HDD data recovery. I am encountering a problem that could have a solution. I recently used

Question

I am encountering a problem that could have a solution. I recently used partition magic to copy C: drives xp pro sp2 from 1st primary partition to 3rd primary partition. After the 1st main C: partition and before the 3rd primary partition existed a 2nd primary partition as a data store source. Problem is that after a copy of the 1st xp pro sp2 was copied to the 3rd primary partition, the data from the 2nd primary partition has appeared to be deleted. I have used data recovery softwares and have found the data on that partition and can restore the data by means of manually creating new folders to sort these data files recovered. This method is although frustrating as I have recently found that a file folder that had been deleted/unindexed from that data store partition has appeared but with no previous data that was there but with new data recently save on another partition. Does any one know how this is possible and how to fix with least effort?