recovering files from fat32 and ntfs hard drives
recovering files from fat32 and ntfs hard drives
What programs would you recommend for recovering files off of a fat32 and ntfs drive is there a program on puppy already that can do that? thanks in advance!
What do you mean "recovering" ?
Do you mean recovering it after you deleted them or formated the HDD? or recovering them after you corrupt your partition table?
or just recovering them when you cannot boot to windows anymore?
In puppy you can mount an NTFS or FAT partition and copy the files to another partition or burn them to cd or transfer them through the network.
For corrupted HDD you could try Ontrack's easy recoverNot Free but it works. Worth paying for it if your data is valuable. I've used it.
Here are more recommendations: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21254050.html
Do you mean recovering it after you deleted them or formated the HDD? or recovering them after you corrupt your partition table?
or just recovering them when you cannot boot to windows anymore?
In puppy you can mount an NTFS or FAT partition and copy the files to another partition or burn them to cd or transfer them through the network.
For corrupted HDD you could try Ontrack's easy recoverNot Free but it works. Worth paying for it if your data is valuable. I've used it.
Here are more recommendations: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21254050.html
[url]http://rarsa.blogspot.com[/url] Covering my eclectic thoughts
[url]http://www.kwlug.org/blog/48[/url] Covering my Linux How-to
[url]http://www.kwlug.org/blog/48[/url] Covering my Linux How-to
File recovery/salvage
This was posted by stlchuck a couple of weeks back - seems to suit your needs.
While my experience with linux is limited being a relative newbie - I have had way more experience than I really want dealing with installing/reinstalling Windows XP. First off, I am going to assume that you have or have access to an actual XP install disc and a USB hard drive. First, if you can do so BACKUP your files on the XP install to the separate USB hard drive. If Windows is not bootable the way to do this is to boot one of the 1.0.x versions of Puppy running in RAM only (option 4), configure your keyboard etc. Then click on the "Drives" icon to start MUT. When MUT starts mount your Windows partition(s) one at a time along with the separate hard drive and you should be able to drag and drop to copy any files you need to save. When you have finished, unmount your drives and disconnect the USB drive from your computer. The next steps will REFORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE and ALL FILES WILL BE GONE. Be absolutely sure that there is nothing else that needs to be backed up or saved. Remove the Puppy CD from your drive - insert the Windows XP install disc and go to "Start/menu" - click on "shutdown" and "reboot". When the computer reboots follow the prompts for a new install - accept the EULA - at some point you will be asked for your product key code - you should find this on a sticker on the back of your tower or the bottom of a laptop. Enter it. You will come to a screen that lists all partitions on your drive - delete all of them and let setup format the drive - when asked set the size of the drive you want Window to install on - about 5 - 6 GB is plenty for Windows alone - if you want your applications on "C" drive as well go about 20GB for size - this will leave the rest of the drive as unallocated space. We'll deal with that later. Choose your file system for your install - you will have a choice of FAT32 or NTFS. Proceed with the install folowing the on screen instructions/prompts to set up and activate your install. When you are done with the Windows install you need to first activate the Windows firewall and install an anti virus program. I recomend AVG free from Grisoft.com - then go to Windows update and download ALL available updates. When you have done this - TAKE A BREAK. Relax - the hard part is behind you.
Now we will deal with the "unallocatted" space and finish setting up your hard drive. First go to Start > right click on My Computer > select Properties > Manage > select Disc Management in the left panel > in the lower pane on the right side you should see your "C" drive and unallocatted space > right click on the unallocated space > In the resulting menu click on "New Partition" > the New Partition Wizard will appear > click on next > leave "Primary Partition" selected and click next > choose a size for the partiton - you will want to make two partions here - one at a time - one for applications and one for your data - most recent hard drives will have plenty of space to do this - 10 to 20 GB is good size for applications and the balance of the drive for your data. > Leave the default drive letter selected for the drive and click next > Select the file system for the drive and then select "Perform a Quick Format" then click next.> Click Finish When Windows has finshed formatting and setting up the file system on the new partition you can repeat the process if needed for your next partition.
The advantage to setting up like this is that the next time Windows becomes FUBAR you can reinstall Windows without losing your data. You can if you wish put Windows and your applications on "C" drive and have just one other partition for data formatted FAT32 - if you go this route make "C" drive about 20GB if possible. If you use a separate partition for your applications you will have to during each install change the drive the app installs on to the correct drive letter - a small price to pay. The last step is to again go to Start> right click on My Documents> selct Properties and change the target for "C:\\My Documents..." to the drive letter for your data partition - ex. X:\\My Documents... where X is the letter for you data partition.
