Accidently deleted partition on hard disk

[preemo]

I have an intern technician at my shop that mistakenly deleted the partition on a client's hard drive while installing Windows 7. He did not re-create the partition or format it (or at least that is what it looks like). When I stick the drive in a computer, it shows up as unallocated space. I tried using EaseUS partiton recovery, but it does not see the drive (because it's unallocated).

How do I recover the data from this drive? How can I do this without losing any of the data? Does deleting the partition delete data? What software should I use, and what process should I follow? Your help in this is greatly appreciated!!!!

 

[Vicenarian]

So, did Windows 7 actually get installed on the partition that was deleted?

Whatever you do, make an image first (a raw image, bit level), then make another copy of that image, and then maybe try Testdisk; works good for parition table recovery oftentimes.

 

[preemo]

No, it was installed on the other drive. The computer has two drives and the tech deleted both drive's partitions and then installed W7 on the first drive.

 

[Mindfulness]

I have also had good luck using testdisk. Like Vicenarion said, make an image first. If you are not a Linux guy, I think rstudio may be able to recover the files with the partition structure. I'm not sure but I think rstudio has a free trial, this will let you know what it can find before buying it

 

[lcoughey]

I agree, get a full sector-by-sector clone before doing anything...especially before running testdisk or anything else that writes to the drive. Running R-Studio against the clone would work, too...and is likely a little more user friendly.

 

[preemo]

Would a ghost image be ok?

 

[NYJimbo]

Did he simply delete the partition on the OTHER drive and realize and do nothing else to that partition ? If that's the case there are several tools that should easily recover it.

Download a copy of active undelete and just SEE if it can find the data.

http://www.active-undelete.com/

that will give you an idea of what to do next. But don't actually use it until you are sure you did a drive clone.

 

[NYJimbo]

Would a ghost image be ok?

This is probably better:

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/home-edition/

 

[preemo]

He isn't sure about what he did exactly...

What I believe he did was delete both drive's partitions and install the OS on the first drive. If he had formatted the second drive (which is the drive we need the data back from) then wouldn't I be able to see it in Windows?

 

[preemo]

This is probably better:

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/home-edition/

Nope. I can't see the drive. I'm going to try and download the other software and see what happens.

 

[codegreen]

Would a ghost image be ok?

ddrescue is the best software tool for sector-by-sector imaging. If you're not up on your Linux, check out Silverleaf's ddrescue guide. My ramblings in this thread might also help.

 

[NYJimbo]

Nope. I can't see the drive. I'm going to try and download the other software and see what happens.

Cant see the drive or cant see the partition ?

 

[Rosco]

you will probably have to get the raw image first them recover the data from that. HDD raw copy tool has worked well for me in the past. Rstudio is also good.

I feel your pain this is a tough one. I wish you all the luck in the world.

 

[masterworksintl]

In theory, reclaiming that old data may be possible. Best bet is to copy the image to a separate hard drive, reinstall Windows on the client's drive, and partition it properly this time. Then install that separate drive as a slave drive and try to extract the data to the partitioned space. No guarantees, though. Best to chalk this up to experience for your intern.

 

[Gary Rockliff]

Image the drive with Get Data Back and do a recovery from the image.
Download a trial from here http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-products.htm

It will recover data in folder structure.