FAT Data Recovery | FAT Partition Recovery

Dual-boot configuration between Windows and Mac OS X extends the flexibility of running applications of two different platforms on the same computer. This requires an Intel-based machine and Apple's Boot Camp to create a Windows partition. The setup, though popular as it allows booting into Windows or Mac OS X as per user's choice, can also endure certain data loss problems. A user may sometimes encounter issues that may render his Windows FAT partition inaccessible. In such circumstances, if backup doesn't restore data, a FAT Data Recovery utility can rescue.

To elucidate such probable issues of Windows in dual-boot configuration with Mac OS X, let's take an example. Consider you use a dual-boot setup with Mac OS X, in which Windows partition is formatted to FAT32 file system. You run into an issue with Mac OS X and decide to reformat the Mac partition. Next, you choose the desired partition in Disk Utility and click to format it, but suddenly the process ceases. Mac OS X freezes and crashes.

At next reboot of computer, Mac OS X partition works fine, but not FAT32 partition in Windows. The FAT32 partition is not visible in Mac OS X. Trying to access it in Windows shows the partition, but when you try to open it, the following error appears:

"The drive is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

Consequently, the data of FAT32 partition is not accessible.

Cause

The error indicates that FAT32 partition is corrupted due to interrupted reformatting of Mac OS X partition.

Solution

In order to solve the given problem:

Delete the corrupted Windows FAT32 partition and restore data from last available backup
Use a FAT Recovery utility to scan and restore lost data from corrupted partition

A FAT partition Recovery software is designed to run effective scanning algorithms that extract inaccessible data, irrespective of the cause of corruption. Additionally, its user-friendly design makes it a perfect choice for professional as well as amateurs.

Stellar Phoenix FAT Data Recovery is a high-end solution to scan and recover data from corrupted, reformatted, and inaccessible FAT32, VFAT, FAT12, and FAT16 file system drives. This simple FAT Recovery software includes advanced features like, determining disk status, creating disk image, cloning disks, and more. The tool is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000.

Is your FAT32-based system is has become inaccessible lately? Are you unable to run chkdsk command to repair the boot sector? If your answers are in YES, then chances are that the file system has corrupted and you need to look forFAT recovery options. For this, you can use the in-built Dsk probe tool to repair the corrupted boot sector. If you are not able to recover the FAT system, then you should use a third-party FAT data recovery software to do the needful.

Consider a scenario wherein you are using Windows 2000 having FAT32 partitions on two volumes. One of its volume (not the system drive) gets corrupt and you attempt to run chkdsk on that volume using command-line arguments. However, the tool quits without performing any repairs. An error message is displayed, that is:

"The type of the file system is FAT32.

Volume Serial Number is C408-2213

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode."

Cause:

Such unusual behavior has occurred as the FAT32 partition stores a backup copy of the boot sector. The chkdsk command causes the error message while trying to read the corrupted volume. It does not uses the backup FAT32 boot sector until it is not physically located in a bad sector.

Resolution:

To recover the corrupted primary boot sector, you should use Dskprobe tool. To do this, you should perform the following steps:

* Find and run the Dskprobe.exe tool in the Windows 2000 installation CD-ROM.
* Click Logical Drive in the Drives menu, and then double-click DriveLetter.
* Clear the selected Read-only check box, click set active, and click OK.
* Click Read in the Sectors menu, and modify the default Starting sector (except the Number of Sectors=1 value).
* Click Write in the Sectors menu.
* While ensuring that the active handle is the logical drive letter of the volume, modify the starting Sector to write the data value.
* Click Write it, and click Yes to confirm that you want to overwrite sector 0 in the DriveLetter device.
* Exit Dskprobe.exe.
* Run chkdsk again for the repaired volume using the chkdsk DriveLetter: command. It should run fine now.

However, if you are still facing the similar symptoms while accessing that FAT32 volume then you should use a third-party FAT data recovery software. Such FAT recovery tools are able to restore trapped data from various storage devices using fast yet sophisticated scanning algorithms.

Stellar Phoenix is a FAT data recovery software that recovers deleted, formatted, or lost data from corrupt or inaccessible FAT partitions. It performs FAT recovery for FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and VFAT file system partitions. This FAT data recovery utility is able to recover more than 185 different file types from various storage media. In addition, this FAT recovery tool monitors the hard drive status and informs about the SMART attributes. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.