Defrag interrupted HELP!

[txe5502]

I am posting this here because this is the only messageboard/forum I am a member of. I was recently defragging 6 different hard drives, one of which contained someone else's data backup that I am responsible for. I was using Raxco PerfectDisk on my thinkpad laptop, when the battery went dead!! When I started my computer I found at least 4 corrupt files on one drive!! I have hundreds of thousands (no, this is not an exaggeration) of Very Important data files alltogether, many of which do not belong to me! There could be MASSIVE data loss! What can I do to recover most or all data that may be lost or corrupted? I am using Raxco PerfectDisk on Microsoft Windows Vista Business with the NTFS file system on a ThinkPad T60p.

Any hel would be EXTREMELY appreciated!!!!
Thanks,
Tyler Guy

[Wiz]

There are several application available that could help for data recovery, but i would recommend to not use the computer/disks a lot before the files are recovered since you might overwrite areas of the disk where the data could be recovered from. If such a program doesn't manage to recover the lost files you might have to get some help from professionals in this are which could be pretty expensive. Maybe running "chkdsk /f" is all you need to run to recover the lost data.

Several defragmentation programs have an option to stop the defragmentation when running on battery as well which could be a good idea to enable. Not sure if perfect disk got this option though.

I just have to ask this question....if you store data for other people that is so important don't you have a good backup system? It's really none of my business, but i would recommend to get a backup in place asap if what you tell is true. To recover data after a harddisk crash could be way more expensive then getting a good backup system.....and you never know when the disk might stop working. Another issue could be if the computer is stolen....then all the data is lost.

Do you know for sure that some important files is lost or is it just the 4 corrupt files that scared you?

[ryengineer]

when the battery went dead!!

I don't mean to add insult to the injury but why would you run something that important on battery without ANY backup.

Here is a freeware recovery program, I'm not sure if it could help you out but could be worth a try.

Good Luck.

[jdhurst]

I am sorry to hear about your loss. I am a long time user of Perfect Disk, and they make it exceedingly clear not to do what you did. It has the option to stop defragging when on battery, but that can be overriden. There is not much way out for you here.

The only tool that has been successful for me is SpinRite. SpinRite is largely for use with defective drives (where a bit of data has been lost and the balance is not corrupt).

Be careful with chkdsk. I had a bad disk once (I know why, and I had backups), and chkdsk summarily trashed my Outlook .pst file while making corrections. So while chkdsk may work (as has been posted here), it can also permanently remove corrupted data.

... JDH