After backing up a comp to an external 1tb hd, I proceeded to instsal a new OS. When asked if I wanted to make partition in existing sector or delete and create new, I deleted it, not realizing that my external was still plugged in, and deleted the mbr on the external. Now trying to run recuva on the external I get "unable to read boot sector". All the info is still there, I just don't know how to get around this, any suggestions??
Hi jdemy12, and welcome to Piriform.
If you've only deleted a partition, then they can usually be undeleted again, which isn't too difficult, and there are various applications you could do that with.
One of them is Paragon Rescue Kit 9 Express (Free), a good tool to have in your kit for a number of reasons, although you'll need to be able to burn it to disk as it's a rescue program mainly directed to the fixing of non booting computers, but it does have an "Undelete Partition Wizard".
Paragon Rescue Kit Express: (Freeware)
There is another program which also has an "Undelete Partition Wizard", and it doesn't need burning to disk as a rescue package, and as it's an external drive you're having the problem with, this should do the trick.
I'll pm you the link to that program shortly.
I tried to down load it to a dvd, and to the comp. On the comp when I ran it, all I got was an iso file, don't know what to do with that. The only exe files on the dvd, try to run something in dos. There are some zip files. I'll see if there is a setup in there. I keep getting an error code, and locking up my comp. What was that other pgm you mentioned, I hate file scavanger, they restore all the files, but not folder construction, and you have to go through and rename every file, they just assign a numerical name to it.
The ISO "Image" file has to be burned to a CD as an "Image", using programs like the following free ones:
Ashampoo is a good application for just about all burning operations including burning ISO Images to disk. In fact they're both good, but Ashampoo is probably the easier to work with.
Burn an Image with Ashampoo:
With a blank CD in the drive, the next step is to burn it.
Hope that helps.
It's a 1tb external hd that was still connected to my comp that I deleted the mbr on. I thought I was deleting the partion on the comp I just backed up to the external, "that I forgot to unplug", with can't read boot sector error on it. Recuva won't even attempt to read the drive because of no read.
I've spent some time this afternoon looking at Paragon Rescue Kit 9.0 Express, and if you extract the ISO file from the downloaded exe, you can burn that straight to disk without having to go through the usual on-line rigmarole.
Once burned to CD, using one of the apps posted above, you boot your PC with it. Once it loads itself into memory you will have a number of useful options as shown in these screenshots:
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Paragon-Rescue-Kit-Express-Screenshot-131428.html
I booted my PC with it and it picked up my USB External Hard Drive OK, showing the three separate partitions on it. It looks for free blocks, which it will then scan for deleted partitions.
If your problem is more than a deleted partition, then you have the option of using the "File Transfer Wizard" to rescue valuable data from that drive to another location. I tried this by transferring some files off my external Hard Drive, and it works as it says.
The other program can also access an external USB Hard Drive, without having to burn it to disk and boot with it, and will also look for deleted partitions.
If you're hitting a brick wall, just post back, or pm me.
I managed to accidentally delete a partition in a RAID 0 HD that I use as a Data Hard Drive. My SSD failed, and when I was tyring to fix that (per instructions from tech support) I inadvertently deleted the RAID0 HDD Partation.
I havn't done any additional writing to that disk.
Per your above instructions, I downloaded and registed for Rescue Kit 10.0, and burned it to a CD.
It gets 1/2 to 90% complete, then freezes during boot up at the Rescue Boot menu.
I've cross posted at the Paragon forum, but no one has replied yet .
Any help is greatly appreciated...
Update: I burned another DVD and that took care of the problem....
How I can't get the program to "see" the hard disk with the removed partition.
If I run disk manager in Windows 7, I can see it, but there is no drive letter assigned, and the only option is to click on "New Simple Volume..."
I'm worried this will further mess it up
I think you did the best thing posting the problem on the official Paragon support forum, and I have no idea how to get Rescue Kit Express to recognize your external drive.
This is one of those situations where we try to recommend some form of solution to a particular problem, using software which according to their feature descriptions should be able to help.
I've never had a drive failure of any kind, so can't give you the benefit of experience I may have gained from that happening. I can just hope that the software would help if I did.
I've just noticed there's now a "Rescue Kit 10 Free Edition", but as to whether it would do what version 9 couldn't, I don't know. Looking through the feature list, this program is supposed to be able to fix just about any problem relating to "Boot Sectors", Master Boot Records", Boot INI's", "Correcting Drive Letters", "Undeleting Partitions" etc, and it states it does work with "Raid Controllers".
I'll be updating my own copy to version 10, and it may be worth burning a copy off yourself to see if it's more successful than version 9.
At the moment I'm sorry I can't be of more help, and I'm sure if any of the other guys have any positive suggestions they'll chip in, but maybe hang fire until you get a response from your Paragon Support enquiry.
I'll keep looking around for anything which may help, and would you post back if you get a response from Wilders?