Hard drive lost files

Question

Question

Hard drive lost files

by speedlse Dec 4, 2012 5:51PM PST

Okay, so i am hoping this site will be able to help me. I have two hdd one is of course C and the other D. I use D only for storage, there is no windows or other system on it. Just the other day, my C was showing signs of failure, so I went ahead and downloaded a cloning too, without much success, because my C was only giving me around 10 minutes to complete the tasks then it would shut down. Soo I tried to use the standard backup feature, that failed too, because it took too long. Then I created an image of my C and copied it to D. So that was successful, well I think. So, today i go to look on my D at some old pictures and files and such and they are all gone. All my games, all my pics, all my files and I have no clue how or why they disappeared. Now I cannot attribute this to my recent adventures with creating a image, because I do not go on D often, so it could have happened well before. Anyway any help or suggestions as to what caused it or how I can fix it would be awesome.

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11 Posts

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hj

by speedlse Dec 5, 2012 3:59AM PST

I am pretty sure they are two separate drives. So if I understand correctly when I create a image of one drive and have it copied to another, whatever files, folders, etc are in the other will be condensed? Even without the computer asking me if I want them to? As for the iso files, i've looked and I having a difficult time located anything that I can open with my iso, but I will continue to try. I want to include a screenshot of what my drive looks like, but I am uncertain as to how to post a pic. I will keep u up to date and again thank you for your response.

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"Pretty sure"?....Please Confirm the Number Of Hard Drives..

by Grif Thomas Former Forum moderator Dec 9, 2012 10:37AM PST

We need to know how many physical hard drives are on the machine.. If you aren't sure, then please open up the computer case and check to see how many physical hard drives are inside.

Hope this helps and let us know more.

Grif

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how many drives

by speedlse Dec 9, 2012 2:44PM PST

I have two drives, two physical drives. I'm looking for a way to try and get the D drive to an earlier date. I ran stellar phoenix data recovery, it found some files, but not the pictures and lots of other documents.

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If The C Drive Is Still Your Operating System Drive...

by Grif Thomas Former Forum moderator Dec 10, 2012 10:38AM PST

...it could be the cause of why you're not seeing anything on D.. As such, I'd remove the D drive and put it in a different computer and see if the files can be recognized there. Or replace the C drive, then use a Recovery disc to bring the C drive back to factory condition...

But remember, if you use the standard Windows backup instead of a true drive image tool, such as Clonezilla or Acronis, then the files aren't easily discernible. As mentioned in other posts, the old Windows backup tool isn't the greatest....

Hope this helps.

Grif

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c still boot

by speedlse Dec 10, 2012 1:18PM PST

Yea it was my bootable drive, i will from now on use a good backup program, however even typing in search box on the D, jpg, img, doc, etc. I cannot find my videos, pictures, documents. You know the important stuff. So ive officially given up, i brought it to a local computer group, hoping they can figure it out.

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image creation

by speedlse Dec 10, 2012 2:12AM PST

Hey, yea i mentioned how it was created, you need to read my posts. I used the standard image creator tjat comes with the computers, usually found in the same folder as recovery and backup. It asks where to create image so i chose my other physical drive D.

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So Windows NTBACKUP? That's junk.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Dec 10, 2012 2:17AM PST

I guess the only way to learn this lesson is first hand. Now that you've skinned your knee I suggest you start finding better backup systems. I use CLONEZILLA for images and sync for file backups.

Bob

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i agree

by speedlse Dec 10, 2012 7:23AM PST

Hey, yea i started to use that, of course after the mess up. Lessened learned, im backin up to external only from now on.

Back to Computer Help forum

Grif Thomas · Answer 1 · Dec 5, 2012 3:13AM PST

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Answer

Just A Question... Or Two...

by Grif Thomas Former Forum moderator Dec 5, 2012 3:13AM PST

Are C and D two separate hard drives....? Or are they two separate partitions on the same hard drive?

If they are two separate partitions on the same hard drive, then your problem may be a failing hard drive, which could show up as a failure on both partitions...

Or, if they are two separate hard drives and you created an image file and saved it to the D drive, then please be aware that image files are saved as compiled files, such as an .iso file, which contains all of the original files but.... You can't view the separate games, pics, etc. until you burn the .iso (image file) to another drive. Burning the .iso to another drive will extract all of the separate files and show them as you're used to seeing them, but not until they're all extracted during the burning process.

Hope this helps.

Grif

Edward ODaniel · Answer 2 · Dec 5, 2012 9:04AM PST

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Answer

An image is an exact copy of a drive's ...

by Edward ODaniel Dec 5, 2012 9:04AM PST

contents that can be used to re-create the drive on a different drive or partition. This is similat to cloning except that there is the extra step of creating the image file which can be stored most anywhere then writing that image to a drive.

If the drive the image is written to contains data that data is REPLACED by the image because that image does not also contain the data on the replacement drive.

Kees_B · Answer 3 · Dec 9, 2012 4:11PM PST

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Answer

Re: image

by Kees_B Former Forum moderator Dec 9, 2012 4:11PM PST

Since you didn't tell how you created an image of the c:-drive and how you copied that to the d:-drive it's difficult to say if anything has gone wrong, and how.

Anyway, it seems you lost everything that you don't have a copy of on a backup medium. The common interpretation of not having a backup is that the owner doesn't mind to lose those files.

Kees

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