bif Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 This is my first forum entry anywhere--I've used enough information from forums already to sink a ship, but this will be my first active foray...Computer: Acer 1613LMi 3.06 GHz 512 Ram 60GBMy Computer has a C: and D:, factory set, (I only bought the computer two weeks ago), and I had all my personal data on D:. Then I reformatted C:, only to find that the computer had decided to reformat D: for me as well, free of charge.So, in a nutshell, I lost all my data, which I've spent the past week trying to salvage with numerous freeware programs, and been quite successful, I might add! By two days ago, I had recovered about 90-95% of the lost data.It felt like a pretty happy ending.Then, suddenly, my D: disappeared from the computer. The D: drive was the drive in which I had stored all the recovered data. It is not able to be accessed from anywhere. It still appears as being there as far as the Disk Manager is concerned, but I cannot see it nor access it from any where else.I have no idea where to begin with something like this. Any ideas? I did nothing new prior to the drive disappearing. It is as though the drive has been hidden, but how? How to return it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest northamuk Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 bif, it can take a while for the right person to read your query, but you will get an answer.In the meantime can you post the OS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bif Posted May 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 Guess I forgot to say: Windows XP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madboy33 Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 Hi bifFirst of all welcomeOk the problemyou say that you have a 60gb drive is that the C: drive? Or is the one drive split into 2? ie 120gb drive split into 2 60gb's ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ellas Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 if you can get hold of something like partion magic you should be able to recover it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trackrat Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 Have you checked in the disk management ( start/control panel/ performance & maintainence/administrive tools/computer management/Disk management.All your drives should show in their, right click on the D drive if it is in their and left click explore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bif Posted May 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 Madboy: Thank you for the welcome60 Gb harddrive partitioned as follows: 50Gb C:10Gb D: (was anyway)Trackrat:Disk manager sees the D: and has labeled it an unknown partition (I'm translating from German "unbekannte partition"), and it labels the C: as a system partition. If I left click on the D: in disk manager, nothing happens. When I right click, in the drop down menu, my only option which is not invisible (inactive) is "erase partition"Ellas:I'll run partition magic and see what happens. I'm a bit fearful of this product, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bif Posted May 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 Here's some handy info:Partition magic sees the partition and labels it a hidden parition. Selecting the parition and right clicking gives a drop down menu. On the menu is a wonderful feature "unhide partition"! I selected unhide and applied the action--it all seemed too simple!The computer said it needed to reboot and i let it. Partition magic performed its operation and the computer rebooted again. So far so good.Upon rebooting, however, no changes were visible. The D: is still unavailable. Partition magic still labels the D: as hidden. I tried the entire process again. No dice. At least the problem has been narrowed down a bit. I have a hidden partition which I can't unhide. At least the data is there. But... how to unhide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 When you unhide the partition boot into safe mode.Copy what you want off D [if you can] so you have what you need. Then boot into Windows and delete that D partition [diskmgmt.msc], create a new partition, copy everything back if you want.P.s. you wouldn't have Drive Image would you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrissey Posted May 4, 2004 Report Share Posted May 4, 2004 as i see it, if drive D is hidden in PM, then i guess it's a primaray partition,PM may only allow you to see 1 active primaray partition at a time, and that usually contains the OS,i think you need to convert drive D, into an extended\logical partition,in PM give focus to drive D, rightclick choose convert, and select 'logical partition' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bif Posted May 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Morrissey is the winner!!!He correctly assumed that D: was yes, somehow, a primary partition. After changing D: to logical with partition magic (took hours, but simple), I tried the unhide function with PM and voila--The D: drive is back. All data accessable. Thank you everyone for helping me. It was a wonderful first forum experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
expertec Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Good good, glad you got it sorted, stay around, post a bit more :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 There you go bif, i told you that some one from this forum would sort it for you.See you in the pub :) Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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