Do I have multiple problems ?

[hpbobkorn]

Woke up one morning and my computer which was running fine the night before had and error message on screen that needed to be rebooted possibly due to power fail ( 3 other computers in the same room did not ) I tried rebooting several times but same message each time. Called tech support for my computer, and hp mediacenter pc running mediacenter 2005 and they walked through recovery steps but nothing worked. For whatever reason it would not allow a Non-Destructive recovery. Tech Support then recommended I remove the hard drive and mount as a slave under another windows pc, which I did. I could then see the drive but not access it. Error message was "Drive not formatted". I searched the web and found your software and downloaded the trial package. I attempted a complete format recover, which ran for around 18 hours but had not completed, on a Maxtor 160GB drive, I allowed it to continue and when I checked on it next the machine I had been using to run the program was "hung" I couldn't get it to respond to anything. I eventually powered off and am currently re-running the Complete Format Recover and am 3 hours into it. I modified the system to not time out or hibernate, and turned off the screen saver thinking that may help. I've so far found 30,000+ files Found, 130,000+ O/S items found and from the progress bar it appears to be about 25% through the search.
Questions:
How long should I continue to let this run ?
Once it completes what is the recommended process to recover the system?
Should I copy files to CD/DVD? If so do I then want to reformat and reinstall the O/S on the drive and move the files back or is there a better way, or does the software allow to recover the O/S or disk image?
I have not found a manual or set of instructions is one available.
Did I do the right search or should I have first run a Complete File Search?

It is looking hopeful that I can recover some/all of my files ? Am I correct so far?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks.

[GDH]

Hello,

From what you describe you did the right thing and should get all your files back.

I would expect a Complete Format Recover of a Maxtor 160 gigabyte drive to take about 12 hours. The speed of the search depends on a number of things:

1. Always use the latest version, which currently is 3.95 (click the update button to get it);
2. In your situation you should be running a Complete Format Recover only for the default selected file types. Adding extra files will slow the search down - specifically don't att MP3 or movie files as these are the most resource intensive to find.
3. If there bad sectors on the disk it will slow the search.

Recover My Files uses the default selected files to narrow down onto the old file system information and then at the end of the search, rebuild the complete file system, not just the default selected files.

From the informaiton you have provided about the number of Files Found and OS items found (as displayed in the progress window) I can tell that the program has found enough informaiton to do this (once it has found more than 1000 file and OS records it has plenty). To speed things up, whilst the search is in progress, click on the OPTIONS button on the main program screen. Now go to the file types tab and take the tick out of all of the selected files so that there are no longer any file types selected. Click OK to continue the search. The search will now run more quickly.

Probably the easiest and fastest way to save files is back on the to C: drive where you are running Recover My Files. Create a new folder and then save your files here. Recover My Files will save the old folder structure. You can also save files directly to CD or DVD if you do not have enough space.

Once you are happy that you have saved all the information that you want off the drive, then you can proceed to reformat the drive and start fresh. You may want to wipe the drive clean first (www.wipedrive.com) and also use a program that check for bad sectors, such as Microsofts inbuilt utility. I suspect the reason the program stopped in the first instance is due to a bad sector, which can happen with a power surge situation.

There is a manual when you click the HELP button in Recover My Files. There is also a knowledge base at www.recovermyfiles.com. Click the support button to get to it.

I hope this helps.

[hpbobkorn]

Ok THanks. Seems to be working, but I didn't want to take any chances so I stopped the scan early and wrote down the sector information.
I will copy off the files I can to cd/dvd if possible.
Can you tell me, if I select more files than the capacity of the media will it prompt me to change discs or do I need to select fewer files ?

Originally Posted by hpbobkorn

Woke up one morning and my computer which was running fine the night before had and error message on screen that needed to be rebooted possibly due to power fail ( 3 other computers in the same room did not ) I tried rebooting several times but same message each time. Called tech support for my computer, and hp mediacenter pc running mediacenter 2005 and they walked through recovery steps but nothing worked. For whatever reason it would not allow a Non-Destructive recovery. Tech Support then recommended I remove the hard drive and mount as a slave under another windows pc, which I did. I could then see the drive but not access it. Error message was "Drive not formatted". I searched the web and found your software and downloaded the trial package. I attempted a complete format recover, which ran for around 18 hours but had not completed, on a Maxtor 160GB drive, I allowed it to continue and when I checked on it next the machine I had been using to run the program was "hung" I couldn't get it to respond to anything. I eventually powered off and am currently re-running the Complete Format Recover and am 3 hours into it. I modified the system to not time out or hibernate, and turned off the screen saver thinking that may help. I've so far found 30,000+ files Found, 130,000+ O/S items found and from the progress bar it appears to be about 25% through the search.
Questions:
How long should I continue to let this run ?
Once it completes what is the recommended process to recover the system?
Should I copy files to CD/DVD? If so do I then want to reformat and reinstall the O/S on the drive and move the files back or is there a better way, or does the software allow to recover the O/S or disk image?
I have not found a manual or set of instructions is one available.
Did I do the right search or should I have first run a Complete File Search?

It is looking hopeful that I can recover some/all of my files ? Am I correct so far?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks.

[GDH]

Put a tick in the box next to files found to tell the program that they are the ones you want to save. As each file is saved the tick is removed by the program. You will be told if your media becomes full. Attach new media and continue the saving process until there are no more ticks left.

[hpbobkorn]

Running full partition recovery on 160GB drive using defaults. After about 6 hours I had 6000+ files found and 17000+ O/S items found. It is now in the analyis phase and moving very slowly, I checked the CPU and it's pegged at 100% utilization. the message in the search progress window is "analysing file system fragment number 1360 and changes by 10's every 5 seconds or so, 1370, 1380, etc. Is this normal? should cpu be at 100%? should I continue to let it run, if so, for how long ?
Thanks,

[GDH]

Yes, continue to let it run until it has finished.

[spase]

Wasnt real sure how to get things going however got one question? do you have to have a different drive serch than the one you have in there. example. I ran this on c: all files pulled up that got deleted. If I try and save it it says I need to save to other than the drive it was recovered. I do not use multiple drives so is there a way to copy it back or do I need to put a slave in to save it back to....I am completly Lost

[GDH]

That is correct, you cannot save the recoverd files back to the same drive. The reason for this is that you could ******ially save over the top of deleted files that you had yet to recover (a kind of catch 22 situation if you know what I mean).

The best alternative is to save to a CD or DVD? Do you have a CD or DVD burner? To access this option, click on the drop down arrow next to the SAVE FILES button.

[spase]

yea tried to save it to cd but it wouldn't let me do that either..said it didn't recognize file something d:...damn if I know

[GDH]

Can u try another CD?

Do you have a USB drive, or are you connected to a network?