System Image Recovery

mjf said:

Further to Brink's comment. Although I generally use Macrium Reflect now I have used Windows inbuilt many times and restored many times. Provided I haven't altered the system disk partitions I seem to always get this:



In this case:
Usually never select the format and repartition option and you should be ok. If you do then the exclude disks option will become a selectable option. Then exclude the other drives. But you will probably lose data partitions if they exist on your system drive.

OK guys,
I did a HORRIBLY clumsy mistake in my haste in recovering an image. Either 1 of 2 things happened, but my guess is the information is still on the SATA hard drive.

1) I may have forgotten to exclude the other internal hard drive that is separate from my SYSTEM hard drive.
2) After recovering the the image successfully I used the DISK CLEANUP utility to delete the RESTORE POINT created when doing the image recovery.

By the way I used the WIN 7 BACKUP & RESTORE utility. After completion of these 2 operations I noticed everything was gone from the other hard drive except that the 2 partitions on that drive still exists.

If I had made mistake #1 would those 2 partitions have been eliminated? I am speculating that operation #2 somehow eliminated the files on those 2 partitions. Even though I do not see the files in WINDOWS EXPLORER are the files still residing on those partitions?

It appears that the partitions somehow got reformatted. Having said that, can I still get the information from those 2 partitions since reformatting does not actually erase or wipe the disk?

I hope for some uplifting news!!

Brink said:

betaupsilon,

You might see if this may be able to recover the partitions on the drive. :)

Partition - Recover Deleted Partitions in Windows

The partitions still exist, but the files are gone. So is this utility still appropriate?

The 1st link on your tutorial to downloading the PARTITION RECOVERY utility is no longer valid. Fortunately, I already had PARTITION WIZARD. I did not know the RECOVERY utility is embedded until I read further into your tutorial.

I am running a full disk scan & a list is being generated. So I might be in luck.

Is there a system log I can access that might identify which operation caused the partitions to lose the contained files?

PARTITION WIZARD found 1 of my lost partitions, but the 2nd is not listed. I assume this is a 1 shot deal at recovery, so if I recover the 1 partition now I won't have a chance at the other later? Is there another utility I should try?