[GDH]

Hi,

I have no idea what would cause your drive to shut down like that. I would guess that finding our exactly what caused it will be very difficult, if not impossilbe. The only thing you can really do is to go throught the machine and check all the cable connections to make sure nothing came apart. Once you get the data off the drive it would be worth trying to replicate the error again, if possible. It may actually be the drive itself, in which case you could see a replacement.

You should be able to get back all your data. It is hard to know what damage stopping the defrag has done, as the defrag process is changing the Master File Table.

I suggest that you run Recover My Files and try a "Fast Format Recover". In the drive selection window (second wizard screen) you will be able to select the "physical drive" to search. The Fast Format Recover will only take about 30 minutes to run, but does not work in all situations.

If the Fast Format Recover did not work, move to the "Complete Format Recover". Search the physical drive and search only for the default selected file types. At the end of the search it will rebuild the entire old file system (will all files, not just the ones that were selected in the search"). Click on the files in the preview window to preview the contents of the files. If you can see your pictures, documents etc. then they can be recovered once the program is activated.

If the MFT table is really screwed (which is unlikely but possible), then you will have to move to a "Complete File Search". This will get your files back, but they will not have the original file or folder name.

Please let us know how it goes.