Revelation???

[Prometheus508]

So I down loaded a program called Active Partition Recovery...

And when I did the scan before it gave me the read error (as noted before)...

However, now I do a scan and guess the eph what... My external hard drive (as I've named it "THE BEAST")

is in the Local System Devices - when it WASN'T there before!!

The catch??? - - it's not under the drive that I assigned it when I first got it - - which was (G:/) it's under (E and (F

for some odd reason, F, by the way is my Dvd-rom drive... odd...

Anyways

so now what I do??

It's giving me the option to create a Disk Image... but being a complete NOOB, I have not idea what that is!!!

Yes, I googled it and the best I can figure is that a Disk Image is something that wouldn't necessarily help me out

in recoving my data and or my hard drive...

I'm hoping someone could tell me what my next step is in order to save this thing....

mayn thanks

[Mr_Punctuality]

The default drive letter for the CD/DVD is drive E:/. That is  assuming the recovery partition,D:/ is still intact on the C:/ drive. So your CD/DVD drive letter is now D:/  or F:/ ?

If it is F:/ , did you do a backup to a DVD ?

[Prometheus508]

here are the screen shots one from Disk Managment, and the other from the Active Partition Recovery Program:

Does any of this make any sense? - - - is any of this helpful???

I'm nervous to shut any of this down becuase I'm afraid the next tiem I go through this - - I won't find my data again :/

[Mr_Punctuality]

What software are you using to take screen shots ? Nothing  there of any use.

Bring up the screen you want to take a screenshot of.

Find your Print Screen Key on the keyboard. If it is a multi function key like mine ( print screen and sysrg) you will have to press shift and then print screen. 

Then open  up your paint program. Press Ctrl-V and it will paste the screen shot to the paint program. Save as a jpg file into a folder and insert that into your post.

[Prometheus508]

whoops, Mister, you're right my CD/DVD drive letter is D

No, I have not done a backup to a DVD (yet)... I've got to run to the market and pick some up as all I have is cds :/

(excuse me for not being prepared, this whole thing just popped up.)

did you see my screencaps?

[Prometheus508]

the grey one, the one that says the BEAST that's the external hard drive - - it used to be lettered G

[Prometheus508]

I should've mentioned this in the first post here...

the drive is still unexcessable from my computer, - - what I am seeing on that grey screen is the first time I've seen my data since this whole issue has happened.

I seemingly can not access "The Beast" through my computer.... I intend on getting a new External Hard drive  for obvious reasons, however this new situation does seem like a step forward... I just need some directon on what to do next.

many thanks for any help that comes my way.

[Prometheus508]

I'm gathering that these two are one in the same, the WD 10EVAS and my External Drive "The Beast"... I also see that there is an update driver button on there, and that I also see that the drive is 6 years out... should I up date the driver??? --- is it going to baddly affect my external hard drive and the data on it???

[Prometheus508]

any help here?

I've been looking this thing over and I can't make much sense from it... one thing says that the E drive doesn't exsist yet another thing says that the E drive is real and that's where all my stuff is... yet my computer seems to think that's the F drive...

but with the photos provided anyone got a clue??

[Mr_Punctuality]

Been awhile since I checked back on your progress. Seems you figured out the screenshot thing. Excellent ! I noticed the data recovery software is a demo.

Does it allow you to actually recover your file system or just take a peek at them ? I can't help you there on that particular software but looks like you might possibly have corrupted the file system .

This can happen by unplugging the drive in an activity state. For future reference, always make sure you click on the safely remove hardware icon in your system tray . It will prompt you when to unplug the drive.

All may not be lost. Read the help notes with that recovery software to see if you can retrieve those files. 

One other thing I noticed. How come your recovery partion is  showing 100% free ? Don't you have a backup or recovery file on there ?