Lost NTFS Partitions on XP Pro

[Jesse]

Ok the situation:

After a recent crash my 120GB SATA HD now thinks it is blank. The HD is
not the drive my OS is on. After booting the machine up after the crash
the HD is there, the OS just thinks that it is Blank. It also thinks
that it is formatted. When booting up ChkDsk did not run nor did
Scandisk. The HD was formatted into 2 seperate NTFS partitions neither
of which is showing up. The HD appears to be one big Healthy
(according to Windows) NTFS partition at the moment. I have run some
Data Recovery Programs on the drive (just demos) to see if i could get
the information back. Sure enough the information is there, just not
accessable.
I have barely begun troubleshooting this but would appreciate any
advice that anyone here has.

Jesse

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Jesse,

Try testdisk from www.cgsecurity.org, it should be able to help.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

The drive has lost it's partition structure or it's partition "type".

This happens occasionally. To my knowledge no one has ever figured out "why"
it happens!

The fix is not for the faint of heart and there is one thing that you
absolutely need to know before you begin. What TYPE of FILE SYSTEM was being
used on the hard drive? If you are 100% certain that you know there is (may
be) a way to recover.

There is a little DOS program included with Partition Magic 8.01. It is
called ptedit. This program can only be used from within "pure DOS". When
you use Partition Magic 8.01 to create the 2 disk floppy set (the DOS
version of Partition Magic) this little program is placed in the set.

You have to boot the computer from disk 1 of the floppy set. Then insert
disk 2 when asked to. After you are in Partition Magic, EXIT from the
program. You will be back at the A: prompt. Re-insert floppy disk 1.

Now, type in ptedit and press enter. The program will start. This program
allows you to change the drive "type". It is imperative that you are certain
that you are working on the correct drive. You can choose drives at the top
of the program window. Once you have chosen the correct drive, click in the
**Line 1 | Type** box.

This will energize the "Set_Type" box at the bottom. Now click the mouse on
the "Set_Type" BOX. Look for the file system that you KNOW was being used.
There are many choices. Choose the correct file system and follow the
instructions from there.

NOTE: If you choose the wrong file system, and commit the change, you WILL
corrupt any information that is on the drive. This is absolute and
irrevocable!

I have successfully recovered about a dozen drives that have gone RAW, or
otherwise lost their partition structure, by using this great little DOS
program.

NOTE: The program CAN NOT be used from within Windows.

And "shame" on the computer manufacturers who deliver new computers without
a floppy drive installed!


There is also a Windows version of ptedit called ptedit32. The usage is the
same. Search Google to
find a source for this utility.


--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"