IT help: fixing a cocked-up file system

[MarcusGHedwig]

So here's the deal - I resized the partitions on my hard drive to try to make it small enough to image and then dump on my new SSD. The imaging thing didn't work so I just did a clean install on the SSD, but now thanks to the partition resizing my old drive has a pretty screwed File System; it will boot when I put it back in the laptop, but a lot of files can't be found, and when I try accessing it externally using a SATA-USB adapter it says it needs to be formatted. WHAT DO?

 

[Via Noctis]

You made a backup first, right?...right?

 

[Plendakor]

I'm sorry to say but there's absolutely nothing you can do.

 

[osum]

^ this.

Shrinking partitions is a tricky thing because you cannot simply shrink the partition itself. Before you do that you have shrink the filesystem on it first, otherwise it will be fucked up. What did you use for the resizing? What filesystem was it? NTFS?

Do you have a backup?

 

[Notuern]

"nothing can be done" is probably untrue, but personally i'm not really eager to help you out there without having the drive in my own hands(Because its too much of a hassle to diagnose through mailing etc.).
Most of the data is probably still on the drive(Unless you moved or added files later on.), some might have been damaged in the partitioning but i doubt it will be massive.. the problem is that you basically have to find it manually using various software, or simply sending it on recovery(Depends on how important the lost files are.).

Google, allot, and you might be able to solve it your self.. SpinRite might be able to solve the issue.

 

[LeSedna]

If the data has real value to you and after a few hours you cannot solve this, send it to a pro in recovery. I did it lnce, worked for me (that was not the same problem though)

 

[Plendakor]

Yeah when I said "nothing you can do" I was assuming that he wouldn't want to pay the exhorbitant fees of recovery.
How much did it cost you LaSedna ? I still have a drive in my boxes, it broke in 2007.. the controller card burned and I assume the disk is intact. I can't find the extact controller card and swap it tho, I'd need the exact revision/type and haven't been able to find it yet.

 

[AD Chaos]

Yeah when I said "nothing you can do" I was assuming that he wouldn't want to pay the exhorbitant fees of recovery.

I went through that same thing upon the day. The expert was asking an insane amount of cash, he took the drive apart completely (not consulting me first), then said the drive was toast. I'm pretty sure I could have rescued the data (had I known how, back then) because it only had some bad sectors.

I'd say exhaust every other possibility before taking the drive to some 'expert'. I would suggest trying a file recovery program, while dumping the results on a different physical, properly formatted empty drive.
And imo never fragment the drive into partitions (except the mandatory small header thing for each physical disk).

 

[LeSedna]

I have a hard drive that is a mystery for me and I am thinking about quoting someone for saving its data too as I'm pretty sure it is not broken but just its alim system.

 

[Notuern]

Yeah when I said "nothing you can do" I was assuming that he wouldn't want to pay the exhorbitant fees of recovery.
How much did it cost you LaSedna ? I still have a drive in my boxes, it broke in 2007.. the controller card burned and I assume the disk is intact. I can't find the extact controller card and swap it tho, I'd need the exact revision/type and haven't been able to find it yet.

Well, this issue can be solved at home as long as you know a fair share about computers.. you don't need any special hardware, just software.
But it sure is a bitch fixing broken partitions on your own.

I went through that same thing upon the day. The expert was asking an insane amount of cash, he took the drive apart completely (not consulting me first), then said the drive was toast. I'm pretty sure I could have rescued the data (had I known how, back then) because it only had some bad sectors.

I'd say exhaust every other possibility before taking the drive to some 'expert'. I would suggest trying a file recovery program, while dumping the results on a different physical, properly formatted empty drive.
And imo never fragment the drive into partitions (except the mandatory small header thing for each physical disk).

Unless the discs inside the drive have physical damage to them it shouldn't cost more than about 400-600$ to fix.
Most recovery companies here in Sweden have a discount as long as you don't need it right away.. i ended up paying about 450$ to fix a Seagate with a firmware issue that basically left the drive locked in sleep mode.

And i agree about the last part, this can be fixed at home.. the data that is damaged in this case is gone for ever since it has been written over during the partitioning.
The data that is left on the drive can be restored through linux which is an awkward and difficult solution(But its probably the safest bet.), or it can be restored with a bootable USB with recovery tools.