Maxtor "One Touch" External Backup Drive

[Snowbird]

I have created a backup on my Maxtor external 250gig harddrive using the Maxtor software that came with the drive. This backup consisted of years of pictures and Microsoft excel and word docs. When using the Maxtor software to create a backup, it creates one single file (I guess some type of zip or compressed) that contains all of the my data. I know this because I looked on the drive and saw this one icon. There was no other data on this drive other than that one backup file.

OK...the problem: My XP computer (that the maxtor was hooked to) had been running pretty slow. So I booted off my XP cd to reinstall XP. I went to delete the partition and accidently deleted the partition of the Maxtor drive.
(YES...I AM AN IDIOT) I immediatly stopped what I was doing and disconnected the maxtor external hd. I then hooked it to another pc that has your software on it. I went into windows explorer to see if I can see the drive. I did see it, but when clicking on it, it came up with a message that I must first format my drive. I then formated my drive, but used the fast format option.

I am currently running your software which is about one quarter thru the process. It is finding some files, but everything I attempt to preview shows corrupt. What gives?

[GDH]

If you ever find yourself in this situation again, never format a drive on which you have lost data as it actually makes data more difficult to recover.

Your best chance is to run a "Complete Format Recover" of the drive for the default selected file types. This may possible put you in a position to be able to save out the single maxtor file and then to try and read it with the maxtor software.

However this is probably a long shot. I think the only way you will get your data is if we can find and decode the maxtor file on the fly. The best option would be to send us the drive, however if you tell me the exact maxtor model and software used we may be able to replicate this in the lab.

[Snowbird]

Thank you for your response.

The exact model of the HD is "One Touch" 250 gig

The backup software is "Dantz Retrospect Express 6.0.222" now created by http://www.emcinsignia.com/products/.../retroexpress/

I just checked the process that is still running. The tree on the left portion of the screen (that shows various file types) shows a file type called "Zip" and there is 120 Zip files with the largest zipped file being 63500KB large. There were no zipped files on the Maxtor...unless that was what was in the single backup file. What do you think of these zipped files? The process is one quarter thru and it has not found any additional files in the last hour. Recommendations? Quite process?

[GDH]

OK - thanks for the information.

Please let me know how your searching with Recover My Files goes and then I can take a look at the file format in the office on Monday.

[Snowbird]

In the file options, you know where you can select the file types to recover, I saw RETROSPECT files. So what I did is UNSELECT all the file types and only SELECTED retrospect. Will this work? It has been running now for 40 minutes. It so far has found 1 file and 1354 OS items. When looking at the tree on the lef I see the search results and it only shows PARTITION(1). I don't see any actual file(s) under the Partition(1) tree, not even the retrospect (.rfb or .rbf). What is your opinion?

OK - thanks for the information.

Please let me know how your searching with Recover My Files goes and then I can take a look at the file format in the office on Monday.

[GDH]

It is good that it is finding OS items. It wont rebuild the file system until the end of the search. You need to let it run.

It would be best to run a Complete Format Recover and use the default file type selection plus retrospect. Whilst the search is in progress, click on the OPTIONS > FILE TYPE tab and include .jpeg, .bmp, .avi, .gif , .zip, .pdf files in the search. This will help it find all the records on the drive.

[Snowbird]

OK. I will do as you advised.
Thanks

It is good that it is finding OS items. It wont rebuild the file system until the end of the search. You need to let it run.

It would be best to run a Complete Format Recover and use the default file type selection plus retrospect. Whilst the search is in progress, click on the OPTIONS > FILE TYPE tab and include .jpeg, .bmp, .avi, .gif , .zip, .pdf files in the search. This will help it find all the records on the drive.