Have I done something extremely stupid?

[Elohim83]

Hello,

I downloaded Paragon Partition Manager 9.5 Professional (free version) today earlier because I understood I could use it to re-size partitions in HDs without formatting (ie. deleting anything) said HD.
My plan was to increase my windows ( C: ) partition by 5GB from mediafiles ( D: ) partition since I only had less than 1GB free space in C:
to summarize: C: & D: are partitions of the same HD.

I installed the Paragon to D: and started the program immediately without reading manuals or such. ( I know) I found the partition manager quite easily and the manager found the partitioned HD easily also and I got the partition progress on quite easily and everything went smoothly onward for awhile. After Paragon had restarted my comp to start the actual partition and got to the point where it was read/writing my partitions ( I guess ) back to the HDs I realized the partition progress is going to take about 5hrs!! It was so late already I couldnt wait for the program to finish it, I had to abort it (mind the warning only warned me not to reboot or physically restart the machine, I used the program's own abort thingy ie. Esc.)
So I aborted the partitioning and windows started as usual after awhile. Only my ( D: ) drive seems to be unformatted!
I have about 240Gbs of stuff in there including the paragon program. Which I naturally cant access.

After I figured out why my interent wasnt working either (Avast was installed in ( D: ) too, so I had to remove it.) I went online to get Avast back.
After I downloaded the Avast exe.file I tried to start the installer but I got and error message saying the "Directory name is invalid".
Same thing happened with paragon .exe file and with 2 other .exe files I tried to install!! I downloaded a few of the .exe files to a different HD ( E: ) which should've be unaffected by the mess I created but the same error message appears.

The error messages states the path where the exe.file is located and the error message "Directory name is invalid" , nothing else.

So now I'm without proper internet protection, unable to execute downloaded .exe files and about 240GB of my media files are in a unformatted HD partition.

This makes me a sad panda to say the least. : ((

Is there something I could possibly do or do I just need to buy professional repair/support help ? ( I'm myself just a casual user/gamer & do not know personally any tech help-sort of people)

If you guys think the stuff inside the unformatted ( D: ) is unrecovable I can try and format it and see if that clears the "directory file is invalid" problem too. I would just hate to do it ( I have all my taken pictures there and no back up, I know... stupid is what stupid does)

[SIW2]

Hi Elohim,

I like the catchy thread title.

It sounds like PM had a lot of data to move.

Did you try the partition undelete Wizard to see what that comes up with?

Rt click the Unallocated space and select "Recover Lost Partitions".

213192

It is quicker if you select the file system you are looking for - ticking FAT and NTFS works well for me.

213193

213194

Hope it helps

[Elohim83]

Hey, SIW2
As I said in my first post I can't start or access the Paragon since it is/was installed into ( D: )

[SIW2]

You don't have the PM boot disc?

If not, D/l the free Rescue kit express - use the partition undelete on that :

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/

Not sure if you can select which filesystems to scan for on that - just let it do it's thing.

[Elohim83]

I downloaded the Rescue Kit Express and burned it onto a CD but when I try to start the cd_plg.exe file in the CD it gives me this error message:
(Sorry but I can't be arsed to start cropping these small windows right now, it's 7.31am and I haven't gotten to bed yet)

Error message:

"F:\cd_plg.exe The NVTDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction.
CS:b78e IP:b6ca OP:f0 4b 10 26 03"

[SIW2]

Hi,

You can't run it from within windows.

You need to boot the cd. It will load into RAM.

Start the pc - watch white writing on black screen.

It will say Press F2 for setup , Press F11 for boot menu.

( your F numbers may be different ).

Press what key it says for boot menu - a few seconds later the menu pops up .
Put Paragon cd in tray - close it. Arrow down to cdrom drive . Press Enter.

It will ask " press any key to boot from cdrom drive" - press Enter again.

Let it load up and select Undelete Partition.

213195

From memory - you get a screen before that offering Normal or Safe mode - if you do get that menu - select Normal Mode.

[Elohim83]

Ok, could I set the comp to boot from cd-rom when starting thru BIOS since I dont think my comp's system has a boot menu?
At least I don't know which button it is. (isnt f2 or f11)

Windows boots up so fast on my comp I never have time to read whatever is on the screen when I start the comp.

[SIW2]

Fine - set it to boot from cdrom in bios.

[SIW2]

In case you missed the end line of my earlier post - select Normal Mode on the first screen .

Then select Undelete partition from next menu.

You do get the option on that to select filesystem to scan for - tick the box that says "change file system filter and search criteria" just select fat and ntfs as you are using windows - it will be quicker.

Have to crash out now. Please let us know how it goes.

[Elohim83]

Yes I had to go to sleep too since I was too tired to continue, but today after I'd crawled out of the bed I started the comp and for some reason the Undelete Partition program booted up automatically, I hadn't changed auto-boot in BIOS last night but whatever, great!
So the thing boots up nicely and I chose the "normal mode" & "undelete partition" and choose the found partition area ( I figured from the graphic it only had found one, as there is only 1 partitioned HD in my comp. ) and clicked proceed. The search only lasted about 5 seconds and it promptly declared there's no partitions to undelete. : (
So I went back and changed the criterias to look for every kind of formats from my computer - as I'm writing this (from another comp) I still have about 5 hrs of waiting for the search to finish. Should I let it run?

[SIW2]

Time to try a different bootable undelete app.

See my post number 4 here.


http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=256134

That tool is superb at undeleting - I would be surprised if it doesn't come up with them straight away.

The Paragon is better at everything else - that app. I linked is amazing at undeleting.

I would undelete so you are back to the original position before you started the partition operation.

In other words, you want both partitions you started with.

[Elohim83]

SIW2, I cannot thank you enough. The Wizard program did it!
It found and recovered the undeleted partition with ease and as an added bonus it allowed me to use that 5GB I had lost when I tried to re-size my ( C: ) to a new (albeit miniscule) HD partition. :)
I couldn't be happier. You're a star SIW2.

Also, that problem with directory names being invalid cleared as I got my ( D: ) back online. :)

Thank You.

[SIW2]

Elohim,

You're welcome - thanks for posting back.

Have Fun.