Clone wrong disc

[bunny07]

Hi
i have one question, by this Acronis true image i have clone a wrong hard disk without any back up. I will liked to clone from C drive to D drive. But it has cloned all data from D drive to C drive. On C drive was also running operating system Windows XP, By source und destination Disc has been shown wrong name. I want to be data back from C hard disc. Is it possible or not. I does not did any back up. Thanks in advace
Bunny

[DwnNdrty]

Do you know the difference between Clone and Backup (also called Image)? If you did a Clone, everything on that C drive will be wiped and replaced with what was on D. Is this what happened or can you still boot into Windows with your C drive? And whichever one you did (Clone or Backup) the D drive will still have what was originally on it.

To prevent this error in future, give your drives meaningful names instead of the default Local Disk.

[bunny07]

Actually i would like to clone my C drive to D drive. And by Mistake i understood wrong name. But there was also data on D Drive, which was clone on C drive. I am surprised, i have choosen source and destination drive and after that i click on Summary Button. And Cloning has been started. I think i can watch in Summary Button what option or task i have selected till now. I would not like to make another wrong step. let ihm done his work. C drive has been overwritten from D drive. If there is any option for Reverse Clone, or i understand this word also wrong. I will like to save my all data from older C drive. Is there any option to save it, or any Software

[DwnNdrty]

None of the functions (Clone or Backup) will start until you get to a window that has a Proceed button. If the C drive has been overwritten then what was on it is gone.

I think you should read the Beginner's Guide written by GroverH. Look for any message by him - there is a link in his signature to the Guide.

[bunny07]

Now on both harddrive c und d has same data. But i want to be data(before cloning) from C drive back.On d Drive was also 5Gb data. Is there any option for any software or any helpfull tool. My 5 year work has been destoyed. Perhaps it was my mistake. Can i make Clone reverse or not. I have no idea ! Any Datarecovery tools, which can save my data, and any other tools has been used and have success.
Thanks in advance

[jonyjoe81]

Even when you overwrite data, you can still recover some of the original data back if that section of hard drive wasn't overwritten. You actually have nothing to loose to try and see if anything is salvageable. You can try the free testdisk it has the photorec addon. That might be able to get some of your data. You can download the windows version or you can download the gparted bootcd (this linux live cd has testdisk on it) When you bootup with it, go to the terminal and type testdisk or photorec to get it started, just make sure you have a spare drive to save all the data it recovers (it won't write to the disc it is working on).

Good luck.

[bunny07]

I try my best. i have also read about Linux live CD/DVD. i can save some data, which is not overwritten. But i have no experience with Linux and also never used. And i donot want to destroy my(not overwritten) Data. Can tell me anybody, how shall i do. By linux version Linux is also going to write on harddrive or not.After Linux boot from CD/ DVD need any software or freeware or not to recover data.
Thanks for reply and every advise.

[BlueZannetti]

Look, you're getting into the domain of forensic data recovery. There may be a chance of grabbing some material depending on a whole host of factors (including the nature of the files). You really have 2 realistic options at this point assuming that you did clone the wrong drive:

• Let it go. The data is gone. Lesson learned. Move on armed with the knowledge that backups are needed in this day and age.
• Hire an actual PC expert to manually examine the drive while slaved to another system and see if anything can be pulled back. From afar I have grave doubts that anything can be recovered. You never know since a number of factors control that, but one thing I do know is that an untrained user poking around using tools that they have no familiarity with is unlikely to make any progress on this front or even diagnose the situation properly.

Blue

[jonyjoe81]

Don't worry about installing Linux. When you use the gparted bootcd, it runs from your computers memory (just like the true image bootcd which is also linux based). When the cd is booting up just press enter when it asks you anything (all the default settings are chosen for you).

Once you get to the main screen close the gparted screen, and open up the terminal (it will be the icon on top that says terminal). The terminal is similar to a dos screen, right here type in photrec. This will open up the program photorec and it will ask you questions of what hard drive you want to check etc.

It's very easy, a linux livecd is basically an operating system that runs from a cd. No installation required.

I wouldn't give up until I verified that there is nothing to recover especially since you no longer have a backup of your c: drive available. Since you said your source drive was empty, maybe the damage isn't too intensive.