How can vista survive a format!!!

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
>
>

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
> >
> >

>
>
>

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
>> >
>> >

>>
>>
>>

>
>

OK, lets hope , you will recover all your required files (though with some
different file name.)
btw , how did you format? was it from dos prompt?

Will it allow to format the same drive ,if you are running DOS prompt within
OS?
Its always best to use diskmgmt tool to check about your drives status and
manage/ format your various partitions when in windows, if you are not having
any tool.
And i think Vol. label wont change with your partition, it'll stick with
that partion , even if drive letter changes.

& if you want to install an OS and do formatting etc. then use its own built
in tool which you'll show your disk partitions/ file system etc. while you
use your OS boot CD/DVD.

Also there's an interesting article which may not be related but can be
useful in some cases as : "This guide can be used to recover XP only in one
case: While doing a clean install of Vista, you accidentally selected the
wrong partition to install to, and as such, you wrote Vista to the same drive
as XP. It won’t recover an upgrade from XP to Vista, nor will it help you
“unformat� your partition if that’s what you did."
http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/188


"DianaH" wrote:

> 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
> > >
> > >

> >
> >
> >

>
>

> Vista likes to "steal" drive letter C:

another "smart" idea by the baboons that made vista.

This one, actually a chip, got promoted from IE7 GUI designer to
Promoter and salesman of vista.. since IE7 development has finished.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4043/podb8213dk9.jpg


"**__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
>>
>>

>
>

Lol!

"MicroFox" wrote:

> > Vista likes to "steal" drive letter C:

>
> another "smart" idea by the baboons that made vista.
>
> This one, actually a chip, got promoted from IE7 GUI designer to
> Promoter and salesman of vista.. since IE7 development has finished.
>
> http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/4043/podb8213dk9.jpg
>
>
> "**__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
> >>
> >>

> >
> >

>
>
>

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