Hard drive suddenly not formatted

[imported_wicka]

I was going to install XP on a partition of one of my drives (Seagate), so I made a 50GB NTFS partition. It worked 100% fine until I rebooted later and Windows 1. reported the drive as not being formatted (RAW) and 2. said it was 128GB (it is 250GB).

Has this happened to anyone before? Can I fix this without ridic data recovery?

Thanks.

 

[ForumMaster]

what windows xp version is it? i suggest slipstreaming SP2. it supports 48-bit addressing which is your problem. read this.

 

[Blain]

Just restore the backup image that you created.

 

[corkyg]

I couldn't find any reference to a backup image - but unless the XP version installed was slipstreamed with SP1 or SP2 (Includes SP1) then what happened is as stated in the referenced Microsoft bulletin.

It would help to know how the system was booted BEFORE installing XP in the 50 MB partition. There would then be more solutions available depending on the OS and version.

 

[imported_wicka]

I'm using Vista. XP was never installed. I never made a backup image, and try not to be an ass, because it's just not helpful at all.

From what I've read on Google, I think was just happened is that the partition table was corrupted when I changed the partitions, and now Windows just can't read it. There are a few programs out there that should be able to restore it.

 

[corkyg]

OK - Vista is very good about partition repair. Boot using your Vista DVD and then do a Repair Install. It doesn't take long. Been there - done that.

 

[imported_wicka]

Frankly, the last thing I would like to do is use Vista to fix it, since it was Vista's disk management program that screwed it up in the first place.

 

[corkyg]

That's not exactly a useful notion. If that is the case, why not let it fix it? It may not have been the cause of the problem inthe first place. I have used Vista's disk management to create a partition, and never had a problem. Sometimes problems stem from procedural errors. In your current situation, what have you got to lose? Give it a chance.

 

[imported_wicka]

What have I got to lose? Over 100gb of music and movies.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: wicka
What have I got to lose? Over 100gb of music and movies.

But you can get those back by loading them from the original disks that you own.

 

[corkyg]

You won't lose any of that. The worst thing that can happen is that is will be unable to fix the partition.

If you have Partition Magic 8, you might ne able to boot with its CD and do a repair. Or , try BART PE.

Or . . . remove the drive and put it in an external enclosure and see if you can access the data from another computer. Then you can consider backing up your treasures.