If you have managed to follow me this far you now have a nice clean Windows install for your needed uses/apps and a Linux friendly partition for your data files and your Puppy save files like pup001 and/or pup_save.3fs. Sit back - relax and enjoy Puppy - have a cold one. Hope this helps.
While my experience with linux is limited being a relative newbie - I have had way more experience than I really want dealing with installing/reinstalling Windows XP. First off, I am going to assume that you have or have access to an actual XP install disc and a USB hard drive. First, if you can do so BACKUP your files on the XP install to the separate USB hard drive. If Windows is not bootable the way to do this is to boot one of the 1.0.x versions of Puppy running in RAM only (option 4), configure your keyboard etc. Then click on the "Drives" icon to start MUT. When MUT starts mount your Windows partition(s) one at a time along with the separate hard drive and you should be able to drag and drop to copy any files you need to save. When you have finished, unmount your drives and disconnect the USB drive from your computer. The next steps will REFORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE and ALL FILES WILL BE GONE. Be absolutely sure that there is nothing else that needs to be backed up or saved. Remove the Puppy CD from your drive - insert the Windows XP install disc and go to "Start/menu" - click on "shutdown" and "reboot". When the computer reboots follow the prompts for a new install - accept the EULA - at some point you will be asked for your product key code - you should find this on a sticker on the back of your tower or the bottom of a laptop. Enter it. You will come to a screen that lists all partitions on your drive - delete all of them and let setup format the drive - when asked set the size of the drive you want Window to install on - about 5 - 6 GB is plenty for Windows alone - if you want your applications on "C" drive as well go about 20GB for size - this will leave the rest of the drive as unallocated space. We'll deal with that later. Choose your file system for your install - you will have a choice of FAT32 or NTFS. Proceed with the install folowing the on screen instructions/prompts to set up and activate your install. When you are done with the Windows install you need to first activate the Windows firewall and install an anti virus program. I recomend AVG free from Grisoft.com - then go to Windows update and download ALL available updates. When you have done this - TAKE A BREAK. Relax - the hard part is behind you.
Now we will deal with the "unallocatted" space and finish setting up your hard drive. First go to Start > right click on My Computer > select Properties > Manage > select Disc Management in the left panel > in the lower pane on the right side you should see your "C" drive and unallocatted space > right click on the unallocated space > In the resulting menu click on "New Partition" > the New Partition Wizard will appear > click on next > leave "Primary Partition" selected and click next > choose a size for the partiton - you will want to make two partions here - one at a time - one for applications and one for your data - most recent hard drives will have plenty of space to do this - 10 to 20 GB is good size for applications and the balance of the drive for your data. > Leave the default drive letter selected for the drive and click next > Select the file system for the drive and then select "Perform a Quick Format" then click next.> Click Finish When Windows has finshed formatting and setting up the file system on the new partition you can repeat the process if needed for your next partition.
The advantage to setting up like this is that the next time Windows becomes FUBAR you can reinstall Windows without losing your data. You can if you wish put Windows and your applications on "C" drive and have just one other partition for data formatted FAT32 - if you go this route make "C" drive about 20GB if possible. If you use a separate partition for your applications you will have to during each install change the drive the app installs on to the correct drive letter - a small price to pay. The last step is to again go to Start> right click on My Documents> selct Properties and change the target for "C:\\My Documents..." to the drive letter for your data partition - ex. X:\\My Documents... where X is the letter for you data partition.
If you have managed to follow me this far you now have a nice clean Windows install for your needed uses/apps and a Linux friendly partition for your data files and your Puppy save files like pup001 and/or pup_save.3fs. Sit back - relax and enjoy Puppy - have a cold one. Hope this helps.
Always give without remembering - always receive without forgetting.
Alice
Alice
-
purple_ghost
- Posts: 416
- Joined: Thu 10 Nov 2005, 02:18
How to recover FAT 32.
I shot myself in the foot by zapping something in either the MBR and surely the Partition Table. In my case I was also very sure the problem was not a damaged hard drive. Does your hard drive make funny noises? If your drive is of a later manufacture. Then you might look at the S.M.A.R.T. of the hard drive.
In my case I first used a Windows 98 SE boot disk to replace the MBR.
I used the command fdisk mbr. Or whatever the format for the command is.
I was absolutely sure my partition was exactly FAT 32 that had been which had been created using fdisk and format from a Windows 98 SE boot disk. Do you know exactly what your hard disk was? How it was created?
