need serious help: C: drive lost on hardisk

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raycomp

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I have a Samsung laptop and was in the process of recovering a backup with Acronis. Had a power failure in the middle of the recovery; re-starting the laptop Samsung recovery says drive C: drive not available.

I added my laptop drive to an external housing, connected to my friends desktop and only the D: data drive shows.

Result is my laptop will not start due to no operating system and the partition holding the Samsung recovery software also not available to recover.

Any ideas as to what to do now will be appreciated as I windows software is only available on the C: drive
 
There's quite a few free recovery programs that you can download that can recover you drive. Just Google it and try it out.

To get you system back up and running with a legal, Samsung version of Windows is very easy. PM if you need more info.
 
vinodh said:
There's quite a few free recovery programs that you can download that can recover you drive. Just Google it and try it out.

To get you system back up and running with a legal, Samsung version of Windows is very easy. PM if you need more info.
Click to expand...

We have downloaded quite a few; problem with those are the either want a drive letter to recover (the missing drive does not appear on the list) or they were unsuccessful in finding the missing partition/s, only pick up the D drive info.
 
A few months ago I upgraded my Samsung R519 with a new hard disk. I wanted to also have the recovery option available. I managed to do it, but it was quite a trick.

If I remember correctly, there were 3 partitions, one hidden one (NTFS) with the recovery software, and then C & D, both NTFS.

Easiest would be if you're able to get hold of someone else with a similar drive.
 
raycomp said:
I have a Samsung laptop and was in the process of recovering a backup with Acronis. Had a power failure in the middle of the recovery; re-starting the laptop Samsung recovery says drive C: drive not available.

Result is my laptop will not start due to no operating system and the partition holding the Samsung recovery software also not available to recover.
Click to expand...

How long was this power failure - obviously longer than battery life. My Sammy could run off a battery for a couple of hours.

Where is the original Acronis image? Was it a Image backup or a file backup?
 
Try Acronis Disk Director - the partition is probably knackered and needs to be re-partitioned. DD will (or should) allow you to manipulate the partitions without losing the drive D: data
 
howardb said:
Try Acronis Disk Director - the partition is probably knackered and needs to be re-partitioned. DD will (or should) allow you to manipulate the partitions without losing the drive D: data
Click to expand...

Thanks to Escom. Yes my Samsung also last but battery wasnot fully charge before power out.

The Acronis .tib file is on the d drive and available. I used AcronisTrueImage to do the backup

The hidden and C: drive is the missing ones. Will try to get Acronis Disk Director.

Thanks for the help so far.

Any idea where to download the Samsung recovery software from? Tried but cant find
 
broken mbr?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

"
To run the Bootrec.exe tool, you must start Windows RE. To do this, follow these steps:
Put the Windows Vista or Windows 7 installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
Press a key when you are prompted.
Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next.
Click Repair your computer.
Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
Type Bootrec.exe, and then press ENTER.

/FixMbr
The /FixMbr option writes a Windows 7 or Windows Vista-compatible MBR to the system partition. This option does not overwrite the existing partition table. Use this option when you must resolve MBR corruption issues, or when you have to remove non-standard code from the MBR."
 
noswal said:
spinrite at grc.com not free $89 but worth buying if you want to maintain your disks
Click to expand...

Don't EVER run that crap on a hard drive!

My suggestion would be to make an image of the hard drive / partition with ddrescue and recover the files with testdisk.
 
Hey Hey

What I understand of the problem is that the OP was restoring an Acronis image, but before it completed there was a power failure and the restore bombed... the trouble now is restoring, the restore cannot find a c: partition as a restore destination... thus the OP cannot continue. The OP has a vrot partition that used to be C: and it probably is in a hidden raw state because of this.

He has the drive image on his d: partition.

What needs to be done is the bombed c: partition needs to be marked as a viable partition again. The OP can either do this on another PC using the Windows disk manager or 3rd party disk partitioning software.

If I remember correctly, Acronis True Image should let you do some partition fiddling if you do not use the automatic selection... using manual, Acronis should allow some degree of partition fiddling.

My advice would be use a partition manager to examine the drive, remove or re-create the bombed C: partition, then restore the Acronis .tib to the c: drive as originally attempted. The hurdle at the moment is getting Acronis restore to see a partition other than D: to restore to.
 
ponder said:
Don't EVER run that crap on a hard drive!

My suggestion would be to make an image of the hard drive / partition with ddrescue and recover the files with testdisk.
Click to expand...

Remember I mentioned that the two mission partitions does not show. Will the above help?
 
kilobits said:
What I understand of the problem is that the OP was restoring an Acronis image, but before it completed there was a power failure and the restore bombed...
Click to expand...

In my book it means he should redo the image.
 
ponder said:
In my book it means he should redo the image.
Click to expand...

I seem to be missing something... if he re-dose the image, will he not have an image of an unusable partition ? I thought he had all his stuff backed up already in a .tib image that he was in the process of restoring... he needs his c:drive image restored from the d:drive image he already has. The image is good, just he has no location to which to restore it.

EDIT: Oh, I think I see what you mean... I think we are saying the same thing... he needs to redo the restore from his .tib image. ??
 
Last edited:
Thanks now we are getting somewhere. I will install Acronis on my friends PC, add laptop drive to external housing, attach to PC and try to recover.

Thanks so far
 
kilobits said:
I seem to be missing something... if he re-dose the image, will he not have an image of an unusable partition ? I thought he had all his stuff backed up already in a .tib image that he was in the process of restoring... he needs his c:drive image restored from the d:drive image he already has. The image is good, just he has no location to which to restore it.

EDIT: Oh, I think I see what you mean... I think we are saying the same thing... he needs to redo the restore from his .tib image. ??
Click to expand...

In all honesty I'm lost and would just use dd or dd resue.
 
raycomp said:
Thanks now we are getting somewhere. I will install Acronis on my friends PC, add laptop drive to external housing, attach to PC and try to recover.

Thanks so far
Click to expand...

You can also create an Acronis bootable recovery media disk on a PC with True Image installed ... and boot off this instead.
 
ponder said:
In all honesty I'm lost and would just use dd or dd resue.
Click to expand...

Eish... sorry hey.

I use Acronis and have had it bomb during an image restore a couple of times... what is left is a partition in an unusable and hidden state... once this has been corrected, the restore can continue.

I think the biggest hurdle for the OP at the moment is just getting Acronis to see a partition other than D: to which his .tib image can be restored to.

Shout if I am not correct raycomp.
 
raycomp said:
Remember I mentioned that the two mission partitions does not show. Will the above help?
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "mission partitions" ?

What does show on the drive ?

As mentioned before, the Samsung Restore partition is probably hidden by default... so that would not show, and the C: drive partition is borked by a partial Acronis restore... could these be the mission partitions mentioned ?
 
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