Vista - How can vista survive a format!!!

Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was getting
ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all the
files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!

How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to work.

Please ... can anyone help. Thanks

Vista likes to "steal" drive letter C: on install whether or not it's
actually on the first partition of the drive, so in a dual boot scenario you
could have Vista on C: and XP on D: when booted to Vista and the exact
opposite when booted to XP. Most likely you formatted the wrong partition
because of this or something similar. Vista does not survive formats.

If you're doing a clean install of XP, just boot from the XP disk and format
the partition your installing XP on when given the choice during the install
program. If Vista is still on a different partition when you finish, you can
just format that partition from within XP.

-Mike

"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
> Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
> getting
> ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all
> the
> files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
>
> How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
> Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
> work.
>
> Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
>
>

Don't answer this ... I did a very bad thing ... not sure how it happened!
If anyone knows of a "unformat" utility ... I'd be happy to hear about it.
Thanks.

"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was getting
ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all the
files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!

How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to work.

Please ... can anyone help. Thanks

Thanks Mike.
I was certain I typed format c:\
It was my h:\drive that contains all my data and
software/upgrade/update/utilities, etc. that got pooched. I'm totally
miffed by this. It's never happened before.

I'm going to try a dos unformat with the /L switch and hope it recovers my
files. There's a few years of work lost ... lots of graphic files that I've
built ... I'm just beside myself.

I'll see if you have any other thoughts ... before I attempt to blitz this
drive again.
Diana

"**__Mike__**" <Mike@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:R6adnXTVCci0F_fYnZ2dnUVZ_uqdnZ2d@comcast.com...
Vista likes to "steal" drive letter C: on install whether or not it's
actually on the first partition of the drive, so in a dual boot scenario you
could have Vista on C: and XP on D: when booted to Vista and the exact
opposite when booted to XP. Most likely you formatted the wrong partition
because of this or something similar. Vista does not survive formats.

If you're doing a clean install of XP, just boot from the XP disk and format
the partition your installing XP on when given the choice during the install
program. If Vista is still on a different partition when you finish, you can
just format that partition from within XP.

-Mike

"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
> Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
> getting
> ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all
> the
> files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
>
> How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
> Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
> work.
>
> Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
>
>

Restoration file recovery has worked well for me, it's free, works well and
doesn't have a lot of complicated settings.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

Remember that DOS can only see FAT partitions, so when booting with a DOS
disk, your first FAT partition automatically becomes drive C:. Try checking
the volume label before formatting and try to do it with XP setup program;
you can't format an NTFS partition with a DOS boot disk.

-Mike

"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:FD0F3629-7718-4602-B386-1C4D562BF561@microsoft.com...
> Don't answer this ... I did a very bad thing ... not sure how it happened!
> If anyone knows of a "unformat" utility ... I'd be happy to hear about it.
> Thanks.
>
> "DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
> Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
> getting
> ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all
> the
> files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
>
> How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
> Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
> work.
>
> Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
>
>
>

I find it interesting that the fat drive (my h:\drive) took on the letter
c:\ ... but like you say ... the dos boot can only see fat drives.

I'll check out the site you sent and see what it can do for me. Thanks.

I appreciate the explanations ... I was a little suspicious ... which is why
I included the type of drives. I can't believe this is happening. I've
lost a bazillion utilities that I've accumulated over the years (including
various boot disk utilities) on that h:\drive.

Having said this ... when I got my main drive (just over a year ago), I was
able to format it after creating the NTFS partitions. I wonder why it's
behaving different now. And ... now that I think a bit more ... I remember
.... I removed my other physical drive (h:\ = FAT) to avoid this problem ...
should have done that this time ... damnnnnnnnnnn.

Unfortunately the "unformat" command (within dos) doesn't unformat the FAT
drive. I wonder why that isn't happening.

Anyway ... I'll check out that site. Thanks again.

