recreate partition?

[gfa]

I not-so-cleverly deleted the partition on my data drive while reinstalling WinXP on my C drive. I didn't format, write or otherwise use the data drive after doing this. I've just installed on my C drive and am now running Recover My Files and estimate it is going to take about 30 hours to search my 300GB data drive. As it is running, I see that the files don't have their original names but are called "Recovered_JPEG_57" and the like and do not include the Date Created, Date Modified or original folder info. I was hoping I'd end up with the original filenames and perhaps even the original file structure. Is there a way to achieve that result? I wonder if I should have started the search with different options, but with almost 1/2 a day into it, I'm reluctant to abort the search and start again.
Any help will be greatly apprecialted.
George

[GDH]

If you are running a Format Recover then you will get all files back with full name and folder structure.

A Format Recover search has two stages. In the first stage it finds some files on the disk (and gives them names like Recovered_JPEG). At the end of this process it reconstructs the partiton and reconstructs full name and folder information.

[gfa]

Thanks, Graham.

I am running a Format Recover and your info is very reassuring as I don't think it will be finished until tomorrow afternoon. I did select 10 file types and later saw that I should have selected no more than five. I assume it will still work and I probably only added to the time required to run. Is that true?

Again, thanks for the timely, reassuring reply.

George

[GDH]

George,

Yes, it will still work with 10 file types selected. Having 10 selected will slow the search down, but with a 300gb drive its going to take some time in any case.

In actual fact Recover My Files only needs to find 3 or 4 hundred files in order to accumulate enough information to rebuild the entire partition. To speed things up, whilst the search is still in progress (dont stop it) click on the Options button, then the File Types tab, and take all the tick out of all the file types selected. Then continue the search. You wont find any more files so it will get the the partition rebuilding part more quickly.