missing extended partition- XP Home

[Gail C]

I really screwed up!!!. Being new to XP I thought I could "look" at the
receovery Cd fromthe OEM. So I clicked on "boot from CD". All too quickly
files were loaded and a format began. I interrupted that but when i went to
use the "emergency disk" I had created, I was missing a file (hal.dll) and
could do nothing. I asked the store that sold me the computer and a friend
if I continued would i lose the data in the extended partiion and its
logical drives. Both assured me that logical drives were untouched and to go
ahead. I did reinstall from the recovery CD. But now I cannot see any
extended partition or logical drives via Windows Exploer or My Computer.
Would someone please help me. Because i was so intent on learning XP i did
get lax with my backup and in danger of losing ten years work



thanks gail

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

In most cases, a PC manufacturer's Recovery CD will return the system
to the same configuration as the day it left the factory. If you had created
additional partitions, using the Recovery CD will delete all partitions and
recreate just the one(s) it originally had.

Try the following:

1. Right-click on My Computer and select Manage.
2. Click once on Disk Management to highlight it.
3. Then from the Computer Management toolbar,
click on Action > Rescan Disks.
4. If any extended logical drives or extended partitions
still exist, they should appear. If they don't, they were
permanently deleted when you used the Recovery CD.

You can also try using a third-party partitioning program,
such as Partition Magic 8, and attempt to find them if they
are still in existence.

Partition Magic 8
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Gail C" <gailc550(at)yahoo(dot)ca> wrote in message:

|I really screwed up!!!. Being new to XP I thought I could "look" at the
| receovery Cd fromthe OEM. So I clicked on "boot from CD". All too quickly
| files were loaded and a format began. I interrupted that but when i went to
| use the "emergency disk" I had created, I was missing a file (hal.dll) and
| could do nothing. I asked the store that sold me the computer and a friend
| if I continued would i lose the data in the extended partiion and its
| logical drives. Both assured me that logical drives were untouched and to go
| ahead. I did reinstall from the recovery CD. But now I cannot see any
| extended partition or logical drives via Windows Exploer or My Computer.
| Would someone please help me. Because i was so intent on learning XP i did
| get lax with my backup and in danger of losing ten years work
|
| thanks gail

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I really screwed up!!!. Being new to XP I thought I could "look" at the
receovery Cd fromthe OEM. So I clicked on "boot from CD". All too quickly
files were loaded and a format began. I interrupted that but when i went to
use the "emergency disk" I had created, I was missing a file (hal.dll) and
could do nothing. I asked the store that sold me the computer and a friend
if I continued would i lose the data in the extended partiion and its
logical drives. Both assured me that logical drives were untouched and to go
ahead. I did reinstall from the recovery CD. But now I cannot see any
extended partition or logical drives via Windows Exploer or My Computer.
Would someone please help me. Because i was so intent on learning XP i did
get lax with my backup and in danger of losing ten years work



thanks gail

I have used Recovery Expert from www.acronis.com successfully
to recover partitions.

I suppose you realise that the backup problem is not related to
your learning effort with Windows XP. Important files must be
backed up every week to an independent medium. Those who
ignore this fundamental rule will sooner or later get a strong
incentive to reconsider their backup strategy.

I you have ten years' worth of data on your disk that was never
backed up to an independent medium then you should take the
disk to a data recovery bureau and ask them for a quotation. The
risk of losing all this valuable work is too great. Even just installing
recovery software could ruin your last chance of recovering
your files.

 

[Erik Rozman]

Hi,

Since you have 10 years worth of data on the system I would recommend
turning to a company that recovers data.

Hope it works out for you,
Erik.

 

[Gail C]

thanks Pegasus. I did have backups of a type. I was using PQ Magic to
partition and manage the hard drive One of the logical drives (N) was used
with PQ Magic's Datakeeper program and monitored constantly. So if i can
get at the extended partition all my data is backed up there.

Using PQ Magic does not show the ext partition either. I see where
Microsoft has a hot fix for these types of errors ( I think) KB 832316 and
KB 824024. But I am not not sure what to do with them