BigLba Snafu - how to recover?

Ok, this question is both simple and complicated, so
I'll give both a short form and long form.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Short form:

If you're pressed for time, my question in a nutshell is:
I have a folder with 12GB of files that got moved from
a partition on a hard disk to a different partition,
and then accidentally destroyed, and backups are waaaay
out of date. I believe the data is all still there on
the original partition, right? What freeware data
recovery software would you recommend to recover it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Long form:

If you're up for a lengthy (but maybe amusing and
informative) story, read on......

Greetings, group. A few days ago, I ran into the
following problem: I have a large hard disk (200GB,
or 186GiB if you prefer). I had it partitioned with
no primary partitions, just one huge extended partition
taking up the whole disk (except for a small sliver at
the very beginning). The disk was roughly half full,
and directory and file access were becoming increasingly
slow.

So I took the following steps to try to solve the problem:

1. I ran Norton Speed Disk to defrag files, cut the
deadwood from the MFT, and move the files to the
bottom of the partition.
2. I ran Partition Magic to shrink the original partition
to 150GB and create a 50GB second partition, so that
no one MFT would have to hold info on all the files.
3. I then moved a large folder (with about 12GB of files)
from the first partition to the second.

Sounds straightforward, right? WRONG! I immediately
noticed that whenever I wrote to files in one partition,
it corrupted files in the other partition. Almost as if
they were sharing overlapping physcial cylinder, head,
sector coordinates. (As it turns out, THEY WERE.)

So I checked the "EnableBigLba" setting in
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters

Should have been set to 1, but to my horror it was set
to 0! Then I remembered: I'd done a clean re-install
of Win2K on my main (boot) hard disk some months ago,
and the default setting for EnableBigLba is 0, not 1.

So I set it to 1 and restarted my computer. Guess what?
the big folder I'd moved (with 12GB of files) is MISSING.
It no longer exists on EITHER partition. And the backup
version of that folder on my backup hard disk is woefully
out of date (2005), and missing half the files.

I'm pretty sure the data from the "moved" folder is mostly
still there on the original partition. What would you
folks recommend as a way to recover it? (Especially a
FREE way to recover it, as I'm currently out of work and
out of money, and can't afford $867285 -- or even $20,
actually -- on data recovery software.)

Stuff I learned from that:
1. Back up data more frequently than every 3 years.
2. ALWAYS check for "BigLbaEnabled = 1" before using
a hard disk larger than 137GB. And check it again
after any reinstallation of Windows.


--
Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
lonewolf aatt well dott com
www dott well dott com slant user slant lonewolf slant

You might give this a go.

http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


"Robbie Hatley" wrote:
>
> Ok, this question is both simple and complicated, so
> I'll give both a short form and long form.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Short form:
>
> If you're pressed for time, my question in a nutshell is:
> I have a folder with 12GB of files that got moved from
> a partition on a hard disk to a different partition,
> and then accidentally destroyed, and backups are waaaay
> out of date. I believe the data is all still there on
> the original partition, right? What freeware data
> recovery software would you recommend to recover it?
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Long form:
>
> If you're up for a lengthy (but maybe amusing and
> informative) story, read on......
>
> Greetings, group. A few days ago, I ran into the
> following problem: I have a large hard disk (200GB,
> or 186GiB if you prefer). I had it partitioned with
> no primary partitions, just one huge extended partition
> taking up the whole disk (except for a small sliver at
> the very beginning). The disk was roughly half full,
> and directory and file access were becoming increasingly
> slow.
>
> So I took the following steps to try to solve the problem:
>
> 1. I ran Norton Speed Disk to defrag files, cut the
> deadwood from the MFT, and move the files to the
> bottom of the partition.
> 2. I ran Partition Magic to shrink the original partition
> to 150GB and create a 50GB second partition, so that
> no one MFT would have to hold info on all the files.
> 3. I then moved a large folder (with about 12GB of files)
> from the first partition to the second.
>
> Sounds straightforward, right? WRONG! I immediately
> noticed that whenever I wrote to files in one partition,
> it corrupted files in the other partition. Almost as if
> they were sharing overlapping physcial cylinder, head,
> sector coordinates. (As it turns out, THEY WERE.)
>
> So I checked the "EnableBigLba" setting in
> HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters
>
> Should have been set to 1, but to my horror it was set
> to 0! Then I remembered: I'd done a clean re-install
> of Win2K on my main (boot) hard disk some months ago,
> and the default setting for EnableBigLba is 0, not 1.
>
> So I set it to 1 and restarted my computer. Guess what?
> the big folder I'd moved (with 12GB of files) is MISSING.
> It no longer exists on EITHER partition. And the backup
> version of that folder on my backup hard disk is woefully
> out of date (2005), and missing half the files.
>
> I'm pretty sure the data from the "moved" folder is mostly
> still there on the original partition. What would you
> folks recommend as a way to recover it? (Especially a
> FREE way to recover it, as I'm currently out of work and
> out of money, and can't afford $867285 -- or even $20,
> actually -- on data recovery software.)
>
> Stuff I learned from that:
> 1. Back up data more frequently than every 3 years.
> 2. ALWAYS check for "BigLbaEnabled = 1" before using
> a hard disk larger than 137GB. And check it again
> after any reinstallation of Windows.
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Robbie Hatley
> lonewolf aatt well dott com
> www dott well dott com slant user slant lonewolf slant
>
>