Unexplained Conversion from NTFS To FAT32

[Guest]

I am running windows xp sp2 and have a partioned hard drive of 60g on C and
60g on D. It came shipped as FAT32 and I converted it to NTFS approx. 1 year
ago. Today on startup the computer did an automatic check disk of drive D.
This took ages to complete and now when I go to drive D there is only 2g of
space left (there was 35g before the check disk) and all my files and folders
have disappeared. Also it is coming up as a FAT32 drive again. Can anyone
explain what has happened and if I can retrieve my files? Any help would be
appreciated.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I am running windows xp sp2 and have a partioned hard drive of 60g
on C and 60g on D. It came shipped as FAT32 and I converted it to
NTFS approx. 1 year ago. Today on startup the computer did an
automatic check disk of drive D. This took ages to complete and now
when I go to drive D there is only 2g of space left (there was 35g
before the check disk) and all my files and folders have
disappeared. Also it is coming up as a FAT32 drive again. Can
anyone explain what has happened and if I can retrieve my files?
Any help would be appreciated.

What you seem to be describing does not sound like a conversion - but some
sort of restore or boot to a different partition.

What does Disk Manager show you in terms of partitions?

To start Disk Management:
1. Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
3. In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management
window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list
view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and
lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then
click the view that you want to use.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply. Disk management is as follows:
Volume (no name) partition-basic-fat32-Healthy(Unknown Partition)-Capacity
2gb-663mb free

Volume (C) partition-basic-NTFS-Healthy(System)-Capacity 53.38 gb-32.80 gb
free

Volume (D) partition-basic FAT32-Healthy-Capacity 56.39 gb-2.40 gb free.

Does this give you any further indication as to the problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I am running windows xp sp2 and have a partioned hard drive of
60g on C and 60g on D. It came shipped as FAT32 and I converted
it to NTFS approx. 1 year ago. Today on startup the computer did
an automatic check disk of drive D. This took ages to complete
and now when I go to drive D there is only 2g of space left
(there was 35g before the check disk) and all my files and
folders have disappeared. Also it is coming up as a FAT32 drive
again. Can anyone explain what has happened and if I can
retrieve my files? Any help would be appreciated.

What you seem to be describing does not sound like a conversion -
but some sort of restore or boot to a different partition.

What does Disk Manager show you in terms of partitions?

To start Disk Management:
1. Log on as administrator or as a member of the
Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click
OK.
3. In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk
Management window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a
graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks
and volumes in the upper and lower panes of the window, point to
Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the view that you
want to use.

Disk management is as follows:
Volume (no name) partition-basic-fat32-Healthy(Unknown
Partition)-Capacity 2gb-663mb free

Volume (C) partition-basic-NTFS-Healthy(System)-Capacity 53.38
gb-32.80 gb free

Volume (D) partition-basic FAT32-Healthy-Capacity 56.39 gb-2.40 gb
free.

Does this give you any further indication as to the problem?

Sort of..
As you can see, you have booted (somehow) to the 2GB unknown partition. The
C drive still exists - as does the D drive.

As to how you ended up booting from the 2GB partition - I do not know. What
is the name brand of the computer and have you contacted the manufacturer to
find out how you could have booted to the smaller partition and how to
correct this?

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your help, once again. My computer is an Acer Aspire. I will
try and contact them and see if they can help - although it is no longer
under warranty so I may not have much luck. I have a suspiscion it has
something to do with the 'knob monitor' which allows me to switch between
Pc,TV,Music,Radio & DVD as this morning on booting up another chk dsk was
done and tgere was a reference to bad sectors etc and I noticed the 'knob
monitor' was mentioned but it went too qucikly for me to write down the
message. If all else fails I will have to do a re-install and start with a
clean drive. Again thank you for your time.

Regards
Linda