A2zDataRecovery

How to Use Partition Recovery Software

Partition recovery software can recover from data losses caused by damaged or deleted partition tables or damage to the boot sector of a partition.

Disk partitions involve logical division of a single physical disk into multiple logical drives. Each partition can have its own file system. If a partition is damaged or deleted, its files become unreadable.

Disk partitioning has certain advantages. You can boot from Windows under one partition and Linux from another. You can speed up working with large capacity disks with numerous files by setting up partitions with lesser numbers of files on each.

At the same time, partitions can cause problems if they are accidentally deleted or a boot virus damages the partition record. The system can then become unbootable.

Partition Recovery

PARTITION TABLE PROBLEMS: Partition details are recorded in a partition table in the main boot record of the disk. If the partition table becomes unreadable, the system fails to boot. You begin to receive such error messages as 'DISK BOOT FAILURE....', 'Invalid Drive Specification', etc.

To recover from this problem, the partition details have to be retrieved and the partition table rebuilt. Partition recovery software seeks to find the partitions and save their details into a partition table. This might be done automatically, or you might have to enter details of the partitions interactively.

BOOT SECTOR OF A PARTITION: The problem could also be with the boot sector of a partition. Error messages such as 'Missing Operating System', 'Invalid Media Type...', 'Sector Not Found', etc indicate boot sector problems.

The boot sector would have to be repaired to recover from this kind of problem to make the data stored in the partition readable again. The boot repair module of your partition recovery software will try to check and repair the boot sector automatically. You might be asked for file names if the auto mode does not work.

PRECAUTIONS: Partition recovery is a delicate operation and you have to observe certain precautions to ensure successful results.

• Do not install the partition recovery software (or anything else) on the problem disk. Instead install it on a healthy drive, and make that drive the boot drive.
• Create an image of the problem drive and run the recovery software on this image rather than the original.
• Ensure that the healthy drive has enough space to store the recovered data.

As soon as a disk becomes a problem disk, stop working with it. Otherwise, existing information can be overwritten making it completely unrecoverable.

Check the Partition Recovery Software Specifications and Instructions

Does the partition recovery software the kind of file systems on your computer? There are different standards for file systems, such as FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and so on. Which systems are installed on your drive? Does the recovery software support these?

Does the partition recovery software work with your operating system, such as Windows XP? Or does it work only on the earlier versions of Windows and DOS?

Once you have ensured that the partition recovery software works with your configuration, carefully read the instructions for recovering the software. In particular, understand how to identify your particular problem and how to handle it. For example, your problem might involve hardware damage that cannot be recovered using the recovery software.

Do not run the software if the problem is not one it can handle, as mentioned in the documentation of the software. If you do, the problem can be worsened and the data can become completely irrecoverable. Even if the problem is one that can ostensibly be repaired by the partition recovery software, create an image of the problem drive and work on that image.

Provided you observe the necessary precautions and proceed carefully, you should be able to rebuild your disk partitions and/or repair the boot sectors and get back your data.