D: drive now marked upartitioned space,any way to recover the data?

Question

Here is whole thing:

Few days back, my son spilled water on laptop, so keyboard stopped working, and we were getting Internal HDD error sometimes

Now when we got this error, we re-installed Windows XP and laptop was working. C drive 20 GB and D drive 37gb

NTFS partition

Yesterday system crashed again and , we installed windows. When we were trying to do it, it said
c: drive 20gb
unpartioned space 37gb(hopefully d:)
but instead of NTFS, we wrongly did by FAT32

Now it is showing C drive but for D: its showing unpartioned space and we are not able to read the data.

We have past 1 yr photos of my son, in it :( thats the most important data

Is there any way to recover it?

When we try to install windows, it gives option
Format NTFS quick
Format FAT32 quick
Format NTFS
Format FAT32
Leave the partition intact

Tell me if I am wrong., If I proceed with Leave the partition intact and install windows in that unpartioned space, it means it will not format the D:(unpartioned space) and it will install windows in watever leftover space is there,so we will be abel to read that6 space and retrieve the data, ???possible??

I took it to computer guy here and I got a answer "here at our state we don't have facilities to recover such data,you have to send system to California and it might cost you $1000+"

Please suggest something

Answer 1

When installing Windows XP, it needs to be formatted as NTFS. Also, you could use SystemRescueCD to recover data.

Answer 2

Decide if the recovery is worth the price, your now getting confused. Anything you do at this point is a gamble. The only safe way to proceed from this point is to first make an image of the entire drive and then play around.

Answer 3

Undelete Plus is a quick and effective way to restore accidentally deleted files. It can also recover files that have been emptied from the Recycle Bin, permanently deleted files within Windows using the Shift + Delete, and files that have been deleted from within a Command

Prompt.

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Answer 4

download and install it. u need activation code. write me from another email account to my email [e-mail] so that i can send u the serial number.



http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirectorsuite/

open acronis disk director suite. double click on unpartitioned space. u will see the contents there. right click and copy to other partition. when done, format the unpartitioned space by creating a drive.