[tremosley1022]

Is there any way i can retreieve data from a partially formatted Hd? I got fed up with trying to install/upgrade my xp to xp pro sp2. I was gonna swap said Hd out and put another one in......except in my frustration i forgot to swap. I shut it down around 20 %. Am I S.O.L. or is their a saving (yet inexpensive) grace?

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Do you mean that tried to go from XP Home to Pro, and shut down before the upgrade completed?

Does the computer boot?

Johanna

[Johanna]

Do you mean that tried to go from XP Home to Pro, and shut down before the upgrade completed?

Does the computer boot?

Johanna

[tremosley1022]

Do you mean that tried to go from XP Home to Pro, and shut down before the upgrade completed?

Does the computer boot?

Johanna

i shut down during formatting of the HD....it was at 20 or 30 % (blue screen.....yellow progress bar)

[samiko]

well this can be done by using some 3rd party software, or if you have another empty partition or HDD then you can install another operating system and slave this drive into it, or if you don't have another HDD then you can take your HDD to one of your mates who has a PC and slave it to theirs and transfer your data through.

[samiko]

of course i forgot to add that you can perfom the above if there is any data left! you said you have started formatting and i am not sure what data has been wiped out.

[tremosley1022]

of course i forgot to add that you can perfom the above if there is any data left! you said you have started formatting and i am not sure what data has been wiped out.

thats my biggest fear as well....
as far as 3rd party software, what would u suggest (if mentioning a certain brand is against board policy, i apologize for my violation)?

[samiko]

well you have to expect the worst!

you can use Winternals Administrators, you can create a bootable disk which has an operating system running on it (running all from CD) and you could access functionalities such as buring to CD's or transfering through the network.

But it relies on some functionality of your operating system! I can't garantee that would work. Your safest and most cheapest bet is to slave your HDD to another machine and copy your data through.

[tremosley1022]

well you have to expect the worst!

you can use Winternals Administrators, you can create a bootable disk which has an operating system running on it (running all from CD) and you could access functionalities such as buring to CD's or transfering through the network.

But it relies on some functionality of your operating system! I can't garantee that would work. Your safest and most cheapest bet is to slave your HDD to another machine and copy your data through.

I appreciate the suggestions....ill post my results regardless of outcome.

[gerryf]

You're best bet is to take this harddrive and put it in another computer, then run a program like pc file inspector (free)
http://www.pcinspect.../uk/welcome.htm

or another program

That way you are not accessing the drive with datayou want to recover except for reading the data