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Updated: Partition Magic 8.0 made two partions disappear!!!

M

mdcrab

Platinum Member
I tried Partition Magic 8.0 on my Maxtor 80 Gig HD. Originally had 3 partions C:, H:, & I: each approximately 27 gig. Created rescue disks using PM 8.0. Tried a merge of H: partition with C:.

During the merge got an "Error 1520 while executing batch." and "Error 1520 External Attribute Header
mismatch."

After the merge and reboot both H: & I: are gone and folder "C:\OldHDrive" which is supposed to contain the H:\Drive contents is empty. New merged C: Drive is 27 Gig same as before!!!? No H: or I: drive can be found.

Partition Magic will not open, even after reinstall, Init Failed: Error 1117.

Tried Resue Disk and get Error #71.

Tried MaxBlaster3, but it only finds C: ( Disk 2, Vol 1 ) (Says Disk 2, but I have only one HD?)

Is there another program I can try to repair my partition table? Any other ideas?
Would it be worth trying "GoBack"?

I do not like this "Magic"

Thanks,

mdcrab

PS I am running Windows XP Pro SP2. All partitions are NTFS.

Update 12/11/04: Recovered most of files using Handy Recovery. First transferred operating boot partition to new WD 120 gb HD and set up new drive as master and old (with lost partitions) as slave. Rebooted installed Handy Recovery Demo on new drive and determined that I could read files on lost partition after running a 25 minute scan. Demo can only recover one file a day, so I went to web site purchased s/w and received SN by email, entered into software and recovered whole directory structure, substructure and files (~70 subdirectories w/ ~ 60 jpg in each) with one click.

Highly recommend "Handy Recovery". Tried 4 or 5 other s/w demos, but none seemed as good for the price. even one that cost $130 was more complicated (required setting up FAT32 partitions to recover files to). Handy Recovery copied My Pictures directory and everything to my new C:\
 
It looks like GoBack is not an option. Norton Systems Works was giving me a lot of errors, so I removed it and I think it removed GoBack as well. Can't reinstall GoBack as it says that have partition table errors, so GoBack is not an option.

Does "System Restore" restore the partition table as well? Is this an option?

mdcrab
 
I doubt System Restore will help, but it might not hurt to try it, if it's not going to hose your data. I have used Partition Magic many times with success, but it is not tolerant of partition table errors and will not run if there are errors it can't fix, though Windows may run fine. (Windows ignores certain hard drive parameters) Your only solution may be to back up what you have and do a low-level reformat. You may consider Spinrite from GRC.com, I don't know if that can solve your problem or not. If you can't recover the partition table somehow, you will lose data.
 
earthman, thanks, I will keep this in mind.

I would like to try to recover the data on the two partitions that I can no longer see, so I am interested in other options as well. I saw in another thread two cmd line programs mbr /r & FDISK /MBR. Should I try any of these or other options first?

mdcrab
 
Tried testdisk and it seems to recognize the primary boot partition and an extended LBA partition, but it does not seem to be able to recognize or repair to the old H; and I: drive partitions. Tried system restore but that did not work either, althought at the beginnig it said that it could not recover any changes made to H: & I: after the restore point. Had hopes that it would recover the partitions, but unfortunately no cigar.

stevty2889, thanks for the suggestion.

mdcrab
 
Saw in another thread that running fixmbr and then fixboot from "Windows XP recovery console".
I tried from Command Prompt but it did not work. Tried to get to recovery console by booting from Windows XP CD, but it would not let me do much because CD is original Win XP Pro and I am now running Win XP Pro SP2. What is best way to get to recovery console?

Thanks,
mdcrab
 
Purchased a program at Staples tonite called "Partition Commander, Ver 9" by V-COM. Has anyone heard or have experience with this product or company. Haven't opened it yet, so I still can take it back.

mdcrab
 
Partition Magic is known to cause problems when used for merging partitions.
Partition Magic comes with some utilities that may be able to fix the partition table.

You cannot fix your problem with XP restore or recovery console.
Your problem is at a lower level. The operating system cannot do anything about it.

If you have a backup of the data, just forget about it. Create new partitions and install everything again. That is the easiest way.

If you have data on those partitions that you cannot replace, do some research on the utilities that come with Partition Magic, which you should have. For example, PTEDIT.

If that fails, you can use data recovery programs that let you recover files. You can domnload demos that try it out. They let you see the file names. To recover them, you will need to buy the product.
This is just an example. The first hit in a search that I just did.
http://www.quetek.com/Recovery-Reviews-1Q2004.htm
 
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