I'm homicidal - all FS planes lost!

Toastmaker said:
Please. . . . I beg someone to say it ain't so. . . . .



:pop4:
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I wish i could
thats why i hate partitions
its the same hard drive
just divided
i always have another drive
as a back up
so if my operating system goes foobar
i got every thing on another drive
it would be hard to recover a partition
after a format and reinstall
H
 
A reformat of a partition only deals with that partition, not any other partition on a single hard drive. If they somehow (?) got in and deleted the partions to make a single partition, then you're out of luck. XP has built in tools to structure and work with partitions and it may be that the partition that contains Drive F: isn't mounted and *may* be recoverable. But I question the wisdom and competency of the tech that you're working with.
 
Toastmaker said:
Tomorrow morning, they are somehow going to find my "F" drive or there will be blood - seriously.
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If they deleted the partition while reinstalling XP you're out of luck.

Please don't forget to call an ambulance beforehand to give that computer guy a fair chance And don't shove any Ram modules down any orafices. They might break and leave some nasty splinters behind.


Lionheart said:
Try being a Dev and losing your computer or hard drive 3 times in one year...
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I haven't had a single HDD failure in six or seven years. How much bad luck do you need to have to have one within every four months? :isadizzy:
 
It now appears that the drive partition was removed and then reformatted for the reinstall of XP-

No recourse.

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions, though.
 
ToastMaker, I beg that you don't rip my head off byt I'm going to put my two cents in. You said that you couldn't boot into your OS. Isn't it better to have an OS than a full FS9 with no OS to play on? I understand that it's tough to think of getting it all back but if it had to be done to get your OS reinstalled, wasn't worth it? I wish you luck in the recovery process.
 
Well, as you have wisely pointed out - "it can always be worse" but I didn't just lose FS planes, scenery, AI accessories, diagrams, documents and other downloads - I lost a year's worth of work on a short-story manuscript that was the basis of a full novel via Bantam Books.

In a number of personal ways (not described here because not FS related), it is a disaster of considerable proportions caused by an incompetent technician. The "C" drive partition did not have to be removed and the entire drive did not have to be overwritten. That's my point, that this was preventable had the tech been competent.

My failure here is not to have saved important stuff onto a separate external HD. I will not repeat this error!
 
Toastmaker said:
My failure here is not to have saved important stuff onto a separate external HD. I will not repeat this error!
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Sorry to hear this.

I would take it even one step further. For things like manuscripts, thesis, important digital photos, code, 3D models or anything that would be difficult to replicate or replace without a lot of time and effort, I would also have an off site copy at a trusted friend, relative, or bank deposit box. A backup drive is great insurance against mechanical failure, but there is also fire, flood, and other natural disasters as well as theft to worry about.

I'm not saying be paranoid about this and do it constantly, but never is probably not a good idea either.
 
I do backups and re-installs every day with computers that are virus ridden.. I think someone forgot to back up that part of the drive. You can back up an entire drive or multiple drives in the form of an image so when it is time to re install Windows you can format the original drive and put the pre-existing files, like docs, pics or FS Stuff from the image back on the newly formatted drive and its fresh partitions. Having a virus program running during the file copy usually prevents reinfection and more than likely it was Windows that was infected to begin with and not your FS stuff. I keep all of my FS Stuff on a separate drive in my PC, no partitions, and I also store it as a backup on an external one.
 
Toaster

I feel for ya man. Been through that sort of thing several times....HD crashes, FAT corruption, luckily only once did I get hit by a virus..that I know of. It totally sucks loosing sim stuff, especially stuff that you have tweaked to your personal taste....but loosing a manuscript...that is a big time blow.

This thread has reminded me that I need to back up all my new sim installs...haven't backed them up since I set them up a couple weeks ago. Time to plug in the 120 gig external and do a major session of file protection tonight.

OBIO
 
Toastmaker said:
Ok, now he tells me that there was a trojan/worm that was replicating itself so he had to reformat the drive to re-install XP. This was my "C" drive partitioned to include "F" drive (where everything of value was).

I'm beginning to exceed the scope of my computer knowledge base, so. . . any opinions as to whether it is recoverable or not ??
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Toastmaker, the short answer is - not recoverable (most likely not), with an XP partitioned drive the chances of recovery are slim. It is possible with the proper tools to recover data from formatted drives (I have done it many times) but it is very time consuming and you really have to know what you are doing. The main reason I say Not recoverable is, if in fact the drive is / was infected with a Trojen Virus, you would very likely end up releasing it back into the open which would not be a good thing.

I hate to say it, but you are much better off forgetting about the stuff you lost, and concentrate on starting fresh. My heart goes out to you this kind of thing really sucks. Please let me know if I can help.
 
sorry to hear about what happened to you, but it is the exact reason i do my level best to never let anyone else work on my computer. alot of those folks are lazy and there answer to everything is to format and re-install.
 
This is why I back up on a separate physical drive, not a partition. I learned it the hard way. Next time I build a computer I will probably use a small drive for the operating system, a larger drive for games and applications and either a third internal drive or an external drive for back up.
 
It sounds like your computer tecchie has lost a customer. Plus a few others you might tell your tale to. Has he any business sense?
 
I have a whole documents hdd which includes my documents, all kinds of installers and backups. I backup it up once a month on a different hdd. I would definitely do what Bill said and go buy yourself a external hdd for backing up that stuff.
 
Bjoern said:
And don't shove any Ram modules down any orafices. They might break and leave some nasty splinters behind.
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Ha! I was just reading a story last night in which two young girls were accosted by two of the baron's guards who sought to rape them...

One of the girls used some magic powder to cause one of the guards to collapse, and the other used a yard-long axe-handle to clobber the other...

Their "revenge" was sweet... One of the girls picked up a couple of pine cones from the blacksmith's tinder box and commented...

'You see how all the leaves on the pinecones run one way?' :icon_lol:

'They'll be sittin' down careful for months, they will - and squatting cautious-like at the jakes.' :ernae:
 
Well, hope springs eternal ! I've got it with a tech at the forensic computer lab at the FLETC here about 10 miles from my house (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center). Referred to me by a friend -

He says that it is entirely possible to retrieve files even if the drive has been overwritten. I may get back 50 to 70% of my stuff ! File names will be gone and each file will have to be opened and re-named but that's just expending time !

It's good to have capable friends. . . I should know something by tomorrow.
 
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