OH FUCK I DID NOT JUST DO THAT! (need to recover a deleted NTFS partition).

Decius

Long story short, I just deleted a nearly full 500GB NTFS backup partition. This was done using Windows 7 x64, in the Disk Management snap-in. I have not touched the drive since deleting the partition. It is hooked up via eSATA to an eSATA bracket plugged directly into the SATA bus, so as far as the machine is concerned is a Local Disk.

Now for the help part. How do I recover the partition and all the data on it? I have another 500GB drive standing by, connected via USB. From what I understand the afore mentioned snap-in does not delete data, it just removes reference to the partition itself. I tried Recuva, but it only shows files on existing drive letters. I'm wary of creating a new partition (without formatting) in the desperate hope that Recuva will suddenly work. How should I proceed? And are there any other programs you may recommend.

/breaths

Decius

Found a program called Ontrack Easy Recovery from a friend that does this regularly. It's scanning for (and detecting ) files right now. Hopefully this works.

etdragon

If that doesn't work then Data Rescue is pretty phenominal. It's $99 but I've had nothing but success with it in these situations. I also really like DiskWarrior but it's better at restoring a destroyed file system than recovering deleted files. Both pieces of software more than worth the money for different things.

Noquar

Try TestDisk if you are still lookingfor help. It's free.