Lost partition on storage drive, how to fix it

[suludawg88]

I had a 160 gig hard drive where I stored all my info, Fat32 (I know not the smart choice) Turned it on one day and it said there was nothing on it, I had lost the partition. The info is all there how do i get it back in readable format? It is currently in raw format.

[TurcoLoco]

There is no problem with using FAT32, for certan reasons, it might be even the better choice than NTFS. That said, if the partition size will be larger than 32GB, it is a must to use NTFS. Using FAT32 may cause file corruption and even loss of data hence the problem you are having.

You could use a 3rd party utility to recover the data or slave this drive to a working Windows 2000(with minimum SP3) or Windows XP(with minimum SP1) and try to access and copy the data.

If none of the above helps then from the link above, try a free partioning tool to re-size the existing FAT32 partition to 32GB or less. Another possibility would be to convert that partition to NTFS which should resolve the issue.

~TL

[starshooter10]

RECOVER MY FILES should work for you... it's free trial is enough to get the job done.....

it's easy to use and works well.....

[C247]

@starshooter10
Would the "Recover My Files" program recreate the partition that was lost, bringing all the files back to how they were before the crash? Or would it pull the data and form its own filing system and recreate each file individually without even trying to bring back the partition?

[cauzomb]

@starshooter10
Would the "Recover My Files" program recreate the partition that was lost, bringing all the files back to how they were before the crash? Or would it pull the data and form its own filing system and recreate each file individually without even trying to bring back the partition?

according to the discription http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ it will infact rebuild lost partitions

[C247]

All I seem to be able to do is scan for lost files, not rebuild a lost partition. It makes me think that it's near impossible to even REBUILD the partition to be able to access the files that were on it.

I'd prefer to not be forced to pull the files off the HD.. but...

Anyone familiar with Recover My Files that could possibly help me out with this?

[TurcoLoco]

All I seem to be able to do is scan for lost files, not rebuild a lost partition. It makes me think that it's near impossible to even REBUILD the partition to be able to access the files that were on it.

I'd prefer to not be forced to pull the files off the HD.. but...

Anyone familiar with Recover My Files that could possibly help me out with this?

I do not know the problem and couldn't provide any help on that. Did the link Cauzomb provided offered any help at all?

If you can slave this HD to a working machine then check to see if the files are viewable/accessible, if so you won't need a 3rd party program.