Complete Idiot Mistake

.

Don't know what software you use, but if you can get it onto a 
Flash drive and run it you should be able to recover the partition(s)

That's why it's always good to have an emergency boot disk (either on 
a flash drive or a CD or DVD) with your software tools on it...

Many of the free partition softwares can do this...you just have to
to get to another computer and make a boot disk with the software on it
to be able to run it to make the recovery (as long as nothing else has been 
done since you deleted the partitions)

Don't know if that helped or not...

Also, thanks Karyn. What I came up with too. Waiting for Easus to either work or fail with the recovery, several hours more grinding away. Then Active Partition Recovery.
 
Really appreciate your time to research and advise.
 
John
 

Karyn,
 
Yes, see this problem on the horizon.
 
Severe lesson for me going forward. Dollars and time will heal the crash as much as I can open the credit card. Time however, something we can't put a dollar sign on as we tick through what is left in our short stay here.
 
John

Kite,
 
Well, that makes me feel better (slightly)
 
Really messed up the disc but have gotten back to getting win XP installed, all the way back to sp2.  Wow, there is goes, even more primitive than out of the box. Everything wiped to zero.
 
This could be a blessing though...and a bit at peace with my forced annihilation.
 
Will install Sonar, Reaper, Audition, soundcard and then only the vst/vsti needed and used. Hundreds and hundreds of plugins never used down to a few.
 
Best,
John

I feel for you man, that's an awful thing to happen. I've lost everything before and it stings. It's like getting mugged, you keep thinking about it for days afterwards and wincing. I hope you get everything up and running again. I'm pretty sure you will. There will come a time when you see the bright side, which always results from installing everything from scratch. As you say, more slim and trim. I always let things get out of hand on my machines, lots of disorganization and never being 100% sure where everything is. Piecing it all back together methodically really helps tidy everything up in your mind. 

Now thanks for the reminder about Ultra Channel, I had forgotten I had it! Can't understand why it got left by the wayside because it's such an awesome plug...yeah you gotta get that baby up and running again. 

Days in the trenches trying to get some reconstruction of a workable DAW.
 
Hard battle with NI Kontakt over multiple errors in the reactivation process. Actually, not a battle yet because have received confirmation of a ticket but no response. These guys are cool and helpful even though it's been a week this time around. Just want to get Kontakt 5 and the libraries running again. Everything is screwed up on multiple levels in a nightmare of reactivation blocks.
 
Respect again for Cakewalk's unconstipated registration requirements. Model we have to support while everything is trending toward call response activation and subscription models.
 
Wanted ZTA on the new disc and flew through activation without a problem. Thanks Cake.
 
Funny how the industry goes. My Sonar and plugin licenses are as good as in Fort Knox as far as sharing and piracy is concerned. Paid good hard earned moral cash and respect the license agreement.
 
Kontakt... Could cut the misery short and download any number of cracks to get me running again in a New York minute. Trying to do it by the book this time, but the loss of time cannot be recovered.
 
Up and running except for Kontakt. Maybe hear from them next week.
 
John
 
 

I have found NI email suport wanting. Get them on the phone and they are very helpful.

Friends,
 
Reporting back from the trenches.
Ancient XP rig back together, cut down to some balance between what is needed and mess of excess plugins before the crash.
 
Some saint here advised that backup has to be in two locations. Done that on two external hard drives. Since I'm in a Tsunami zone, should probably send one of the backups to my sister in flat land Texas.
 
Other off topic, did you guts see the latest Music Radar lineup of their opinion, best free vst and vsti plugs for 2014?  Thought I had them all, but some gems in the vsti realm I missed. Great free synths. Some require getting deeper into the website or KRV to get preset banks.
 
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/...-synths-615790
 
Peace to all,
 
John