Disk Suite Hosed my Disk

[jfigura]

#1 - Didn't realize it was BETA until after the fact
#2 - Decided to try this suite to delete a partition and merge it into another one. Results? A thoroughly hosed disc.

At 98% in it failed with a non descript error. Upon re-booting the system, I received a message "Error loading Operating System". Figuring it trashed the MBR, I rebuilt it to no avail.

Pulled said disc, inserted new OS, re-attached old system drive. Windows recognized the drive and the one good partition. It saw the partition I wanted to delete as empty space and the original OS partition as "unformatted".

Upon using several recovery software suites, the file structure was completely screwed. Only the last items to be installed on this disc were in a recognizable format. Assuming this was the last 2% of the process that wasn't touched by PC Tools Disk utility.

While I do have some of my important stuff backed up, I will admit I was lazy and got careless. Not all was backed up leaving me in a conundrum. Because I have had no problems in the past with Partition Magic, I just kind of assumed PC Tools would have it right on this one.

Apparently they don't. I think it bad form to put a Beta software on your main page and list it as new without a Beta tag next to it. The "Beta" portion is in the product header and in small letters down at the bottom.

Should really consider not listing a "Beta" product on your site until it is ready to go.

Regardless - Having used Registry Mechanic for several years now, I think this will be me last experience with this company. If you saw what this product did to my drive you would understand my statement. Now my only quandary is which software recovery suite do I have to spend money on to recover the rest of my files?

Regards,

Joe Figura
JEMS Media

[sciencewis1]

I agree this program has major bugs, hopefully they will work it out and I definately agree about putting it on the main page. As a beta tester it is convenient to have it on the main page, but unfeasable to the average customer. See my post to below in this forum to see how convoluted and difficult it made things for me, I lost all of my data trying to increase the space in one of my partitions and it unformatted the partition (it seems to be consistent in doing that). I was able to recover the data after spending money on several programs, but I sent them my data and hpefully they will come out with a better version. Thanks for the comment and know they are working on it, if you can talk to AChen about sedning your log data to PC Tools. My partition is currently still unformatted and I am waiting to hear back from them about the improvements they are making to PC Tools Disk Suite, sorry about the inconvenience.

[jfigura]

Can't really help them if they don't respond to support requests or their own forum. Not sure yet if I can recover any log. It;s been hit or miss finding all the files I want.

Same as you, this happened when I attempted to delete a partition and then resize another.

This product should NOT be listed on their front page as "new"... It should clearly say BETA because the product cannot be new if it si in beta.

The sad thing is, they are getting free beta test help from those who hose their disks. It's hard to be too angry when I know I should have been diligent and created a disk image or something, but because I have resized so many times before with Partition Magic I just figured their product would work. Oh well....

[sciencewis1]

Even though it gave you no error message, there are still log files created see the last post in this thread: http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52735 and follow its procedure, they will accept your data. Even though I have not received a confirmation that they have the data I sent, they have not complained that they didn't receive it, which is a good thing. Have you been able to recover your files yet?Most of the time when a patition becomes unformatted it is because the file system is corrupted, find a program that restores the file system (the boot record in the partition, it is different than the MBR for the computer). Was it FAT32 or NTFS? Was it on an external hard drive or on the local hard disk? Also, they don't usually provide solutions to sited roblems because it is a beta version and they themselves are still working out the bugs. You may have to wait until the final version in a couple months to find a solid solution. Sorry, all we can do is hope.

[AVysotsky]

Hi, sciecewis1.

Once we were able to reproduce that looks like the same problem as reported by you earlier.

Data from corrupted disk was restored... But we must be sure, that you had exactly same situation.

Can You, please, run "Disk Suite / Repair / Check Integrity" on corrupted disk.

Then send, please, aDSHistory.xml. ( C:\ProgramData\PC Tools\DiskSuite\sDSHistory.xml )

Please, send aDSHistory.xml to DSReports@pctools.com

Thanks in advantage,
Andrei

[AVysotsky]

Hi, jFigura

We do apologize for the problems caused by the Disk Suite application. The team is working hard to improve the product and make it as stable as possible; however unexpected problems still can happen, especially with such delicate area as partitioning.

In order to improve the product and prevent this from happening in future version could you, please provide following information if you find it possible to do:

- What OS version (with service packs) do you have?
- User rights for logged in user (Admin, Limited, Guest, etc)
- What kind of partition was corrupted ( primary / logical )?
- What file system(s) (NTFS, FAT32) on every logical disk involved in operation
- Corrupted partition disposition ( first primary / other primary / first logical / last logical , size of partition )?
- How much time resize/merge operation took (till error)?


Can You, please, run "Disk Suite / Repair / Check Integrity" on corrupted disk.
Then ( after "Check Integrity" ), could you, please, send aDSHistory.xml.

For XP: C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Application Data\PC Tools\DiskSuite\aDSHistory.xml
For Vista: C:\ProgramData\PC Tools\DiskSuite\aDSHistory.xml

Note, that folders listed above are hidden. So You must configure Explorer to allow showing hidden files.

Also, please, goto to "Partition" page of Disk suite and select "Properties..." from context menu on corrupted partition. Then make screenshot from "Volume" and "Partition" tabs of "Property Dialog".

Please, send aDSHistory.xml and screenshots to DSReports@pctools.com

Thanks in advantage,
Andrei

[jfigura]

I cannot run the Check Integrity utility because there are no visible partitions to Windows. I can see the data using R-Studio.

To answer your other questions:

- What OS version (with service packs) do you have? It was Windows XP Pro SP2 with latest updates
- User rights for logged in user (Admin, Limited, Guest, etc) Administrator
- What kind of partition was corrupted ( primary / logical )? Primary
- What file system(s) (NTFS, FAT32) on every logical disk involved in operation All disks in operation (3 of them) were NTFS
- Corrupted partition disposition ( first primary / other primary / first logical / last logical , size of partition )? Partitions that were fully corrupted were first primary, second primary
- How much time resize/merge operation took (till error)? 3 hours?


"Also, please, go to to "Partition" page of Disk suite and select "Properties..." from context menu on corrupted partition. Then make screenshot from "Volume" and "Partition" tabs of "Property Dialog". "

Can't help you there either. No recognizable volume or partition. Just shows disk as "unknown".

[socrfan]

It didn't say "beta" when you downloaded it? It does now. Did they add that since?

[Robin Springall]

It's v1.something. The usual designation for Beta products has always been 0.something. Sure, it's smart to always wait for v2, but I sympathise with jfigura.

[GoneToPlaid]

I'm not sure, but I think Symantec has a free trial of Partition Magic which you can download. PM might be able to recover the damaged partition and its contents.