Cloned wrong hard drive.
I have 2 1TB HDD's,one WAS full and the other was empty,i was trying to clone the FULL in the EMPTY one.I completed the steps and computer rebooted,(I got an error that boot mgr was not there,so i booted again and it worked). After i booted i found out that i had TWO EMPTY drives,apparently the CLONING cloned the EMPTY dive into the FULL drive resulting in two EMPTY DRIVES!!! All my 800GB of data gone :(...i tried some recovery programs but nothing so far,i have this question.
Does the cloning software DELETE the destination partition FILES? or FORMATS the partition? I would need to know which it did to my FULL drive so i know what to look for (Deleted data or deleted PARTITION).If anyone has any tips or good recovery software please share :(.
You can also try other free partition managers such as "Partition Wizard" and see if the partitions can be un-erased or un-deleted>.
One way of preventing such an occurrence is to assign names to your drives and to know their used disk space and brand name if they differ. You are not the first victim nor will you be the last of have such an incident.
Does the cloning software DELETE the destination partition FILES? or FORMATS the partition? I would need to know which it did to my FULL drive so i know what to look for (Deleted data or deleted PARTITION).If anyone has any tips or good recovery software please share :(.
Hopefully someone from Acronis will know exactly what the clone operation does. My concern would be that it didn't just delete your files, but actually overwrote them. If your empty drive was written with all zeros, then I would think that if you cloned it to a full drive then it wouldn't just erase the partition info or file directory (so that it LOOKS empty, but could actually be recovered with certain types of software), but would overwrite the full drive with all zeros (rendering the drive completely unrecoverable, unless you ship it to a place that can do forensic analysis - very expensive). My understanding is that the later is how cloning works, but maybe I'm wrong. How long did it take the clone operation to run? If it was pretty quick then you may still have a chance. But if it was a lengthy process then that would indicate that the entire drive was re-written. You need an answer from Acronis so you don't waste time/money on a software solution if that isn't going to fix it. Have you tried to contact support?
BTW, if it looks like software may work, I've had good luck with File Scavenger http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm . The demo is free, and will let you see if there is anything to recover. It's $49 to actually do the recovery. Make sure to run it in "Long" mode so it scans every sector on th edisc. It takes a while, but if there is something to find it will find it.
Thanks! Will be trying it soon.
You can also try other free partition managers such as "Partition Wizard" and see if the partitions can be un-erased or un-deleted>.
One way of preventing such an occurrence is to assign names to your drives and to know their used disk space and brand name if they differ. You are not the first victim nor will you be the last of have such an incident.
Will try Partition Wizard also,Thank You.
Does the cloning software DELETE the destination partition FILES? or FORMATS the partition? I would need to know which it did to my FULL drive so i know what to look for (Deleted data or deleted PARTITION).If anyone has any tips or good recovery software please share :(.
Hopefully someone from Acronis will know exactly what the clone operation does. My concern would be that it didn't just delete your files, but actually overwrote them. If your empty drive was written with all zeros, then I would think that if you cloned it to a full drive then it wouldn't just erase the partition info or file directory (so that it LOOKS empty, but could actually be recovered with certain types of software), but would overwrite the full drive with all zeros (rendering the drive completely unrecoverable, unless you ship it to a place that can do forensic analysis - very expensive). My understanding is that the later is how cloning works, but maybe I'm wrong. How long did it take the clone operation to run? If it was pretty quick then you may still have a chance. But if it was a lengthy process then that would indicate that the entire drive was re-written. You need an answer from Acronis so you don't waste time/money on a software solution if that isn't going to fix it. Have you tried to contact support?
BTW, if it looks like software may work, I've had good luck with File Scavenger http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm . The demo is free, and will let you see if there is anything to recover. It's $49 to actually do the recovery. Make sure to run it in "Long" mode so it scans every sector on th edisc. It takes a while, but if there is something to find it will find it.
Exactly what I have been trying to figure out,how the clone operation occurs,if it deltes the files,formats partition or whatever else. I have contacted support but they were no help :( Im sure someone working there KNOWS how it does it,and Thank You will be trying your program too.
As far as I know, cloning just removes any existing partitions, creates the new ones, formats them, and then copies the data.
I just ran a test doing a standard clone of an empty 40GB drive (one NTFS partition, no files) to a Windows 7 40GB drive (100MB SRP, Windows 7 remainder). The cloning only took several seconds to complete. Looking at the drive with a Disk Editor, there was still a lot of data there.
The SRP was not recoverable, but I was able to recover the Windows 7 partition, run a boot repair, and boot into it successfully. I didn't run it extensively to check for errors, but it's obvious that most of the files are intact -- they didn't get overwritten.
The fact that you're not finding any files on the drive makes me wonder if the drive was wiped.
As far as I know, cloning just removes any existing partitions, creates the new ones, formats them, and then copies the data.
I just ran a test doing a standard clone of an empty 40GB drive (one NTFS partition, no files) to a Windows 7 40GB drive (100MB SRP, Windows 7 remainder). The cloning only took several seconds to complete. Looking at the drive with a Disk Editor, there was still a lot of data there.
The SRP was not recoverable, but I was able to recover the Windows 7 partition, run a boot repair, and boot into it successfully. I didn't run it extensively to check for errors, but it's obvious that most of the files are intact -- they didn't get overwritten.
The fact that you're not finding any files on the drive makes me wonder if the drive was wiped.
