Partitioned drive lost

[Ted]

XPpro with two HDs, CDr/w and DVDr/w.
My system was
3.5 floppy
Local Disk(C
FRSTHAFOLD(D
SNDHAFOLD(E

(D AND (E are (were?) a 20G drive which I
partitioned over a year ago.
This morning I came across a 4G drive in an old box. (really).
Being a curious type I pulled the power and ribbon leads from the DVD and
plugged them into the 4G HD, after setting the jumper to slave.
Then switched on.
A dos line appeared saying 'automatically configuring an F: drive'
After which Windows appeared to boot up normally.
Except that 'My Computer' showed no (D
The 4G (F drive showed as not formated.
So... I removed the 4G and replaced the leads back to the DVD.

Now 'My Computer' shows
3.5 floppy
Local Disk(C
FRSTHAFOLD(D 9G abt

Notice NO (E

Not only that but my D drive is missing lots of files and folders wont open.
It seems that the partitioning has been forgotten!

I have checked what bios settings there are (not many on Compaq 5000)
And the bios sees my main C:drive and only one 20G disk

I have a bad feeling about this
Is there any way to get things back to normal?
Please
Ted

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Ted,

Two uilities that may help:

testdisk www.cgsecurity.com
mbrwork www.terabyteunlimited.com

Both are free, but should be used with caution as they are powerful tools
that could easily make matters worse. Make sure to read the documentation
fully.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

what does it show in the device manager? and in administrative tools then
computer management then disk management?