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un-format and un-partition.

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i have a IBM 40GB HD that the OS die on me last week.
As this is my only HD, i try to reinstall DOS 6.22 on the first partition, it just re-partition and re-format my HD. i used to have 2 partition(20GB each) on it. Now it become 200MB and 38GB.
Is there any way to un-format and un-partition the HD?
I have a few GB of important data in the 2nd partition.

9 replies

by saihib

You said that DOS 6.22 repartitioned and reformatted your hard drive. If that statement is accurate then I don't see how you can have any important data left on the second partition unless you put it there after the drive was repartitioned. Do a search on the Internet for delpart.exe this free utility can wipe out your existing partitions allowing you to reformt with a single large partition. Another alternative would be to install Partition Magic which would allow you to change partition sizesand still preserve your data.

by coldman

the data was there before the installation of DOS. i'm requesting for ways to recover back that data that was there before DOS partitioned and formated the HD.

by pinoy_teknik

Yes, you can un-partition your drive. You can use the standard MS-DOS program Fdisk to delete any partitions, but this would obviously result in all of your data being lost.

If you want to keep your data, you'll need a good partitioning tool like PowerQuest's PartitionMagic. Using this, you could easily delete the last two partitions, then enlarge the first one to take up the entire 20Gb.

Hope this can...

by otl

You did not mention the OS, DOS 6.22 used fat 16 and if the OS was 98 or above it used fat 32 or NTFS, or if you were using a disk management utility for the large HD support. I have had 2 different systems supposedly loaded on the same harddrive,due to the differences between fat 16, 32 and using a disk management utility. Try booting off the Windows start up disk and see if your data still appears on the C:/D: drive.

Sometimes this will work and you will be able to backup the data and repair your system.

by saihib

Assuming you haven't installed any software on your new partitions you'll need to send the drive off to have the data professionally recovered. If you have installed software then your data has probably been overwritten and is unrecoverable.

by coldman

if i have the cash, i won't be posting to this place.
I'm looking for a way to recover back the data easily and with little costs.

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