"**__Mike__**" <Mike@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:gv6dneQq7trmB_fYnZ2dnUVZ_radnZ2d@comcast.com...
Restoration file recovery has worked well for me, it's free, works well and
doesn't have a lot of complicated settings.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

Remember that DOS can only see FAT partitions, so when booting with a DOS
disk, your first FAT partition automatically becomes drive C:. Try checking
the volume label before formatting and try to do it with XP setup program;
you can't format an NTFS partition with a DOS boot disk.

-Mike

"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:FD0F3629-7718-4602-B386-1C4D562BF561@microsoft.com...
> Don't answer this ... I did a very bad thing ... not sure how it happened!
> If anyone knows of a "unformat" utility ... I'd be happy to hear about it.
> Thanks.
>
> "DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
> Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
> getting
> ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all
> the
> files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
>
> How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
> Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
> work.
>
> Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
>
>
>

Yes i agree with **__Mike__**,
Always remember if you have dual booted XP and Vista, say you already have
XP on C: and you then install Vista on other drive say E: (if you have that
partition), then Bootloader is taken over by Vista and now if you boot into
Vista , it'll be seen as on C: and XP will be shown on diffeent drive. And
Here dont / never try to change drives of Vista while running, else you'll
loose XP .

And again if you boot into XP , it'll be shown on C:.
So its better to give Vol. label while installing so that it can be
identified easily.

Also if you want to uninstall Vista , there are tools such EasyBCD, which
makes editing and managing of Vista bootloader easy , in that thers' an
option to restore XP bootloader, which when done will restore XP bootloader
and on reboot will goto XP and from there you can just format the Vista
partition and also some Vista files (bootrelated) can be deleted from C:.


> "**__Mike__**" <Mike@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
> news:R6adnXTVCci0F_fYnZ2dnUVZ_uqdnZ2d@comcast.com...
> Vista likes to "steal" drive letter C: on install whether or not it's
> actually on the first partition of the drive, so in a dual boot scenario you
> could have Vista on C: and XP on D: when booted to Vista and the exact
> opposite when booted to XP. Most likely you formatted the wrong partition
> because of this or something similar. Vista does not survive formats.
>
> If you're doing a clean install of XP, just boot from the XP disk and format
> the partition your installing XP on when given the choice during the install
> program. If Vista is still on a different partition when you finish, you can
> just format that partition from within XP.

So remember to give Vol. label for identification.
>
> -Mike
>
> "DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
> > Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
> > getting
> > ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all
> > the
> > files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
> >
> > How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
> > Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
> > work.
> >
> > Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
> >
> >
>
>
>

I didn't have a dual boot. I'd originally installed Vista (beta 2) over
existing xp, but it wasn't a happy event ... it's been rather gruelling, so
I decided to reformat my main drive c:\ and named it as such. the strange
thing is ... when I'm in dos, my h:\drive which was originally called my
data drive, took on the name 'main' as it was the drive (fat) that got
formated, instead of the intended c:\drive.

I'm running the utility that Mike pointed me to. I'm only concerned with
how far back it will recover files. I try to keep old versions of
utilities/software/drivers. etc., removed from that drive. It saves me time
and disk space during searches.

Here's hoping that utility works. It doesn't seem to be recovering the file
names as they were, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Thanks for your input.

When I proceed again ... to install XP, clean, i'll use the utility that
comes with the CD ... that way ... I'll know pretty much for sure, that it's
installing onto the correct drive, which should be the c:\drive (NTFS).


"vasu" <vasu@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:51908080-6F88-47EC-B98F-5EE4800DDFC9@microsoft.com...
Yes i agree with **__Mike__**,
Always remember if you have dual booted XP and Vista, say you already have
XP on C: and you then install Vista on other drive say E: (if you have that
partition), then Bootloader is taken over by Vista and now if you boot into
Vista , it'll be seen as on C: and XP will be shown on diffeent drive. And
Here dont / never try to change drives of Vista while running, else you'll
loose XP .

And again if you boot into XP , it'll be shown on C:.
So its better to give Vol. label while installing so that it can be
identified easily.

