I deleted the wrong partition on my hd. I'd like to get it back. I must've downloaded 20 freeware programs that promised to do the job but did absolutely nothing. I hate to pay $50 for a commercial program that I'm probably going to use once in my life. Anybody know of a freebie that actually WORKS? Thanks, Harold
have you try any from download.com http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=partition+recovery&tg=dl-20
This is very basic and will require some studying, but it was the only thing that worked for me when my hard drive got corrupted. It runs on the cmd line. The fancier free programs did not work. http://www.partitionsupport.com/utilities.htm
Shreddog, Very wise observation. If you erroneosly 'deleted' a partition and did nothing else, everything should still sit on your disk: (1) the partition table itself; (2) the data. So it boils down to supposedly remaking the correct entry in your partition table and you'll be able to get at the data in the 'lost' partition again. Whether magical programs can do all this without any thinking of the operator, I doubt it. As you point out, some studying is perhaps the only way. You also may discover that you are sitting on the minimum set of tools to do the job. Best to call somebody who knows if the data you 'lost' is really important.
I suggest you use Partition Table Doctor to resolve your problem.The software provides very useful functions: Backup partition table, Restore partition table, Rebuild partition table, undelete partition, Fix boot sector, rebuild mbr,etc. First thing I recommend you download the demo version of Partition Table Doctor.( http://www.ptdd.com/download.htm ) Run the program and select "Rebuild Partition Table", then choose "Interactive" mode. See more: http://www.ptdd.com/recoverylostpartition.htm http://www.ptdd.com/recoverdeletedpartition.htm http://www.ptdd.com/partition-recovery.htm http://www.ptdd.com If your data is very important, I think the money is valuable.