Windows XP, does not see SATA HDD after removing Linux partitions usin

[ngueorguiev]

Hello everyone,

I have an old PC with Windows XP Pro. XP boots from 40GB ATA HDD, second HDD is 300GB SATA.

SATA disk was partitioned into two partitions - 30GB and 270GB.

On 30GB (an unallocated partition), I installed openSuSE 12.1, tested it, and decided to remove it.

The 30Gigs were repartioned as 1GB swap, 11GB Linux system partition and 18GB for user directories ( /u ).

Using SuSE's YaST I restored the previous MBR.

Booted the PC back to Windows XP, it was working fine.

Using Windows XP's Disk Management I wanted to delete the three Linux partitions. So, I deleted the first one, the info for the sizes of the other partitions on the 300GB SATA HDD became totally wrong ( someting about 1.44TB unallocated space and so).

I decided to solve "the bug" by rebooting the Windows, after the reboot, Windows XP was nor able to "recognize" the SATA disk anymore in the Disk Management screen. My data on the 270GB partion are "lost" and I need some of them. I don't have a backup of them. ;(

Is there some way to fix the issue?

I booted my PC with the XP installation disk, went to the repair console, used DiskPart, it does not see the SATA disk (I didn't use the F6 option).

Issued FixMBR, it worked fine.

Now, Windows XP works "fine", except that I am not able to access the data I need.

Thanks to everyone who helps me to solve the issue.

[MANEMAN]

Boot your computer from a Linux live CD. I would suggest Parted Magic as one of the easiest to use with the most useful tools in your particular case. ( http://www.freewaref...gram_50063.html )

"The program is directly bootable from a CD or USB flash drive on PC hardware, and does not require installation, or the presence of an installed operating system."

Use "Testdisk" (On the CD) to recover your parttion or files.

Use the following links to allow you to discover how to recover the partition / files. There are some good tutorials and YouTube videos to give you plenty of guidance.

(The following links may appear the same, but deal with two distinct approaches which gives more content)

https://www.google.c...iw=1280&bih=609

https://www.google.c...iw=1280&bih=609

You could also use a Windows based file recovery program of course ( Recuva ?) but I think testdisk is going to do a better job in this case. Once you have recovered your data, completely format the drive wiping all partitions.

There is always the danger of losing data or corrupting a file system even when doing something as simple as resizing a partition. The simple rule is, - dont do it if there is the chance of losing important data.

As you have found out, a backup is a must in these situations. That is not a smug remark. We have all done it at sometime in the past. :(

All the best of luck.

John.

[ngueorguiev]

Hello,

Thanks, it's worked.

:D