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egbakaet · 06-14-2008, 09:26 PM

Ok, I just made one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. Here it goes.

Earlier, when everything was working fine, I decided why not try TrueCrypt. It's an encryption program capable of real time on the fly encryption as well as system encryption, I figured "what the hell, why not?" So I started encrypting my main partition and learned that it was possible to have both an encrypted partition and non-encrypted partition. As a result I attempted to install windows on a 3gb partition that I *thought* was useless. After deleting and rebooting, however, an error came up stating "NTLDR is missing, press ctrl-alt-del to restart". The encryption was only done up to 30% when the system stopped working. Sure enough, I put in the windows xp boot cd. I got to the format screen, selected the partition that caused the NTLDR error (3gb one) and attempted to install windows. Unfortunately, I didn't read since there was a message about Drive C being either damaged, corrupt or requiring a format, and instead ended up formatting the wrong drive in quick mode (C:\). I pressed the ESC key as the bar reached 20% and it shot to 100% and restarted the machine. After that I decided that I might as well attempt to decrypt the drive via the TrueCrypt boot disk and did so successfully, although no files were recovered, I would assume it would make it easier in the future.

Since then I've been unable to boot to either and am at a loss as to what I should do. I have a LOT of data on the first partition that I NEED to get back before school starts up again thus why I am here.

Another question, I found out it is possible to recover a n accidental formats damage. Unfortunately, I need another harddrive and don't know what to get. I currently have a 250gb SATA HDD and was wondering if there are any special circumstances that would require me to get a certain harddrive? I have my system specs:

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...M_EN/specs.htm

I've heard of a few programs that are capable of data recovery. My first steps are:

1. To know if it is possible in my situation
2. What harddrive to get (cheaper is better 100gb at least)
3. And how to go about doing this?

I have nowhere else to go right now so I'm pleading someone here to help me.

I thank all of you who viewed this for your time. Hopefully this can be resolved

**************

Thank you.

06-14-2008, 09:26 PM	#1 (permalink)
egbakaet Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 11 OS: XP 32 Home	Ok, formatted... but ACCIDENTALLY! Ok, I just made one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. Here it goes. Earlier, when everything was working fine, I decided why not try TrueCrypt. It's an encryption program capable of real time on the fly encryption as well as system encryption, I figured "what the hell, why not?" So I started encrypting my main partition and learned that it was possible to have both an encrypted partition and non-encrypted partition. As a result I attempted to install windows on a 3gb partition that I *thought* was useless. After deleting and rebooting, however, an error came up stating "NTLDR is missing, press ctrl-alt-del to restart". The encryption was only done up to 30% when the system stopped working. Sure enough, I put in the windows xp boot cd. I got to the format screen, selected the partition that caused the NTLDR error (3gb one) and attempted to install windows. Unfortunately, I didn't read since there was a message about Drive C being either damaged, corrupt or requiring a format, and instead ended up formatting the wrong drive in quick mode (C:\). I pressed the ESC key as the bar reached 20% and it shot to 100% and restarted the machine. After that I decided that I might as well attempt to decrypt the drive via the TrueCrypt boot disk and did so successfully, although no files were recovered, I would assume it would make it easier in the future. Since then I've been unable to boot to either and am at a loss as to what I should do. I have a LOT of data on the first partition that I NEED to get back before school starts up again thus why I am here. Another question, I found out it is possible to recover a n accidental formats damage. Unfortunately, I need another harddrive and don't know what to get. I currently have a 250gb SATA HDD and was wondering if there are any special circumstances that would require me to get a certain harddrive? I have my system specs: http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...M_EN/specs.htm I've heard of a few programs that are capable of data recovery. My first steps are: 1. To know if it is possible in my situation 2. What harddrive to get (cheaper is better 100gb at least) 3. And how to go about doing this? I have nowhere else to go right now so I'm pleading someone here to help me. I thank all of you who viewed this for your time. Hopefully this can be resolved ************** Thank you. Last edited by chauffeur2; 06-14-2008 at 09:33 PM. Reason: Removed email address