive (this will take a while, about as long as a format), then recover the files to a place you choose (takes as long as it would to copy them).

[Andeh13]

i have just finished running [the demo of] restorer2000, yet im a bit unsure about the results. Initially i thought it had failed; every file it tried 2 recover was listed as ''the operation has failed'', i left it running until it had finished though.

Once it had finished i checked my mates HDD(where i told it to recover the files to) and found to my suprise every folder & sub folder had been recovered, however only a very small percentage (5%ish) actually had the files in them, the rest were just empty.

Does this mean it has totally failed, or is the fact that it has recovered the folders & nothing in them(the majority anyway) just showing me it can do it, yet i need to purchase the whole program in order for it to restore them all?

thanks again guys.

edit: Thought id add, i told it to recover the files, not scan them - does this make a difference?

[oralpain]

Try having it scan the drive first, then recover. I'm not really sure what the difference would be with the demo version, there could be a size limit on the files it can recover. If it was fully funtional, people would just use the demo and never pay for it.

[DragonStar]

in demo it will only recover files up to 128kb

Restorer2000 3.0 and Restorer2000 PRO 3.0 working in the DEMO mode allow you to evaluate all features and capabilities of the software and display your hard drive (partition) structure with deleted files and folders. In the DEMO mode you can recover files with size up to 128 kb and preview all graphic, video and audio files even if their size is bigger than 128 kb. The software can be activated on-the-fly and files bigger than 128 kb can be recovered right after the software activation. You do not need to reopen or rescan the hard drive if your lost files were found in the DEMO mode. Also, in the DEMO mode you can create an Image file of the entire disk, partition or its part and save it for further investigations. The Image file contains the exact, byte-by-byte copy of the hard drive, partition or logical disk and can be used like a regular disk for data recovery purposes.

[spiral out]

Try downloading restoration from here http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...cription.html#

i have used it a few times and never had a problem.

Or i was recomended PC inspector recovery.
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/download.htm

Both are freeware as far as i know.

[DragonStar]

or try http://www.cgsecurity.org/ its free

[Andeh13]

Just want to say a big thanks to everyone, finally got it sorted.

I gave up on restorer 2000 after e-mailing them and getting no response to my queries on the error messages(made it clear it was Demo version and that id buy it if they gave me an explantion). Looks like i didnt read the FAQ close enough, seemed to have missed that paragraph.

In the end i used a program called 'File scavenger' that was sent to me via a mate. Followed the insructions posted above; scanned/searched the partition, then recovered the files(literally 2 buttons 2 sort it out) to a mates external HDD. Then formatted the partition & copied and pasted it all back, i seemed to have recovered the best part of 95+% of it, not sure what the 6gigs were(out of 150) but cant find any missing files atm.

For anyone who is having similar problems/cocked up in as big a way as i did feel free to drop me an e-mail/PM and i can send you this file scavenger program & instructions.

thanks again guys.

[DragonStar]

heh, your lucky, my 2.5" External HD died on me a few months ago, im running a program to try and fix it, so far its been running 48 hrs... and its about half way through, lol

[Uxter]

Hello people

I had a similar situation, I had been tardy with my backups and when reinstalling Windows I had PM8 on and was resizing a partition, I dont know what happened whether it was a power or programme related thing but I cam back to find my PC restarting and the 80gb partition I was resizing is now a 160gb PqRP partition, I was hoping to be able to restore this back as in all cases like this it had some recent files that are far more important than the whole of the backup I have!

I have bought a 500gb seagate freedom drive to copy it onto, but as windows isnt seeing it anyway (I can only see it in PM8) I dont know how to copy it to the HDD before I try to recover it.
I arent a student but I have limited resources and dont want to buy useless software.

As I understand it I need to get some recovery software, I tried searching for "file scavenger" but havent found it yet, any ideas and help with procedures?

It needs to be fairly fool proof as at the moment I ended up re-installing XP on my "H" drive when I had wanted it on "C" but C is now my old photos drive that was "G" before I started cocking stuff up!

If I can retrieve the data that would be great, then I will completely wipe my old drive and start again

of course after reading all the stuff about PM8 can anyone recommend a similar product that is easy to use but reliable..

thanks in advance

[master811]

The best thing is not to use Partition Magic 8 at all. It is VERY old and hasn't been updated for a long time, and as a result there is much better software to use.

Acronis Disk Manager on the other hand has worked well for me, its as easy to use as PM8, and I've never had any problems with it. It is also constantly updated, unlike PM8.