Also if you want to uninstall Vista , there are tools such EasyBCD, which
makes editing and managing of Vista bootloader easy , in that thers' an
option to restore XP bootloader, which when done will restore XP bootloader
and on reboot will goto XP and from there you can just format the Vista
partition and also some Vista files (bootrelated) can be deleted from C:.


> "**__Mike__**" <Mike@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
> news:R6adnXTVCci0F_fYnZ2dnUVZ_uqdnZ2d@comcast.com...
> Vista likes to "steal" drive letter C: on install whether or not it's
> actually on the first partition of the drive, so in a dual boot scenario
> you
> could have Vista on C: and XP on D: when booted to Vista and the exact
> opposite when booted to XP. Most likely you formatted the wrong partition
> because of this or something similar. Vista does not survive formats.
>
> If you're doing a clean install of XP, just boot from the XP disk and
> format
> the partition your installing XP on when given the choice during the
> install
> program. If Vista is still on a different partition when you finish, you
> can
> just format that partition from within XP.

So remember to give Vol. label for identification.
>
> -Mike
>
> "DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
> > Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
> > getting
> > ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all
> > the
> > files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
> >
> > How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go
> > with
> > Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
> > work.
> >
> > Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
> >
> >
>
>
>

Well ... it's 2:00 am here, so I'm gonna sleep while the utility recovers my
data drive. It's been running for about an hour and it's only 22% done, so
it's gonna take another 3 ours at that rate.
I'll see what it looks like in the morning.
The files look like they were named with a hieroglyphic font. Is that
binary code that they are being name with. I'm now wondering if there's an
easy way to recapture the names of the files. There's over a million files,
it would seem ... that are being recovered. that makes me think it's
recovering more than what was lost in the format ... and that's gonna be
scary.

Anyway ... good night and thanks for your help.
If I get a chance to respond before I head for work, I'll let you know how
it all panned out.
Diana

"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:BA42FA95-63ED-41E6-B362-A5A59A6C5B24@microsoft.com...
I find it interesting that the fat drive (my h:\drive) took on the letter
c:\ ... but like you say ... the dos boot can only see fat drives.

I'll check out the site you sent and see what it can do for me. Thanks.

I appreciate the explanations ... I was a little suspicious ... which is why
I included the type of drives. I can't believe this is happening. I've
lost a bazillion utilities that I've accumulated over the years (including
various boot disk utilities) on that h:\drive.

Having said this ... when I got my main drive (just over a year ago), I was
able to format it after creating the NTFS partitions. I wonder why it's
behaving different now. And ... now that I think a bit more ... I remember
.... I removed my other physical drive (h:\ = FAT) to avoid this problem ...
should have done that this time ... damnnnnnnnnnn.

Unfortunately the "unformat" command (within dos) doesn't unformat the FAT
drive. I wonder why that isn't happening.

Anyway ... I'll check out that site. Thanks again.

"**__Mike__**" <Mike@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:gv6dneQq7trmB_fYnZ2dnUVZ_radnZ2d@comcast.com...
Restoration file recovery has worked well for me, it's free, works well and
doesn't have a lot of complicated settings.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

Remember that DOS can only see FAT partitions, so when booting with a DOS
disk, your first FAT partition automatically becomes drive C:. Try checking
the volume label before formatting and try to do it with XP setup program;
you can't format an NTFS partition with a DOS boot disk.

-Mike

"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:FD0F3629-7718-4602-B386-1C4D562BF561@microsoft.com...
> Don't answer this ... I did a very bad thing ... not sure how it happened!
> If anyone knows of a "unformat" utility ... I'd be happy to hear about it.
> Thanks.
>
> "DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
> Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
> getting
> ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and all
> the
> files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
>
> How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go with
> Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
> work.
>
> Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
>
>
>

Hi,

One more information for reference: depending on the importance of the data,
and if they are critical, try consult this one: http://www.drivesavers.com/

I used them years ago for data recovery from a broken HDD, and they "were"
professional and the fee "was" reasonable.

