Erased Time Machine Backup - Need Urgent Help

Hi guys,

I just tried to add a partition to my external HDD (which I use for Time Machine). I used Disk Utility to add a partition of 100GB (leaving an extra 200GB for the Time Machine partition).

This process took about 30 seconds and when both partitions re-mounted they were both empty. I went back into Disk Utility and deleted the second partition I just added and resized the Time Machine partition back to using 100% of the HDD.

Both times Disk Utility informed me that nothing is being erased and a partition is just being added and then removed the second time.

This happened way too quickly to actual format the Time Machine partition.

How can I restore my Time Machine? I will freak out if I just lost my backup.

Time Machine app still shows my "oldest backup" being correct:
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5408/picture1t.jpg

Any help/advice is welcome.

 

Yes, aside from the TM backups, I had all of my files since my MacBook has a small HDD

Disregard the pic of my TM status. It no longer shows I have any backups.

Disk Utility specifically stated that "This volume will not be erased". After adding the partition both volumes are empty (and it only took about 30 seconds, even though I had almost 500GB of Data)

There must be a way to restore.

 

I keep all my photos and music on the external HDD. I also use the HDD for TM backups in case I need to restore to an earlier date or if I accidently delete a file kept on the MacBook itself.

 

I don't get it, when I added the partition, Disk Utility specifically showed this:



It created a new volume on top of that one, but both are empty. I've erased a full HDD before and it took a few hours. How can everything erase in just 30 seconds this time?

 

Thanks for the tips.

I have downloaded StellarPhoenix and scanning the HDD now. I think there is a good chance I can recover most of it since 1. It just happened and 2. It only took 30 seconds to erase ~500gb worth of data.

The scan is taking a while, looks like it might need to go overnight. If it shows the majority of my data as recoverable I will pay the fee. Will post back with results.

I called AppleCare and they instructed me to click on "repair disk" in Disk Utility. After that quickly proved useless all I got was "sorry for your data loss".

I blame myself for tampering with such a sensitive hdd.

 

I have managed to recover all my data.
I used a program called R-STUDIO. I recommend it for anyone who experiences data loss. It took 7 hours to scan a 750GB HDD.

Needed to use the Fiance's PC for this one (Windows application)

Gonna invest in a Time Capsule and a bunch of DL DVDs now.
Thanks again for the tips ChrisA.

 

I picked up a WD My Book 1TB. It's recovering all the files onto that HDD right now (it'll take a while).

It would have been done sooner, but I encountered a problem the first time I tried recovering. It stopped at an image file I had which was 7.xxGB. It said there wasn't enough space on the disc left for it (It only recovered approximately 40GB worth, this file is only 7GB and the HDD capactiy is 1TB.)

I then realized the HDD was using FAT32. I assumed I was limited to much smaller files using an older FS so I changed it to NTFS. I haven't seen an error yet for file size so I think that was the problem.

Now my concern is using the NTFS HDD on my Mac. I know I can read NTFS drives, but will I be able to copy the files over to my 2nd HDD which uses Mac Journal? Is it possible, using Mac OS X, to transfer from NTFS to Mac Journal?