Norton Ghost problems with Win98SE

[MtheDeuce]

I appear before the council a humble man.

I have a PC with two HD's, 6.5 G "C" drive and 30 G "D" drive.

I tried to image each of them to the other one, using Norton Ghost. It is my belief that the smaller C drive couldn't handle the size of the Ghost image of the D drive, and perhaps truncated it. I believe I was prompted to insert more media to complete the image, but I was dumb enough to not do so. Don't ask me why, I'm trying hard NOT to think why and then turn the gas oven on w/o lighting the pilot.

I THEN put the finishing touches on the D drive by Ghosting the D image over the old D drive. I then became unraveled/freaked out and irrational and then erased the drive's contents, which was identical to C. I know I shouldn't have, but wasn't thinking.......

I lost so much valuable data that I don't know where to turn next. I have a friend that MIGHT help but he might just verbally abuse me while doing so to the extent that I'd likely be sorry I asked.

It gets more strange: The D drive now reads 6.something GB capacity, instead of 30 G. Yes, the CAPACITY of the HD has changed. This sounds like a partition to me, but I'm not sophisticated enough to try and find the other part of the drive, if it still exists. The MyComputer icons read the drive, but claim it is only 6.something GB in size as well. I'm not sure what the BIOS reads, I've not sat down to really look at it.

Now comes the brass tacks questions. I'll have to take it like a man, but still remain hopeful:

1. Does anyone believe I can recover ANY data off that D drive?

2. How in God's name would I, if it was at all possible.

Ironically, I did this beautiful maneuver while trying to back up my HD. Please do as I say and not as I do - understand exactly what you're doing with Ghost. In the meantime, I gratefully await anyone's help..........please.

Best regards,

Michael.

 

[edfair]

You may place the pointy cap on and go over to the corner and sit on the stool. And please don't cry, it makes me sad to see a grownup crying.

Do not believe that you have a prayer unless you declare a threat that involves the federal government's security, and then I'm not sure they will let you have your data back. Or even your drive.

So far as I can remember, the ghost zeros out the drive before it writes the new layout.

And forgive my wiseguy remarks. Sometimes a little levity will make it feel a little better. Not much, but some. And it isn't that your friend will harass your case when he finds out about it. It is the continuing reminder that will hurt. He'll pick at that scab every chance he'll get, because that is what male friends do.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[diogenes10]

I'm confused, I'd like to understand the sequence of things a little better. Could you leave out all the flagellation and recrimination and make a simple list of the ghost and erase steps that you did, including which way the data was going and what was stopped normally/abnormally? Thanks.

 

[diogenes10]

Also, dont give up on ghost, it's a good program.
Cool reference site for next time.

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm

 

[diogenes10]

M
I'm not sure that I'll be able to come back to this again over the weekend, so - comments:

In thread528-651141 I listed several other threads involving data recovery and products recommended. In order to give you a frame of reference for your problem, you can look those over. If you google on products mentioned, you can get to the manufacturer's websites. Many of them have free demos which would show you what they can recover, you have to spend the money to get the full version. There is one freeware program.

The general consensus I've seen in these threads regarding data overwritten with a Ghost image is that it is not recoverable. One dissenting opinion showed up recently, but a final report on that project has not been given. I just asked in that thread.

In your post, in the string of actions which you mentioned, I saw the word erased. My thought is that perhaps -- if you put a good Ghost image on the drive, and then erased it, that information might be recoverable with one of the programs above.

In this newsletter, Fred Langa discusses

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-07-03.htm

this product as an alternative to drive image and partition manager.

http://www.bootitng.com/bootitng.html

saying it has a free trial period.
I mention that because it might be a way for you to look at the partition structure on the drive you have a question about. (I've not used this so I cant give you a personal testamonial.)

Also keep in mind if this data was really valuable, and if any of it is really recoverable by professionals, and if you have hundreds++ to spend, messing by you or you friend may render everything totally unrecoverable.

 

[MartyBoy]

You don't say which drive you ghosted first, but it seems as though you tried ghosting the bigger D drive first. If you did, then ...
Assuming your original D drive had 6Gb or more of used space (which is why NG requested additional drive capacity) then your C drive is a total write-off. Aboslute, complete, and comprehensive.
The first 6Gb of your original D drive still exists on your
D drive, although in what condition the files are in is a subject of conjecture. Diogenes10 is on to it in the previous post advising of sites that can help with this situation. However the time and therefor cost involved in reconstrusting anything useful could still be um..believable.