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0912368

Cancelled
Original poster
Sep 30, 2008
4
0
I went to install XP on boot camp and I accidentily installed it on the wrong partition, so the drive that had leopard on it is now formatted to NTFS and I cannot format it back. I beleive all my data is still on because there is a lot of used disc space. I want to convert it back to HFS without the loss of data, as I have important information on the hard drive that I do not want to lose. I know this is my own fault because I wasn't paying close enough attention to where I was installing Windows, but I would appreciate any help I can get.
 

Guiyon

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2008
771
4
Cambridge, MA
You don't. You might be able to recover some data using a utility such as DataRescue and a secondary computer but, unless you have a backup, the data is toast. If you want to maximize the chances of recovering data DO NOT USE THE HARD DRIVE! Every write will make it harder to recover anything useful.
 

Yamcha

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2008
1,855
249
Thats exactly why PC's have a thing called BIOS :p. Anywho I think what you can do is create a FAT partition from your HD.. that way you'll have two, you should be able to install OSX on the FAT partition.. if that doesn't work you can try Partition magic, which i've never used I just checked google, theres a software from Linux that can partition ur HD to HFS im quite sure.. but I don't know what its called.. If i find it i'll let you know..

Good Luck!
 

Guiyon

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2008
771
4
Cambridge, MA
Thats exactly why PC's have a thing called BIOS
How does the BIOS have anything to do with this?


As for the actual recovery, if you want any chance of recovering your data do not follow Yamcha's advice! Performing either of the actions he suggested will result in the permanent destruction of even more data. If you can't/don't want to try recovering data yourself you can either do a restore from your system's recovery discs and try again or contact a professional data recovery service; the latter will be extremely expensive though (4+ figures).
 
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