Sony Vaio Win7 "Operating System Not Found" - missing data files

Thanks for all the help! It is going to be an interesting afternoon.

There were at least 50Gig to maybe 100Gig of Docs, Pictures, & Music on this HD. I need to find an "Excellent" data recovery service who can try to recover whatever it can.

Does anybody have any experience with Secure Data Recovery?

Did you try completing the Partition Recovery by checking all of the boxes then click Finish. The fact the Wizard found them all is a good sign. You may not need Data Recovery which is a much less fruitful recovery. Partition Recovery Wizard almost always work, data recovery rarely does.

I didn't because all of the lost/deleted partitions were so small.

I would attempt to Recovery the partitions then again confirm 100mb is marked Active and run Startup Repair 3 separate times to see if it will start. If not browse in to see if you can find the data now.

If it warns that the extant partiitons will be overwritten then I'd back out and do the data recovery. Start with the one I linked unless you prefer another.

"Start with the one I linked"

where?

Well I just scrolled up to find it and there it is in post #7. Recuva

Are you following the steps given without missing any?

What happens when you check all the boxes and click Finish on Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help?

gregrocker said:

Well I just scrolled up to find it and there it is in post #7. Recuva

Are you following the steps given without missing any?

What happens when you check all the boxes and click Finish on Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help?

Found it, Thanks. I assume that I can only run it if I can get the existing software repaired to boot or if that isn't possible can I setup a booted USB/CD session to run it under. When I looked at the HD as an external on my machine (I always have Hidden files visible) I saw nothing in any of the directories. I don't know if that's because there is nothing visible at that level or Win Security prevents my access if if I take ownership of the directories.

I've done all the steps leading up to finishing the wizard. somewhere along the way I lost access to the command line in a F8 menu. It goes straight to Sony's Rescue Data app now when I select Command Line in F8.

If I click on ALL the boxes it appears that some of the lost/deleted partitions will overwrite overlapping parts of the existing partitions. I've been doing this as a favor for this client (another business) with the understanding that if I don't see an obvious fix I'll help them find a professional recovery service to try and do it. So far I've tried to explore options that don't further complicate the sectors and partitions. However, I have no problem recovering lost partitions that don't overlap existing partitions. Before I do the overlaps I'd like a better idea of what could happen.

I really appreciate your help here.