Was making a "SP5" per http://www.vorck.com/2ksp5.html and at "Finishing up" ("beginners last step") running HFSLIP again, error messages popped up, ignored as requested per the Vorck site, then C:\ errors all over. No reboot to sys when restarted and nothing can "see" anything on that partition, let alone an OS (I have a slave back-up that I'm now using to look at the other partitions.) Tried Win2K repair, MBR repair, etc. GetBackDataNTFS can "see" some files and such, but nothing close to all and the drive is re-named a bunch of ASCII characters. This isn't a coincidental thing, it was from running the HFSLIP program. Any suggestions? Anyone want to make some $'s on a fix? There is a lot of data from a non-profit on this drive and a ton of files I can't lose (backed up last week, but a lot since then...)

Win2k SP4, UR1

2 mos old Seagate 160gb drive, 4 partitions. Other partitions are fine, just the C:\ (1st) is hosed.

Anyone...., anyone...., Beuler...?????

HFSLIP does NOT make changes to your C:\ drive. It will only make changes in the folder in which the script is contained and any subdirectories under that folder.

I'm sorry you lost a lot of important data, but that is not HFSLIP's problem. You likely have a virus or your drive has become corrupt. "A bunch of ASCII characters" cannot be produced by HFSLIP. It almost clearly indicates drive corruption.

hi gaiabeliever! welcome to HFSLIP ... please know that HFSLIP does not even touch the OS you currently have running as it only makes use of what you copied to SOURCE ... enhancements & changes come from the other parallel directories (i.e, HF which contains your downloaded hotfixes, HFSVCPACK, & the like) ...

I certainly agree that HFSLIP didn't do this.

Put that drive in as a secondary on a working (but non-critical) machine to get as much data as possible off it.

EDIT: Looks like you've already tried this.

I would also recommend...

(1) That you don't jump to conclusions.
(2) That you never run HFSLIP on a critical drive anyway. Put it on a secondary drive to get the most out of the program (i.e. a faster run, no risk of corruption on system drive even though HFSLIP does not cause it, etc.).

I'm sorry to hear that, gaiabeliever, but -- as one of the code maintainers -- I can't see how HFSLIP can damage your system in such a way. The only thing I can think of is that you downloaded a "suspicious" hotfix or program which you allowed HFSLIP to slipstream (ie, the file damaged your system when HFSLIP accessed it).

I can't give you any suggestions either because I only have experience with reconstructing missing partition tables and quick-formatted drives.

gaiabeliever
It's sad to know you lost your data. I see you've already used a very good program - GetBackDataNTFS. Sometimes you need to try a few programs to run in this situation. I'd recommend R-Studio, some people say EasyRecovery works too. It's better to run them connecting your drive to the other computer as a slave or even from WinPE/BartPE/WinBuilder CD to ensure you are not touching the information on your drive.

In general it's better try not to touch your drive and install anything on it!

If you connect the drive to other hard disk and after starting the system suggest to correct some errors don't do this! I still belive it's better to boot from LiveCD or floppy and restore data or make image to the working drive.

If the information is important for you and you have the other disk with some free space that is more than your drive capacity I'd recommend making the exact per-sector copy of you drive to that other disk. It can be made even if you drive had bad sectors with such imaging software like Ghost, DriveImage Pro, DeployCenter or WinHex (you need to read manuals then). The image is going to be very big and include even deleted files. After that you can try to deploy it to other drive or virtual machine and try to save information from it without touching mal-functioning software.
Or you can make the image directly to CD/DVD but you are going to spend a few of them and you need to verify the content of the image - it'll take some time (maybe hours).

And last but not least - there should be specialists that can do it for you for some money. I don't know how much it would be in your country, it's about USD 100-200 in Russia, sometimes cheapper. It depends on the importance of you info of course.