data-partition disappeared

[Kees]

My data partition E has suddenly disappeared out of sight. The primary active partition boots up fine, but when I go to Computer the E has gone. Using a live-CD the former volume (E) is now listed as unallocated and not formatted. Any suggestion how to bring things back to order?

[Granny]

My data partition E has suddenly disappeared out of sight. The primary active partition boots up fine, but when I go to Computer the E has gone. Using a live-CD the former volume (E) is now listed as unallocated and not formatted. Any suggestion how to bring things back to order?

When you go into Administrative Tools, Disk Manager does it show anything for the E: partition?

What OS are you on? version etc

using a 3rd party boot manager? dual boot?

[Kees]

When you go into Administrative Tools, Disk Manager does it show anything for the E: partition?

What OS are you on? version etc

using a 3rd party boot manager? dual boot?

Originally it was a dualboot Vista/XP, with Vista installed first (stupidly enough). I then used AcronisTrue Image 9 to "restore" XP, which was a mistake (BSOD, message like "No NTLDR found" etc.), resulting in the now inaccessible XP partition being assigned the letter C (instead of D). Ultimately I had to reinstall XP (with the never-used Vista still on the disk) now labelled C. Recently I enlarged that partition with Easeus Home, which went fine. Yesterday, after fiddling around with Cyberlink PowerDVD8 (which would not accept AVI for some reason) the DAta partition no longer showed up. I fired up Easeus and saw the space of the unlabelled volume (E) as unallocated and not formatted. The damage is not totally devastating, because I made a backup a month ago. What intrigues me is what went wrong.

[Granny]

Disk Manager, in Administrative Tools shows nothing for that partition?

[Kees]

Nope. The unallocated diskspace has been enlarged with the equivalent of that former partition E. I am afraid I will have to live with it and just make a new data partition. It is the first time this happens, so far, all crashes were the primary active OS partition.

[ashboy039]

try checking your partition E if you can see it.

from Administrative tools ---> Computer Management ---> Storage ---> Disc Mangement.

try changing the label of your partition from E to something else like F maybe and/or activate it. If you can locate it.

[Granny]

Originally it was a dualboot Vista/XP, with Vista installed first (stupidly enough). I then used AcronisTrue Image 9 to "restore" XP, which was a mistake (BSOD, message like "No NTLDR found" etc.), I fired up Easeus and saw the space of the unlabelled volume (E) as unallocated and not formatted. The damage is not totally devastating, because I made a backup a month ago. What intrigues me is what went wrong.

Sorry for your troubles - but I have found that dual booting, mixed with Acronis or another restore program, and then a partition manager thrown into the mix, make it very difficult to assess just what went wrong.

Luckily you had backed up up your data! If it were mine, I would likely play around with the partition manager, to see if I could learn how to fix it..... but in terms of time spent, and because you have backups, probably not worth your time.

'Tis indeed a learning process.

Sorry not to have been of more help.

[Kees]

Thanks for your help, guys. Yes, I will create a new partition. The only thing that worries me is that something in my configuration history seems to make my system instable.

[Granny]

Thanks for your help, guys. Yes, I will create a new partition. The only thing that worries me is that something in my configuration history seems to make my system instable.

I think that when you have had a messed up dual boot, restored an image over it which isolated the original operating system, in this case Vista, which was installed first, ntldr problems and so on, the only 'pure' fix is to back up your drivers, and all your data, boot from a cd and format/clean your hard drive, create your partition, and re-install.

I do not normally tell people to reinstall, but in some cases it is the only sure fix for an unstable system.

Repairing is good for fixing a single incident, but when multiple messes are involved, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and reinstall.

Good Luck.

[Kees]

Thanks Granny, you are just saying aloud what I have been dreading secretly for a while: that I have to rebuild my system from scratch.
To complicate matters: I also have a hidden partition made by Acronis, which I probably have to remove first, (something that I have not yet found out how to do). Hidden partitions are hard to eliminate.