I used a boot disk that came from
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
Maybe my MBR was never bad. After some head scratching I decided I would try to use one of the tools which is on the "Ultimate Boot CD".
UBCD is freeware. The entire thing can be downloaded. Then entire thing is 140 MB. Or a download of 83 MB has a self extracting exe. The other part of downloading the UBCD is that you also must have a way to burn a copy to a CD. Although you can buy a copy of UBCD from someoutfit which sells linux CD's. This has a lot of tools relating to working with hard drive. Many of the tools are Linux.
http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/
Or look through the list of programs which is included on the UBCD and pick which one you want to try. Then download that one only from ---- Where ever as desired.
I chose a tool which would simply rebuild the partition table. The rub to that program is that I had to be sure I knew what the partition was. Meaning = (In my case FAT32) and. -- I had to -already- know the size of the partition. Not a problem for me in this case. Are you sure you know the size of the partition you are going to rebuild the partition table for. If the partition is the entire hard drive Then also no problem. In my case the program first suggested that my partition was composed of two partitions. I told it to do what I wanted it to do.
Other options: Knoppix is a (freeware) live CD of Linux which has a wide following. Knoppix has a wide variety of tools. Knoppix has a program to work with NTFS. I do not know how well Knoppix works with NTFS. There are several forums devoted to Knoppix. The download for Knoppix is around 700MB. Actually several books related to Knoppix which might be of help with it. A lot of Knoppix documentation is available online. The neatest thing about Knoppix is that there is a lot documentation about it.
http://www.knoppix.org/
http://www.knoppix.net/
Helix is a specialized version of Knoppix which is meant to work with recovering hard drives. I have never used it
Personally, I am now a fan of UBCD. Although I understand very little of the implications of using most of its programs.
In my case I first used a Windows 98 SE boot disk to replace the MBR.
I used the command fdisk mbr. Or whatever the format for the command is.
I was absolutely sure my partition was exactly FAT 32 that had been which had been created using fdisk and format from a Windows 98 SE boot disk. Do you know exactly what your hard disk was? How it was created?
I used a boot disk that came from
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
Maybe my MBR was never bad. After some head scratching I decided I would try to use one of the tools which is on the "Ultimate Boot CD".
UBCD is freeware. The entire thing can be downloaded. Then entire thing is 140 MB. Or a download of 83 MB has a self extracting exe. The other part of downloading the UBCD is that you also must have a way to burn a copy to a CD. Although you can buy a copy of UBCD from someoutfit which sells linux CD's. This has a lot of tools relating to working with hard drive. Many of the tools are Linux.
http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/
Or look through the list of programs which is included on the UBCD and pick which one you want to try. Then download that one only from ---- Where ever as desired.
I chose a tool which would simply rebuild the partition table. The rub to that program is that I had to be sure I knew what the partition was. Meaning = (In my case FAT32) and. -- I had to -already- know the size of the partition. Not a problem for me in this case. Are you sure you know the size of the partition you are going to rebuild the partition table for. If the partition is the entire hard drive Then also no problem. In my case the program first suggested that my partition was composed of two partitions. I told it to do what I wanted it to do.
Other options: Knoppix is a (freeware) live CD of Linux which has a wide following. Knoppix has a wide variety of tools. Knoppix has a program to work with NTFS. I do not know how well Knoppix works with NTFS. There are several forums devoted to Knoppix. The download for Knoppix is around 700MB. Actually several books related to Knoppix which might be of help with it. A lot of Knoppix documentation is available online. The neatest thing about Knoppix is that there is a lot documentation about it.
http://www.knoppix.org/
http://www.knoppix.net/
Helix is a specialized version of Knoppix which is meant to work with recovering hard drives. I have never used it
Personally, I am now a fan of UBCD. Although I understand very little of the implications of using most of its programs.
If you know the exact sizes (start and end tracks) of each partition you just need to recreate them and your info will be there. I've done that before just for the fun of it.jus407 wrote:recovering after i deleted my partition table and master boot record, i have not reformatted or reinstaleld anything it just cannot read the data on the hard disk
[url]http://rarsa.blogspot.com[/url] Covering my eclectic thoughts
[url]http://www.kwlug.org/blog/48[/url] Covering my Linux How-to
[url]http://www.kwlug.org/blog/48[/url] Covering my Linux How-to
accually guys thanks for your help but after thinking of it i realized the only stuff on my hard drive was music, videos and a few freely available downloaded software (so nothing i couldnt put back on easily) thus i just reinstalled windows but thanks i have a new problem now with puppy not booting so i hafta fix that