Set Disk to Offline, lost all files

[rileygalloway]

I recently created a second partition for my computer, gave it 19 Gb allocated space.
I tried to install BT5 onto that partition so I could use it for dual booting.
Well, I guess my boot manager or mbr got screwed up, so I used my windows 7 repair disk, it couldn't even find the OS. So I booted a live Ubuntu CD and it let me view the files just fine, so I booted into the win7 repair disk again, and took a look at it with DISKPART in cmd.
Unfortunately, I didn't even think to backup my files, which was the stupidest mistake I have ever made.
After playing around with disk part, I found that my hard drive had 4 partitions.
Partition 1: SYSTEM
Partition 2: HP_TOOLS
Partition 3: Windows 7
Partition 4: Backtrack 5

This totaled to about 300 Gb, the first 2 partitions being only several hundred Mb, Win7 being about 280 Gb, and BT5 at 19 Gb.
I was reading stuff online and was just trying whatever. So I looked at the diskpart command.
I selected my disk, then I typed "offline"
The disk went offline, but then it never came back online again, it wasn't even showing up after "list disk" again. So I rebooted the computer back into the repair disk and checked diskpart>list disk again.
This time it listed the disk, but it showed that it only had 19 Gb used, the rest free, whereas it had 0 free before I ran "offline".
After looking at list partition, it only showed the BT5 partition.
My question is what the hell happened?!?
I called a guy who works at a computer repair shop in my town and asked him if putting it into offline mode would have lost anything, he simply said no and said that he could repair it for $90/hour and if that's my only choice, then so be it, but I would hope that there is something that I can do to get my hours of work back.

I looked into data recovery, and checked out Pareto Logic's "Data Recovery" tool. It's nice and all, but it's not listing all the files I need, and not to mention some became corrupt after attempting to restore them.

So is it really possible to make the partition show again? I really need the files on it and pareto logic is no help to me right now... While pareto logic is capable of getting the files, it takes too long to scan, and can't get everything.
Please help, all help is GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[logicearth]

Did you try the "online" command of diskpart?

DISKPART> help online disk

However, if you gone and messed with the drive in question...it might not work.

 

[rileygalloway]

Yes, but when I set it offline, it wouldn't let me see the disk, and then I restarted and the disk was automatically back online, but it seemed to have erased all but one partition.

 

[Golden]

Please do this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[gregrocker]

In addition try Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help.

Use the boot disk if necessary. Post back a camera snap if you need further help. Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums - Windows 7 Forums