Invisible GB (No file sytem , unrecognised files)

hey people,
I am infront of a really hard to solve problem. It has to do with files that i copied on the HD and i cannot see anymore. The problem is following:

A couple of weeks ago i formated the disk completely. After formating the disk i copied 80gb of files on it and removed the drive of my system. 5 days ago i did put the drive in my system again and saw something crazy. Half of my files were not viewable.

The HDD status was showing that 80gb where used but when i checked the file size of all files it was 35gb. So 45gb of my files somehow are on my hd but i cannot see them anymore.

Since i saw that i did NOT write or moved anything from this drive so that i won't replace any file. So my next step was to try every recovery tool. The only software that helped was easy recovery prof. The only problem with that was that although it finds the file (As files without file system structure) they have names like FILE001, FILE002. It would be allright if the files were a few, but i am talking for 10.000 to 12.000 files and without filenames i cannot start anything with them.

So i thought of the chkdsk utility of windowsXP. The utility started to scan and something nice started to happen, the chkdsk started to fix the structure of those files, but just for security i didn't let the check to finish so that i will see if it really works. So i logged onto windows and saw that the files started to be recovered/fixed with the chkdsk (it was creating found.000 folder with dir0000.chk dirs inside and all the files). So i thought of rebooting my system and continuing the chkdsk again (with /f parameter), then i got the shock when i saw that windows finishes those 3 steps of the chkdsk without doing anything at all. I tried several times but nothing really happened.
I did NOT try chkdsk /R cause i wasn't sure if this parameter would write/change something on the drive.

I tried also under linux but linux doesn't see the files either. Propably because they dont belong to any file system, and thats what i am trying to find out how can i fix/create a file system for those files.

So i am asking for your help to get those files back.
Formating completely the disk is not a solution cause i don't have any backup of those files.Scaning with a utility that writes on the disk is not a solution either. The disk doesnt have any bad sectors or so, the problem is 99% on software.

weird, and your using the same version windows and everything? did you try in a different computer?

yeap. well how it happened it doesnt matter anymore. what it matters is to gain those 45gb back

no ideas at all ?

are those missing 45GB from another install of windows, ie did you install a new copy of windows over it? COuld be they are saved under another user and now windows can't see it. Disable the "simple file sharing crap" then check again if every file belongs to your user

Try a product called Restorer2000. I recently rebooted to a lost partition and found Recovery2000 excellent for recovery. A side note: I discovered files INTACT that I had deleted months back and recovered them also(just to test it) and all went perfect. I can see now how the government can recover data from deleted partitons and so called OS crashes. The stuff I found just floored me. So give it a shot. The tester is free and the cheapo version is like 35 dollars. VERY cheap if your data is valueable to you.

Z


EDIT:: Do not use chkdsk. it will try to repair/rewrite to the drive. Right now you do not want to write to the drive at all till you find out what happened and what you can recover.

must to say that i got a bit forward but still having some problems. I managed to see the files finaly.
Now let me explain what i tried and answer to your questions.

First of all i need to tell that i didnt manage to see any files with the ontrack utility. So i kept on searching till i feel
on Partition-Recovery. I booted into dos, and there they were. All of them. unfortunatelly the versio is demo and
doesn't allow my to back up my files. But once i found them i think that i can get them somehow with another
application. They are files with no file system structure at all. Thats why they are not recognised by any OS.

I have XP SP2 . My disk is an EIDE. It is a Primary-Slave disk. The disk was formated with zeros from
the wd utility. I thought that it was recognised as a big disk , especially with SP2 as MSoft supports.
Well it was when i wrote files on it. What i saw now by trying some thing is that the WD Lifeguard utility before starting i get this message:

"Data lifeguart has detected that support for 137gb is not fully enabled... Should it be anbled?"

So i checked http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013
when i saw that the EnableBigLba key doesnt exist at all. So lets say the problem is on
the limitation. Should i press on OK , and let the utility enable the 137gb support? Will
this be risky of losing any files from this disk or not ?

Something that i also need to report, most of the scans for lost files or not recongnised files
stop on 60-65% and don't go forward. I don't think that we are talking about a failing disk
but about an error at those sectors. I haven't tried chkdsk /r and i don't think it would be
a good idea to do so , cause it could move/write on the "hidden" files.

Depending on the cost of the recovery tool you are using I suggest buying it and recovering the files to another drive. . . then enable the <137GB support and reformat the drive and copy the files back to it. If the data is that important to you then pay the 40 or 50 dollars and recover it properly. I will say this again . . DO NOT use chkdsk or anything that can write to the drive. The more you use the drive or try to 'fix' the issue the worse you could make the chances of a successful recovery. Once you have the data safely recovered to another drive then try chkdks or whatever. If it fails its no big deal as you still have the data backed up.


Z

well i did enable the 137gb support as WD told me. everything went find. i still see the files with partition-recovery software . but with other softwares under windows i cant create the tree (scan the partition) and see the files. it stops always on 62% .
something is going at that point.

if i will find out what files are on those sectors , to see if they are files that i can see or files that i cant see. and to make maybe a scan on those sectors. would it be that possible to scan lets say from 62% up to 70% of my disk ?

Support from WD:

62% of the drive is equal to 137 (128 binary) out of 160 gig (149 binary.) So the software blocks at the limitation of 48 bit LBA.
This means that, even though you have now enabled big LAB in Windows, it perhaps will not mean the drive is supported until it is reformatted.
Even more likley the motherboard is not supporting more than (137)/128 gig (62%).


So my question to all you is. I recovered all the files on another partition (99,1% of the files), what i don't know what will happen after i will reinstall or change my OS ? the HD will start again to do such things and destroy everything because the Big LBA wont be supported ? So next time i will install my oS again it would be better first before even entering in the drive to run the support utility or what ?

PS. Another question of topic. If i will make my C: Drive from Fat32 to NTFS will i have any problem with my OS ? My Fat32 partition is 6gb big, and i got a small problem. although all my files are 3gb , in the status my disk is being shown as almost full. 5,5gb. Erased temp,temporary internet files and everything that i could delete.

If you have Norton System Works, it would be the "protected Files" it is saving.They can become quite large if you delete many files or uninstall many programs.It may also save the system restore files that are deleted by windows.To erase these files right click on the recycle bin and tick the "use standard recycle bin" button,and check out the global option and each drive setting independently as redundency is built in.Afterwards you can see and delete these files.

Check the manufacturers website to see if lba is supported.If not a raid card used in a non raid manner should be able to see and use the full disk size as it has it's own bios seperate from the mobo(of course check the cards documentation to be sure).

Is it possible that the disk was originally added as a dynamic disk?