Recovering from Accidental FDISK using Free Software

Like many of us I have accidentally used ‘fdisk’ to partition a drive that I had never intended to. Whether it be adding a new drive, repartitioning and formatting a USB device, or just trying to reload the operating system there has been more than one occasion where I have chosen the wrong drive and seemingly destroyed all my data on my drive.

In these next few installments I will reveal what actually happens when using the Windows XP fdisk to partition a disk. What data components get destroyed, how those components can be replaced, and what is really important to the operating system when trying to mount a file system.

The tool we will use is ‘Free Partition Recovery’ with a few enhancements for this particular problem. This tool is extremely powerful and can make matters worse if not used in a safe and proper manner. However, I will take you step by step on how to do the recovery of your fdisked drive.

Next installment I will discuss exactly what happens to a file system when ‘fdisk’ is used and the stop gaps Microsoft has put in to help us in the recovery of their file system. Hopefully with this knowledge we will be enlightened and begging to chant the mantra “Microsoft… Microsoft… Microsoft…”…

Until next time…