Unknown Partition

[Johnny B]

I recently recovered my PC running Windows XP Home from my rceovery CDs.
Prior to the recovery, I had 2 partitions on one physical hard drive. One
partition was designated the C: drive, and the other was designated E: drive
where I kept my data.

The recovery process formatted the C: drive and reloaded the data from the
recovery CDs. The other partition still exists, but no longer has a drive
letter designated to it. That partition is "unknown" to Windows. I cannot
access it to read any of my data. I've tried to use Disk Management to
re-assign the drive letter, but the only option that I am able to choose is
"delete partition".

Is there any way I can re-asign the drive letter to that partition and/or
copy the data?

Thanks, John

 

[Will Denny]

Hi John

Try contacting your PC supplier. There may be something installed when
using their Recovery disk(s).

 

[Johnny B]

Here's what I fianally ended up doing to resolve this problem. I used the
Norton Ghost GDSISK function to "UNHIDE" the unknown partition.

I'm not sure if the partition was back right after I used GDSISK, or the
machine needed a reboot, but I am able to access the partition without any
problems.

Thanks, John

 

[johnny]

I believe the unknown partition that you're referring to contains the
original factory settings and, if so, I highly recommend that you leave it
alone unless you have a copy of the OS and other program files on CD's or
disk image (in case you need to restore a corrupted partition). It appears
that the BIOS in the newer computers hide the partition with the original
factory settings so that the end user can't screw things up (well, in
theory).