Data recovery software
 

I installed IDE RAID adapter (PCI) and connected 2 HDs (different size, with datas in them) on it without any RAIDs set up. It worked just fine. Then, I tried to play around with the RAID configuration without knowing how the thing actually works. It resulted my HDs were not detected by Windows XP (altough they were detected on BIOS).
I made an empty partition on one of them just to make it appear on Windows. That way, I think it is easier to recover the data from Windows.

The question, do you know any good data recovery softwares that suit this kind of problem? I've seen a lot of them, but I'm not sure which one is good. Or maybe even better if someone willing to guide me through the process of recovering my (important) data. Any helps will be appreciated.

Whoa there, back up a step.

First off what is the purpose of setting up the raid, are you doing mirroring or do you want to do a striped RAID (mulitple drives that appear as one)?

Typically in a raid setup, you want to use drives that are the same size. This is required for mirroring.

What version of Windows are you running?

The perpose of setting up the RAID? Uhmm ... just an experiment I guess, and it came backfired on me.
I'm running Windows XP Pro.

By the way, I did a striped RAID. But forget about RAID set ups for now as I desperately need my data back. Don't ask why I did RAID. I just didn't know anything about it and foolishly tried to set it up.

Sorry for multiple posting, but I forgot to add that the HDs are now recognized as unformated HDs. I know the data is still there, because I haven't done anything else with the HD. That is why, I think, data recovery program is the way to go.

Have you tried turning the Raid off, or putting these drives back on the standard IDE channels to see if anything pops up?

By the way, after you make a post, you can hit edit in the lower right corner of that post and edit it. This way you won't have to do multiple posts.

I did and nothing happened. I even put one of the HD back with the motherboard (non RAID) and disconnect the other and the HD still didn't come out in WinXP.

After it's striped you'll lose the data. I'm experimenting with Ontrack's EasyRecovery Professional 6 (I have some data recovery issues of my own) and there's an option for Raw Recovery which is what you'll probably need. I don't know any other recovery softwares so I'm waiting for suggestions as well.