Could you let me know what the name of the program was please?and I forgot to mention that the process went FAST,now it makes sense,it was copying nothing lol...
Also this will be very important,it gave me 3 options on how to do it,copy the partition,copy the files to the current partition,and something else i think i picked the top one.This will be important because if it deleted the files and just copied them it would be easier to recover and wouldn't need a partition recovery program.If it did it the other way then i would.ALSO,is there a way i can find the DATE the partition was made/created? If i find that i could also find out if it made a new one,and does Acronis have a LOG of the operations it has done? That would be nice...Thanks to all who replied,really want this 800GB of data back :)
Date,option of copy,
Hi, Renzo! I have had the same experience, last evening: I use a 320 GB Seagate HD and I format it, to correct a bad installation. I used the ATI 2010 Home to clone my laptop disk (320 GB Samsung) to the external 320 GB Seagate HD.
I made the wrong choice, when choosing the Source Disk and the Destination Disk, so the cloning was very fast... Powering up the laptop, I found the message NTDLR Missing (on both drives). I try to recover the Seagate disk with Easeus Data Recovery Wizard, and I get a lot of data, but not all.
My question is: in your experience, with your "new cloned disk" (that with "empty" information), could you recover the previous information (800 GB), before the cloning?
Sorry to ask it, but I'm realy in problems...
Regards,
Jorge
Renzo and Jorge,
If, sometime in the past (hopefully recent past), you created a backup archive which included all your partitions within the backup, this *.tib backup file can be used to restore your system back to the same time as when the backup was created.
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299861&postcount=9
I would think you should be able to use any standard partition recovery program. Note that the space being searched may need to be unallocated. If you currenly have a partition on the drive, you may need to delete it (don't wipe it) before using a program to search for deleted partitions/files. In tests I've run, you have to select unallocated space to search.
One of the problems is that the new partition may have been created right on top of the existing one (using the same sectors). In my tests, the SRP is an example of this. The copied partition started on the same sector. As a result, the scan may not find it (especially if the end was also overwritten). A long or complete type scan may find it, but it can take a very long time.
A Disk Editor (like the one in DD) is useful for looking at the drive. You can tell right away if the data exists or if it was wiped. Have you looked at the drive with a Disk Editor? I don't understand why a file recovery scan isn't giving you any results.
:( Its not reading 1TB disks...not sure why though...
My question is: in your experience, with your "new cloned disk" (that with "empty" information), could you recover the previous information (800 GB), before the cloning?
Sorry to ask it, but I'm realy in problems...
Regards,
Jorge
Im not sure what your question is? Before the cloning i never tried to recover any data.
Renzo and Jorge,
If, sometime in the past (hopefully recent past), you created a backup archive which included all your partitions within the backup, this *.tib backup file can be used to restore your system back to the same time as when the backup was created.http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299861&postcount=9
:( Never backed up a 1TB disk.
I would think you should be able to use any standard partition recovery program. Note that the space being searched may need to be unallocated. If you currenly have a partition on the drive, you may need to delete it (don't wipe it) before using a program to search for deleted partitions/files. In tests I've run, you have to select unallocated space to search.
One of the problems is that the new partition may have been created right on top of the existing one (using the same sectors). In my tests, the SRP is an example of this. The copied partition started on the same sector. As a result, the scan may not find it (especially if the end was also overwritten). A long or complete type scan may find it, but it can take a very long time.
A Disk Editor (like the one in DD) is useful for looking at the drive. You can tell right away if the data exists or if it was wiped. Have you looked at the drive with a Disk Editor? I don't understand why a file recovery scan isn't giving you any results.
I noticed that i used the cloning option that COPIES the DATA AS IS to the other hard drive,im sure that it was the first option after you select "Manual" in the cloning menu. Right now im using "Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery" which is the first program that has actually done well in looking for data.I selected the "Search RAW DATA" and is finding everything i have...but it does not tell me the folder name it was deleted from and stuff :( and with over 800GB of data it is going to be a MESS :( and all the names show up different. I attached a picture of what is happening and will probably take 4 hours to search the whole drive.If anyone has a program that will show the folder names and correct deleted name of the file please share it :)
File Scavenger that I mentioned above allows you to toggle between file list view and folder tree view, and shows the 'normal' file names. Assuming the folder tree info and file name info are intact. I'm not familiar with the product you are using, so I don't know if the 'random' names are typical for it, or a sign that the original info has been lost.
File Scavenger that I mentioned above allows you to toggle between file list view and folder tree view, and shows the 'normal' file names. Assuming the folder tree info and file name info are intact. I'm not familiar with the product you are using, so I don't know if the 'random' names are typical for it, or a sign that the original info has been lost.
Thanks,Will be trying it soon and post results.
The programs would hang and give me a BSOD but i realized that it was because the hard drive has some "bad/messed up" sectors :( resulting in the software hanging and restarting the PC.Does anyone know if i create a IMAGE of the whole hard drive,would that image contain deleted files and such? One program suggested to create and image and search the image instead since it has some messed up sectors.If that's all i can do i better start saving up around 1000$ so some professional recovery can do it :(
You should be able to make a complete (sector-by-sector) image of the drive. You could then restore it to another drive and run scans on it or (possibly) mount the image and scan that. Recovering data usually involves trying a lot of different methods. What works for one person doesn't always work for someone else.