hi i was recently defragged my 2 drives, one 8 gig and one 30 gig. had finished the 8 gig one and then tried the 30 gig one. i then stopped it perhaps before half way through. it eventually stopped and then i went about my normal computer business, thinking i could run it again later. then i rebooted and when it had started again it couldn`t find the second drive, the 30 gig one, it showed on the my computer panel but i couldn`t access it. ok, so i forgot to stop the background files while running the defrag, things like the anti-virus progs and stuff, but it was working and it did finish the first drive ok. now it even asks me if i want to format the drive because it thinks it isn`t formatted, even though it has 3 gig of files in it. it would be just great if i could turn back the clock and go back to where i had been before i even thought of trying to defrag my drives. pity i couldn`t use a restoration program like in XP. anyway, i could really use someones help here, if you can please, help? krispee

What happens when you are in the safe mode?

Chris, I would also suggest that you get Diskeeper lite from the Langa List, it is found under reader's suggestions item 5. http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-09-11.htm You run it manually, but you do not have to worry anymore about what background programs are running when you defrag your hard drives.

capt: ok, i haven`t tried it in safe mode actually, should have thought of that....i`ll let you know... and thanks for the diskeeper link, that`s for next time, but what do i do now, how do i get back my HD without reformatting it, accepting that safe doesn`t work for a moment? krispee

well, tried it in safe mode and nothing, wouldn`t access the drive.....keeps telling me it is unformatted and do i want to format the drive now..... someone else suggested that the FAT may be damaged....i suppose that`s possible.... krispee

right, well have tried restoring the files on that drive with Restore 2000 and Get Data Back and neither of these apps will read the files on the drive. comes back with 'cyclic redundancy errors' and 'unknown error 23 reading sector 1152' etc etc..... seems to me that the defragging process has destroyed the whole file structure of the drive.... how is this possible? krispee