um... partitions, please help!

[Csidinim]

Hi, I don't know where this question belongs, and I don't visit any tech forums; I hope you guys can still help me though! On one computer I partitioned a 40GB hd into a primary and an 8gb logical drive, both in fat32. I did this so I could transfer all of my data to the logical drive D: and reformat C: but this process seems to have taken away my D: too... I don't know whether it is still intact because C: now is still 29 gb at full capacity so it is not showing the full 40gb disk. How can I get it back?

I can't find D: in partition magic or the disk management thing. There is no trace of it anywhere!

If it helps, I reformatted with XP (also from XP) but chose to format C: into ntfs when I did it. I did the normal format (not the quick one) but it showed C: as 29gb size so I assumed it didnt involve the other 8gb partition. Did I dig my grave here?

I thought maybe it had to do with ntfs and fat32 conflicting on the same disk so I used PM to convert C: back to fat32 (without formatting it) but something went wrong and I had to reinstall XP again (again without formatting, trying to not start from scratch all over again). Gosh what a hole.


Help! Thanks!

 

[Csidinim]

also I installed a second hdd before the whole reformat, it is from an old win98 computer so it was in fat32, I had the jumpers and cables set up for slave but it cannot be detected either. I was hoping I could access the data still on it same as the 8gb logical drive but neither are anywhere.

 

[Braver]

I always use a knoppix (www.knoppix.net) bootable-CD and run QTparted to see how my drives are looking and if the partitions are fugazi. Trying to access it outside of Windows might be the trick to find the partition, but I'm not too sure it'll work.
Anyway, that way you'll see if the 8GB partition still exists, and windows simply for some reason does not see it. If it still exists you should be able to recover the data using Knoppix. However, it sounds like you killed the partition-table and all information of where files are located. Doesn't sound like you did anything wrong, fat should work next to ntfs without problems, but the situation sounds familiar enough (been there...).

another tip on the side: you can't convert te partition windows is running from to another filesystem, cause that partition is in use...big chance you'll kill the windows installation and PM should have notified you of this.

 

[hembergler]

The 29 gigs showing up out of 40 is for a few reasons. Firstly, hard drive manufacturers count gigabytes in 1000 bytes per kilobyte, 1000 kilobytes per megabyte, 1000 megabytes per kilobyte. But, in fact, the number is 1024, not 1000. Even though it says it's 40, it'll come out less. Also, Windows takes up quite a few gigs anyway, so there's another few gigs missing.

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hembergler The 29 gigs showing up out of 40 is for a few reasons. Firstly, hard drive manufacturers count gigabytes in 1000 bytes per kilobyte, 1000 kilobytes per megabyte, 1000 megabytes per kilobyte. But, in fact, the number is 1024, not 1000. Even though it says it's 40, it'll come out less. Also, Windows takes up quite a few gigs anyway, so there's another few gigs missing.

ok first of all the OP says that it shows 29 gb at full capacity, so that would include windows and other files. and you're not going to lose 11 gb (almost 30% loss!) due to the deci-binary discrepancy but rather between 2-3 gb, which would be 29 gb plus the 8 gb he's wondering about.

 

[hembergler]

Ah, true true. Probably a problem with the partition-table then.