URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk!
by CharlieX
on
May 17, 2007 at 3:47:45 pm
I really screwed up! Just initialized a FW drive that had all the media on it. There's gotta be a way to recover everything - initializing just formats the disk header. Anyone know a program that can safely scan the disk and recover everything????
Re: Data Rescue II by John Pale on May 17, 2007 at 4:21:12 pm
[CharlieX]"Just goes to prove: no matter how many years you've been doing this, you can still royally screw things up if your aren't paying attention."
Yeah. I've been there. Don't beat yourself up too much.
Good Luck!
Re: Data Rescue II by walter biscardi on May 17, 2007 at 4:31:34 pm
[CharlieX]"
Thanks! Already scanning it now... I immediately cursed really loud, and then turned the drive off. Shouldn't be any reason anything got nuked."
Post back and let us know if it works. Would be good to know for the future.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
http://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.
All Things Apple Podcast! http://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Re: Data Rescue II by CharlieX on May 17, 2007 at 5:06:32 pm
Will do, about 1.5 hours left to scan the drive.
And here's the irony: it was a drive full of Avid media for the one Avid editor we have working here. Maybe my subconscious was a little vengeful this morning?
Re: URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk! by John Pale on May 17, 2007 at 4:11:13 pm
I'm pretty sure once you initialize, you blow away the master directory....the data is still there but the map is gone. I'm pretty sure you need a real data recovery program at that point and not just a simple terminal command.
Re: URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk! by CharlieX on May 17, 2007 at 7:03:52 pm
That's exactly it, I had just bought a new FW drive to make a backup with. And I initialized the wrong one. A backup is no good if the operator hits the wrong button!
Re: URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk! by Rennie on May 17, 2007 at 6:43:39 pm
When all else fails there are still the data recovery places that take your drive apart and scan the platters 1 by 1. The cost about $795.00 and up plus you need to send a replacement drive to recieve the recovered data.
Re: URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk! by CharlieX on May 17, 2007 at 7:40:41 pm
Well, first scan is no good. I did a search for "Deleted Files" - and it found some 60GB of files, but nothing that matched the original drive. I think it was looking at files that WERE on the drive and HAD been deleted. So now time for a thorough scan. Luckily this software doesn't do anything to the drive but look at what's on it. So nothing's been altered in any way.
I was also looking around the net and Norton Utilities 7.0 (back in 2002) mentioned it could save an "accidentally intialized disc." well that's exactly what I did! But Norton Utilities doesn't seem to exist anymore....
Re: URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk! by zrb123 on May 18, 2007 at 1:28:15 am
Just a heads up, I had to use Data Rescue II before and it can find lots of files but when they are recovered then they are just names numerically, because Data Rescue II cannot recover file names.
So even if it can find then you still have to manually rename all of the recovered files.
Re: URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk! by CharlieX on May 18, 2007 at 3:45:59 am
Verdict: complete loss
It recovered about 60% of the files. None of which retained their "long" names.... Also because this was Avid media (*.omf) it also didn't know what *.omf files were, and couldn't properly define them. Without the proper names, and without any *.omf files, all we had was a large collection of aiff files, some JPEGS, and some random other junk from the drive.
if it had all been QT media, I'm sure things would have gone better; however this was a last ditch effort for anyone. The program needs to understand the signature header of every file to know what it is. A QT file always starts with the same bits of info, just like an aiff, etc...
End of day, we've started digitizing from scratch. The simple things cause the biggest hurdle.
Re: URGENT!!!! UN-initialize a disk! by Andy Mees on May 20, 2007 at 8:12:08 am
Disk Warrior rebuilds a damaged directory ... but an initialized disc doesn't have a damaged directory, it has a deleted one! Amongst other things Norton Utilities could take a periodic snapshot of your master directory ... if you then accidentaly hosed your hard disc then you could scavenge the disc for these master directory snapshots and restore your directory structure using them. At present, I think only Micromat's TechToolPro offers this.
