How do I restore partitions get my data back

[PhilLwr]

Hi

I would like help in restoring the data and system files in 2 HDDs that due to inattention/stupidity on my part i scrambled (with the help of Asus P5W DH deluxe..).

As to my execuse...it was 2 a.m.

Long story short, I moved two 250GB HDD from my A7N8X deluxe board to my P5WDH board, at the same time I put two 2TB HDD which I ironicaly intended to use as a backup of the data on the two smaller HHDs. No good deed ever goes unpunished...

Anatomy of failure...

Failure to read carefully P5WDH deluxe's manual...

Failure to change P5WDH deluxe's jumper configuration - for the asus EZ SATA connectors - from RAID1(default).. bad move 2

Installing the smaller HDDs on the asus EZ SATA connectors ...bad move 3

When I fired up Win7 and got "chkdsk found inconsistensies in one of your disks" message i didn't hit skip.. bad move 4

Then I went to bed without really looking closely what chkdsk was up to.

Well when later in the day I loged in to my account I found out that chkdsk did mirror the two HDDs[ouch].... both were originally filled up with data - needless to say different - and programs..

Some files are completely intact, some are partially gone (txt files with first have correct last half complete giberish) and some are gone..And thats the good partition, 2 partitions have all the files intact but nearlly all corrupted specially large files, archives, pdfs etc. One partion is gone.

The were 4 partitions.

Now my question:

Is there a reasonable hope or probabilty in sucessfull of restoration of my disks to their original states?

Edited November 20, 2010 by PhilLwr

[jaclaz]

Now my question:

Is there a reasonable hope or probabilty in sucessfull of restoration of my disks to their original states?

VERY, VERY, VERY LITTLE.

God only knows HOW the heck would chkdsk behave on a setup like yours.

In theory (mind you theory only) a "good" program that finds a mirrored drive with contents completely UNLIKE it's mirror would simply re-mirror it. (i.e. you should have your "first"drive intact and an exact copy of it on the second).

That wouls probably happen if you had only two disks connected, but you connected 4 of them, right?

You seem to report a completely different result (mostly unclear )

How were the disks originally partitioned (let's call them disk1 and disk2)?

What happened to the "new" 1 Tb ones (let's call them disk3 and disk4)?

jaclaz

[PhilLwr]

What happened to the "new" 1 Tb ones (let's call them disk3 and disk4)?

In short nothing and they are each 2TB, total 4TB.

Disk 3 and Disk4 are each 2TB are/were not affected by the "calamity" [they were empty]...I used one of them after the event to store an image of Disk2 to try salvage the data.

How were the disks originally partitioned (let's call them disk1 and disk2)?

The 2 old/small 250GB disks were originally organized as :

Disk1, Two partitions A: 21 GB system + B: 212GB data volume ---> 250GB

Disk2, Two partitions X: 70 GB data + Y: 160GB data ---> 250GB

That would probably happen if you had only two disks connected, but you connected 4 of them, right?

No, only two of them were mirrored the other two were/are not part of the array, Now I have moved one of the small disks[mirrored] to my old computer as well as one of new 2TB disks(3) to salvage the data on disk2.[partition Y: is mostly intact, while partition X: is mostly corrupted and is a mirror of A: i.e 21GB with about 50GB empty]

Edited November 21, 2010 by PhilLwr

[jaclaz]

Good.

Now the point is HOW the mirroring was done (meaning if the mirroring just changed "whatever it found" on the source or also wiped the rest of the partiition).

You should use one of the two 2 Tb disks to hold two images respectively of disk1 and of disk2, then put the disk1 and disk2 aside for the moment.

What program are you using to create the image(s)?

Please use any dd-like program (making RAW sector-by-sector images).

This is recommended:

http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/v3/drdd.htm

but you can use any other one, as long as it does RAW sector-by-sector copy.

Which OS does your "old" computer run?

How were the disk1 and disk2 "filled"?

I mean, "filled up to the brim", "lot's of empty space", recently and thoroughfully defragged, etc.

I presume (actually I hope) all partitions were NTFS, right?

You don't, by any chance have a copy of the MBR of the old disks, don't you?

What we may TRY doing is, if by ANY chance, the $MFT's of the two partitions X: and Y: were NOT overwritten, to recover them.

You will need to get familiar with the lingo and tools.

Please review this thread where a similar (please read as different, but still related) problem was solved:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=145574

so that you have an idea of what we will be looking for and how.

jaclaz