Wrong way Clone disaster.

Wrong way Clone disaster.

I really could use some helpful comments on this one...

I was going to backup my wife's XP computer by cloning to another drive after a start glitch scared her a few days ago.

Running Ghost I saw two identical 30GB drives - which way do I copy?

I had a bright idea, the original drive was FAT32 so I formatted the new one with NTFS and when Ghost started I cloned from Source FAT32 to Destination NTFS and double and treble checked before starting.

But to our horror the clone took 5 seconds and we have two blank NTFS drives!

Before I give up and start a new XP install can anyone think of any way back from here before she kills me?

Thanks in advance,
Gizmo

 

The same thing happened to me in January. I hooked up a USB external drive and was going to make a clone of my hard drive which had 2 partitions, one in NTFS and the other in FAT32. Within one second my whole hard drive was zeroed out. Fortunately I had made some CD's to restore my COMPAQ system which brought me back to square 1. I called Compaq about this, they told me to open my case, disconnect the HD and reconnect, which I did--but the HD was totally empty. I still would like to use Ghost for this task but I am a little shell shocked after that experience. I had used Ghost before with WIN98 and did not have any problems. I suspect your going to have to reload.

 

Thanks

Thank you for the commiserations,

I think, in hindsight, that it was telling me that it was going to write NTFS to the disk not that is was NTFS.

You live and learn, the previous backup had been erased in the starup "Glitch" so I am in deep Sxxx - trouble!

But as it all happened so fast, I am sure that the info is still there on the disk and only the file reference was erased, so is there any way of getting to it? or it is just wishful thinking?

Gizmo

 

I don't know. I just know that in my case the contents of the external USB HD was transferred to my HD on my machine and the contents of the external drive was all zeros.

 

Hi Gizmo,

I have a feeling that there must be a simple way to get to all your data, but the only one that springs to mind is Steve Gibson's 'Spinrite', which costs $$$.
I shall follow this thread with interest!
Roger

 

Wishful thinking continued...

Yes, I too feel that there is a "Simple" remedy, if only I can find it before the violent threats from the aggreived spouse turn real.
I mysteriously acquired a suspicious bruise during the night...
so if anyone out there knows anything... take pity on me

Gizmo

 

Hi Gizmo,
I found a freeware that might help you, at least on the FAT 32 HD - PC Inspector File Recovery 3.0,
You can download it from www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2463
Let me know if it works.

Roger

 

Thanks

Many thanks for the info about PC Inspector, I was willing to pay big bucks for commercial stuff until my wife grudgingly admitted that although she was not happy with me big time, her stuff was not worth big bucks, so you may just have saved my bacon.

We are packing up computers to return home to France (I see that is where you are too) so I will be quiet for a while, but I will be back with a progress report soon.

Gizmo