I don't know how are they doing now and if they have changed like the
company called Mxxxxsoft, but in any case, if you can't recover from some
utilities, you might want to consult them or other similar services IF your
data are important.

PS: You could also contact them (or other data recovery service) at the same
time when you're trying other utilities to know what are Dos and Don'ts
before damaging your data further.

Hope this helps.


"DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:A42BD79E-273A-4269-9D6D-6C33307471E5@microsoft.com...
>I didn't have a dual boot. I'd originally installed Vista (beta 2) over
> existing xp, but it wasn't a happy event ... it's been rather gruelling,
> so
> I decided to reformat my main drive c:\ and named it as such. the strange
> thing is ... when I'm in dos, my h:\drive which was originally called my
> data drive, took on the name 'main' as it was the drive (fat) that got
> formated, instead of the intended c:\drive.
>
> I'm running the utility that Mike pointed me to. I'm only concerned with
> how far back it will recover files. I try to keep old versions of
> utilities/software/drivers. etc., removed from that drive. It saves me
> time
> and disk space during searches.
>
> Here's hoping that utility works. It doesn't seem to be recovering the
> file
> names as they were, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
>
> Thanks for your input.
>
> When I proceed again ... to install XP, clean, i'll use the utility that
> comes with the CD ... that way ... I'll know pretty much for sure, that
> it's
> installing onto the correct drive, which should be the c:\drive (NTFS).
>
>
> "vasu" <vasu@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:51908080-6F88-47EC-B98F-5EE4800DDFC9@microsoft.com...
> Yes i agree with **__Mike__**,
> Always remember if you have dual booted XP and Vista, say you already
> have
> XP on C: and you then install Vista on other drive say E: (if you have
> that
> partition), then Bootloader is taken over by Vista and now if you boot
> into
> Vista , it'll be seen as on C: and XP will be shown on diffeent drive. And
> Here dont / never try to change drives of Vista while running, else you'll
> loose XP .
>
> And again if you boot into XP , it'll be shown on C:.
> So its better to give Vol. label while installing so that it can be
> identified easily.
>
> Also if you want to uninstall Vista , there are tools such EasyBCD, which
> makes editing and managing of Vista bootloader easy , in that thers' an
> option to restore XP bootloader, which when done will restore XP
> bootloader
> and on reboot will goto XP and from there you can just format the Vista
> partition and also some Vista files (bootrelated) can be deleted from C:.
>
>
>> "**__Mike__**" <Mike@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
>> news:R6adnXTVCci0F_fYnZ2dnUVZ_uqdnZ2d@comcast.com...
>> Vista likes to "steal" drive letter C: on install whether or not it's
>> actually on the first partition of the drive, so in a dual boot scenario
>> you
>> could have Vista on C: and XP on D: when booted to Vista and the exact
>> opposite when booted to XP. Most likely you formatted the wrong partition
>> because of this or something similar. Vista does not survive formats.
>>
>> If you're doing a clean install of XP, just boot from the XP disk and
>> format
>> the partition your installing XP on when given the choice during the
>> install
>> program. If Vista is still on a different partition when you finish, you
>> can
>> just format that partition from within XP.
>
> So remember to give Vol. label for identification.
>>
>> -Mike
>>
>> "DianaH" <nuttin@nowhere.com> wrote in message
>> news:3DB50FA3-10C6-4A9B-8A56-191C04DA4B20@microsoft.com...
>> > Ok ... I just spent the last 1/2 hour formatting my c:\drive ... was
>> > getting
>> > ready to do a clean install (of XP) and low-and-behold ... vista and
>> > all
>> > the
>> > files are still on the c:\drive. WTF!
>> >
>> > How the _____ to I get rid of it. I want my computer back! I'll go
>> > with
>> > Vista when it's out for retail .... meanwhile .. I need my computer to
>> > work.
>> >
>> > Please ... can anyone help. Thanks
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
>