Don't know what I did or what happened

I used Paragon Drive Backup 9.5, started it up and let it backup my windows 7 with all my installed apps; etc. on it. Something went wrong or else I did something wrong. Now, I only have the drive this software created and my C: drive with windows 7 on it is apparently gone!! Can't find it anywhere and not even a sign of it. Am stuck with the backup made by Paragon. Now my drive C: is this Paragon backup and only 160GB free out of 193GB. Where has my 500GB Hitachi HD gone. Oh I know it is still in my computer but it does not show in the Computer icon on my desktop. What confounds this even more is I only had an Acronis Home 11 image file saved on an external HD that is a March image. Afraid I know what you may say about this---nothing to do but re-install. I surely hope someone has a better plan than that. As usual, TIA.

 

is the drive visible in Bios (assuming that hitachi is not an external drive)

 

Please check if 'missed' drive presents in Windows Disk management:
* Right-click My Computer and select manage
* Find Disk management in Storage
* Check if 500GH HDD is still there.
If it is, Post here screenshot of Disk Management tool.

 

I have been hoping someone would answer my question about my problem. Apparently I left off this bit of info when I first registered because I did not get an email about these posts.. Gotta check that out.

Yes Cudni, it is shown and BTW my external hd is a WD 250GB and it boots after my CD Rom.
Thank you for replying.

 

Mech_An thank you for your time in replying to my thread.
Attached is the screenshot you wanted. Hope it tells you anything that will enable you to help me.

 

Hi buf,

Not sure I follow.

Are you saying you originally had 2 internal Hard Drives , and one of them is now not showing up in Disk Management?

 

I had/have just one HDD installed in my Win 7 computer but somehow in the backup attempt my 500GB Hitachi was "downgraded" to a 193GB HDD. In my backup attempt, I was trying to backup to an external USB drive what was on my Hitachi HDD. As far as I am concerned, I have lost the apps and other files that I originally had on the Hitachi. I see no way, so far, to recover them.

 

buf,

According to screenshot, you have one partition without drive letter on your Hard Disk.
I suppose it is your missing drive: Total HDD size = 465GB with 193GB partition + not available volume 261GB.
Could you please attach LOG files to your reply? I'd like to have a look at them. Maybe everything could be restored.
find 3 LOG files: "PWLOG.TXT", "STUBACT.LOG", "BioNTlog.TXT" in C:/Program Files/Paragon Software/[Program_Name]/program/ and zip them.

 

The 500gb Hitachi is still all there.

Did you try rt clicking the 261gb partition and giving it a drive letter?

In Windows Disk Managament, Rt click the 261gb partition , select "change drive letters and paths, Add (just accept the default letter it offers.

Now you will be able to see it and access it in Windows Explorer.

You may have accidentally created another partition on the same drive ( instead of the external ) and stored the backup image on your existing C partition.

 

SIW2,

As partition 261 has no file system in Disk Management, Windows may ask to re-format the drive. And all data will be lost.

 

I think he created a partition by accident , but didn't format it. If that's the case he would need to format it,and give it drive letter, or delete it and extend C out again .

 

A big part of my problem, because of what happened, I no longer have the Paragon software on my Hitachi HD. It was wiped off by "whatever" happened.
The software was one of those freebies that is offered daily by Giveawayoftheday. The software has to be downloaded and installed the very day that it is offered and if it is lost from your hard drive at a later date, you are out of luck---can't get it anymore as a freebie.
I have tried all of the "tricks" to see the contents on the un-named 161GB Primary Partition. I can only assume that this represents the missing apps and files. I was not been able to assign a drive letter to it in Disk Management 2-3 days ago when I tried.
And for some reason, I am not receiving emails when someone posts to this thread.
The one plan that I have is to backup(and prove it is good) my present HD(did that yesterday and mounted and saw some of the files and was satisfied that all is in order) and then go back to the last good backup I have and restore it. I promise I won't miss the Paragon software that had a hand in causing this.
Sorry I could not find those logs you wanted to see Mech An.
I really do appreciate everyone's responses to my thread.

 

It's not clear to me what you did either.

I am sure it was not caused by the Paragon program.

It doesn't just randomly create a new partition on the drive - it has to be instructed to do so.

There is no function in DB9.5 Pro to shrink an existing partition.

DB9.5 Pro can only create a partition from existing unallocated space.

If a new partition was created on your internal drive (the 261gb ) - it can only have been have been created from existing unallocated space , i,e with no data on it - which you appear to say you didn't have.


Did you actually make a Paragon backup image? Where did you tell the program to store the backup image?


Assuming you did make a Paragon Image - it is just a compressed image file - you can't boot directly into it.

What makes you think the C drive you are booting into is the Paragon backup image?

I can only conclude the C drive you are booting into now is the same C drive you always had.

It's a mystery

 

My Hitachi hd was just one big 500GB partition. Now what happened; I do know and that is why I started my thread on the Paragon forum---looking for help. I have no knowledge of how the 261GB partition came to be. I did not, knowingly, ask for the partition--why would I when for 9 months I have operated my new computer with just one hd partition!! The only proof that I have is what has been produced and copied here. What might be the scenario if I were to restore a 3-12-10 Acronis backup that I have validated. What will my hard drive then have on it and how many gigs might it represent? I backed up my present hd contents using Acronis for safe measure, or least I hope so. OH, as reported in one my earlier posts, I was attempting to create this backup and save it to an external drive---like I have done so many times without a problem. I did not know what had happened until I tried to validate or mount the drive to see some of the files.
Thanks for everyone being so receptive and helpful to me.

 

Is your Paragon image on the external drive?

If it is, you could restore that because it is more recent than your Acronis image.

The partition you restore the image to will have contents identical to the moment you made the image.

Any other data on that partition will be lost.

It is possible to restore an image to partition smaller than the original - but it must be larger than the used space contained in the image - i.e. the used space on the partition at the time you made the image.

However, restoring to a smaller partition takes a long time.

Hope it helps.

 

It has been a week now since this problem first began. I am kinda tired of it and I strongly think I will restore my March 12, 2010 Acronis image backup and go forward from there. Doing this will cause me to remember and then find and install those apps that I really want. Not being able to do this latter part, I will just have to accept what is in the backup. Does anyone see a problem with that? I genuinely appreciate all of you who tried to help me through this ordeal.
I'll post back with my successes, if any.