Did "quick format" on NTFS drive, Win XP install botched, now need to recover files!

ASi_TEK · Post by **ASi_TEK** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 8:42 pm

My wifes computer had Windows 2000 pro on it. She wanted Win XP pro on it since Win 2000 pro wasnt working with every program. I had a copy of Win XP Pro. My wife gave me a list of files (MP3's, her college documents, and pictures) of about 6 years of her life to backup! I was burning these to CD's and fell asleep and totally forgot to copy the college documents and pics (all in there each dedicated folders) and I went to install Win XP Pro and did a quick format. After the QUICK format, It was installing XP and around 39% the way through there was a Parse error and the install stopped. I was like, oh well I'll just try again, but I think the disk I have is scratched or something.

I then realized that I didnt back up the college files and pictures and got yelled at BIGTIME. Now I have a drive that doesnt have a fully working OS on it and it goes into setup install everytime I boot up.

Question #1- Is the College Documents and Pictures still on the hardrive since I did the quick format.

Question #2- Can I pull this hard drive out and connect it too a FAT 32 computer (Windows 98SE) and setup the other drive (which is, or was NTFS) and set it up as a slave???

Question #3- If yes to question 2, then can I run some type of file recovery software and pull this data off her hardrive and save it to mine???

When I use a boot disk on her computer, the hard drive says MS-RAMDRIVE and there is only 2MB total space. (She has a 40gb hd) this is telling me that the info is still there, but "pushed" to another allocation table.

Any help of any kind is greatly appreciated. I really would appeciate any replys, as I am kinda freaking out.

Thanks

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 9:04 pm

Hi ASi_TEK, you cannot put the botched XP drive as a slave to a 98 drive because of the file systems as you assumed. FAT32 cannot read NTFS, you can however install it as a slave to another XP drive and try using Easy Recovery Pro to recover the files.

konomi · Post by **konomi** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 9:27 pm

Asi_Tek
Check out GetDataBack from http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm. This program really works. You can see the results before buying if you like. See earlier thread "Merry Christmas...I am screwed