need help with data recovery

[Cis2]

The main problem is:

Some of my folders and files have been renamed to something unreadable and inaccesible.

Details:

I made a quick bootable CD with nLite and removed a lot of options, and I do remember removing a lot of language packs (and a lot of other junk too). Well I started installing and formated my system hdd, got a tone of bugs in the setup (missing files.. skip.. etc) and finally had a very "light" windows. I must say it worked extreamly fast, too bad almost nothing worked. The files where still normal I think, I didn't check cause they were on the other hdd. Lucky for me I could install Nero and burn an older Windows image I made for my network which did in fact work. The problem is that a tone of files and folders where converted to some weird name (I'll post the screenshot bellow)... but no all, and as far as I noticed, these screwed up files and folders where fragmented (used often)... so I lost ALL my pictures (about 8000, I'm a phographer...), and all my backup data from the server which I moved this other hdd which would not be formated. (The system HDD has NTFS filesystem and the other had FAT32).

It got even worse... after I restarted, scandisk started and renamed everything to it's original file title, but all these new files had NO extenstions and had 32 KB in size.. ALL OF THEM, even the folders! The even weirder part is that there still the same free space on the hdd as before, but no files. I did find of the files (exes and configs) in the "System Volume Information" folder, but they're all renamed and mostly useless.

So does anyone know how to recover the lost data from my FAT32 hdd?

edit:

I also found a folder "FOUND.000" which is about the size of the files I lost, but all the files in it are like "FILE0101.CHK", and there are a lot of them. I belive it was made by scandisk.

Edited January 21, 2006 by Cis2

[atomizer]

please remove that image and either post a smaller cropped image or, better yet, a link to someplace where you can host images.

might want to read the forum rules as well.

Edited January 21, 2006 by atomizer

[LLXX]

How exactly did you trash the filenames? WinXP isn't known for randomly renaming files during the install process... it's a filesystem corruption. This can be caused by defective HDD cabling and connection, or a defective HDD itself.

[Cis2]

How exactly did you trash the filenames? WinXP isn't known for randomly renaming files during the install process... it's a filesystem corruption. This can be caused by defective HDD cabling and connection, or a defective HDD itself.

The hard drive looks healthy, I never had any problems with it and it's only 6 months old. Like I said before:

I installed windows on drive [C] and most of my files on drive [F] (renamed to D) were changed into what you see in the picture above. After that, when I restarted, ScandDisk kicked in action and converting every bad folder and file to a simple 32 KB file without any extention. :|

I belive that the files are still there somewhere on the hdd, because there still the same free space on it...

help

[Zxian]

This fits better in Software Hangout than XP.

Moved

[Cis2]

I made it in XP because it happend when installing XP from my unattended XP setup cd... but yeah, it could be included in this category too.

Also, I know someone else who got cursed with this after installing XP (normal) on system with Win2003 (to have two operating systems, not to overwrite)... and I managed to get a few files back using a recovery program for FAT32... very tricky and long process

And, a question, while we're on the subject of HDDs... is it true that FAT32 partitions over 36 GB have problems (in time...)?

Edited February 1, 2006 by Cis2

[LLXX]

And, a question, while we're on the subject of HDDs... is it true that FAT32 partitions over 36 GB have problems (in time...)?

No... I've been using 120 and 80Gb FAT32 part'ns for a few years now with no problems.

[RJM]

And, a question, while we're on the subject of HDDs... is it true that FAT32 partitions over 36 GB have problems (in time...)?

No... I've been using 120 and 80Gb FAT32 part'ns for a few years now with no problems.

If you are refering to the 34G and 64G barrier in Award Bios it was solved here.

http://www.ryston.cz/petr/bios/

Thanks to Petr

Edited February 1, 2006 by RJM