[wannabe1]

Not the way we're trying...

If the data is important or irreplaceable, you might see if you can recover t with a third party recovery program. Most of these applications will allow you to run the recovery operation to see if the data can be recovered...if it can, you will be asked to purchase the program in order to complete the recovery.

I haven't had much luck with free versions, but Get Data Back has worked for me a number of times and has done so in situations such as yours. This one will let you see what files it can recover, but you have to buy it to actually recover the files. You might try som of the free ones you can find by googling data recovery.

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Alright so I just took a look at the Get Data Back link you left. I do have a couple questions. What one do I use? How does this work? if I read correctly before I purcahse it, it shows you what files will be recovered correct? Thanks for all the help.

[wadeb_21]

Alright so I just took a look at the Get Data Back link you left. I do have a couple questions. What one do I use? How does this work? if I read correctly before I purcahse it, it shows you what files will be recovered correct? Thanks for all the help.

[wannabe1]

You'll use the one for the file system that was used on the machine...either FAT of NTFS. GetDataBack is nice because you can try them free...if one doesn't work, the other may. I'd try the NTFS version first. This is a very slow process, be patient. The last time I used this program on a drive in similar condition to yours, it recovered everything on the drive.

When it's done, it will assemble what can be recovered into a navigation tree like explorer and let you see what can be recovered.

[wadeb_21]

Its in the process of scanning the bad disk. It took awhile because the computer I have it slaved to is a vary old computer and doesn't have the ethernet drivers installed and so I had to download the get data back on my laptop save it to a flash drive then install it on my other machine, kinda a pain in the but but if it works then I don't care. I will let you know what the outcome is. I really appreciate all the help.

[wadeb_21]

I don't mean to keep sending messages but I was just curios to how long it usually takes for the scan to complete?

[wannabe1]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, wadeb_21...I had to step out for a bit.

The last drive I used it on was very corrupt and was a large drive to boot...it took about 12 hours, but recovered everything.

[wadeb_21]

Thats actually how long I kinda figured it would take. Thank god I have my laptop here so I can get some work done. I think this whole thing has taught me a lesson to back up all my stuff, which I new I should of been but I just kept putting it off with buying a back up disk. Thanks again wannabe1.

[wannabe1]

You're welcome...

I back up my important documents everytime I save them...I save it once to the directory I usually save it to, then I save it to a 2gig flash drive. That takes a few seconds longer to do, but at the end of the day all the work has an up-to-date backup.