How to unhide partitions

[Matti Lamprhey]

I'm running XP Home (SP1) and my 1st drive is 160GB, containing 3
primary partitions formatted as NTFS. The 1st is the system/boot
partition (C at 40GB, the other two being data drives at 40GB and 80GB
(all sizes approx). I used Partition Magic 7 to delete the 2nd
partition and to extend the 1st (C to use all the released space. All
seemed well until I pressed 'Apply', when I got an odd error message
from PM7 which then crashed out. Now after a restart I find that the
Windows Drive Manager reports that the partition structure (and
presumably contents) have not been changed but that the two data
partitions have an 'unknown filesystem'. Partition Magic sees things
the same way, but reports the two partitions as Hidden. It lets me
Unhide them, but again I get an error when I try to Apply the change.

I've downloaded TestDisk from http://www.cgsecurity.org and had a quick
play under XP. It also sees the partitions as described above and marks
them as Hidden, but appears not to allow me to Unhide them.

Can anyone suggest a simple remedy?

Matti

 

[CJT]

I'm running XP Home (SP1) and my 1st drive is 160GB, containing 3
primary partitions formatted as NTFS. The 1st is the system/boot
partition (C at 40GB, the other two being data drives at 40GB and 80GB
(all sizes approx). I used Partition Magic 7 to delete the 2nd
partition and to extend the 1st (C to use all the released space. All
seemed well until I pressed 'Apply', when I got an odd error message
from PM7 which then crashed out. Now after a restart I find that the
Windows Drive Manager reports that the partition structure (and
presumably contents) have not been changed but that the two data
partitions have an 'unknown filesystem'. Partition Magic sees things
the same way, but reports the two partitions as Hidden. It lets me
Unhide them, but again I get an error when I try to Apply the change.

I've downloaded TestDisk from http://www.cgsecurity.org and had a quick
play under XP. It also sees the partitions as described above and marks
them as Hidden, but appears not to allow me to Unhide them.

Can anyone suggest a simple remedy?

Matti

Start over and load the backup.

FWIW, I've had about as much luck with Partition "Magic."
There's a reason they tell you to be sure to make a backup first.

 

[Matti Lamprhey]

Start over and load the backup.

FWIW, I've had about as much luck with Partition "Magic."
There's a reason they tell you to be sure to make a backup first.

I backed up the partitions I was trying to modify, of course, but not
the ones I was assuming would be left alone! Come on, chaps -- surely
it's just a bit in the partition table which needs toggling?

And as a related issue -- does anyone know whether there's a good reason
why PM7 might have failed in this task whilst PM8 would have been OK?
Now that PM has been bought by Symantec, their site has no info on the
earlier Powerquest versions.

Matti

 

[Arno Wagner]

Matti Lamprhey wrote:
Start over and load the backup.

FWIW, I've had about as much luck with Partition "Magic."
There's a reason they tell you to be sure to make a backup first.

I actually lost two complete installations with it. Fortunately
for the first I did not mind and for the second I had backup. Since
then I use GNU parted. Does not work with NTFS, but I use
FAT32 for Windows anyways.

Arno

 

[Arno Wagner]

I backed up the partitions I was trying to modify, of course, but not
the ones I was assuming would be left alone! Come on, chaps -- surely
it's just a bit in the partition table which needs toggling?

Sorry. PM can trash your whole disk and will do so happily.

And as a related issue -- does anyone know whether there's a good reason
why PM7 might have failed in this task whilst PM8 would have been OK?
Now that PM has been bought by Symantec, their site has no info on the
earlier Powerquest versions.

Personal impression: PM did not get more reliable over time.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I backed up the partitions I was trying to modify, of course, but not
the ones I was assuming would be left alone!

Come on, chaps -- surely it's just a bit in the partition table which needs toggling?

Right, so how difficult can it be to google partition table editor. Right?

 

[Matti Lamprhey]

Right, so how difficult can it be to google partition table editor.
Right?

Thanks for all the help -- I've sorted it myself now. I found a free
copy of Partition Manager 2005 in a recent PC Plus magazine, installed
it and used it to unhide the problem partitions and then go on to do the
originally planned config changes. I'm still not sure why Partition
Magic 7 screwed me up so royally.

Matti