A few weeks ago I decided to reformat my system hard drive (I hadn't been able to open task manager for years, it was getting to me). I took everything that I wanted saved and put it on my large secondary drive. I reformated windows, and everything was great, I could access all my files on the other drive. Then like an idiot, I decided that I would install Linux (Ubuntu). I ran the installer and the partition manager thing said that it could install itself on the 23 gig unused portion of my big drive (its a 160 gig drive, but windows limits drives to 137 gigs, so I never bothered partitioning the last 23 gigs on the drive). Long story short, Linux doesnt work. In windows, i go back to look at my big drive, and it tells me the drive isn't formatted. I was a bit upset seeing this. I run the Linux installer again, just to use the partition manager and I delete the linux partitions on the drive in question (and then obviously exit the installer). I tried disconnecting the hard drive and restarting, then plugging it back in. Nada. Then I downloaded a data recovery program (GetDataBack for NTFS) and it works beautifully, I can see all my files. To my immense displeasure, the program wants me to shell out $80 bucks to copy any of the files.
So my best guess is that for some reason, windows doesnt recognize the NTFS partition on my drive. My question then is is there any way to get windows to recognize the NTFS system on this drive, or do I have to run some sort of data recovery program. If the latter is the case, are there any good free or cheap data recovery programs?
I would really appreciate some help, I know that there are some smart people on these forums. I never realized how much I took for granted having all my files at my finger tips....
So my best guess is that for some reason, windows doesnt recognize the NTFS partition on my drive. My question then is is there any way to get windows to recognize the NTFS system on this drive, or do I have to run some sort of data recovery program. If the latter is the case, are there any good free or cheap data recovery programs?
I would really appreciate some help, I know that there are some smart people on these forums. I never realized how much I took for granted having all my files at my finger tips....