[GDH]

Hi,

There are two methods to recovery your data.

Method 1 - Look for the old Operating System Records

It is possible that the old Master File Table that kept track of all the files in your missing partitions is still on the disk, even though Windows has been re-installed.

The good thing about using this method is that if Recover My Files can find the MFT record for a file, then it can:

a). automatically know the file name, because this is held only in the MFT;
b). quickly know where the file is located on the disk, because the MFT record holds the "run list" (the sectors on the hard drive used to store the file).

So the first search I would run in your situation is a "Complete Format Recover". You could search the drive letter, in which case it would ignore the new XP installation, but because you had problems viewing the full drive capacity, it is safer to run the search on the "physical" drive and just ignore the new XP files in the search results. Make sure you ONLY search for the default selected file types (.doc, .xls, .ppt, .avi, .bmp, .jpeg, pdf, zip) to maintain the fastest possible search speed. These files are used to locate the MFT and then at the end of the search it will rebuild the old file system and display the results to your in "Folder View" of the results screen - including all file types, not just those selected. This search should take no longer than 12 hours to run on a drive of this size.

Method 2 - Scan the disk by Sector or Cluster

It is possible that your MFT records are destroyed, and that a Complete Format Recover will not help you. In this case you can move to a "Complete File Search" of the physical drive - which from you post, it sounds like you are currently running.

If you run a "Complete File Search" on the new drive letter, it will ignore the current installation of XP and just look at the empty space on the drive. However, again, it may be better for you to be sure that you are searching the entire drive, and run the search on the "physical drive".

A Complete File Search looks for the header and footer of an individual file type/s - which you select in the search setup wizard. The slowest types are Video and Text - so run a separate search for these.

With a header and footer search, it will not find the deleted files original names - as this information is only held in the files MFT record. The files will be called names that start with "Recovered.....". However you can still click on them to preview them in the search results screen.

A limitation of searching by header and footer, is that it is not a good way to find fragmented files, as the start of a file and the end of the file can be in separate fragments on the disk.

The default search level is by cluster (a group of sectors). As you know, you can drop to sector level, which will obviously slow down the search.

In answer to your question...

Yes, you can stop the search and start from the same location. In the progress window, note down the sector number that the search is currently up to, ie xxxxxxx of xxxxxxxxxx. Now stop the search and save the files found so far.

Before you start a new search, click on the OPTIONS button on the main program screen toolbar, and in ADVANCED, put a tick in the box for "prompt for start cluster/sector...".

Now when you start a new search, you will be prompted for a starting sector - enter the number in and you will start the search from the same location.

I hope this helps.