PartitionMagic, unreadable partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nikki Casali
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Nikki Casali

I have 3 partitions on my 160GB hard disk, C, D and E. I decided to
shrink E, which is 130GB, by 5 GB and create a new 5GB partition in the
free space. This was done by ParitionMagic 7.

PM7 rebooted the computer and applied the changes. After it finished
this process with no errors it decided to reboot the machine. I'm not
sure what it was doing on the second reboot, but it came up with some
error saying the drives were configured differently in boot mode and
couldn't finish applying changes but the problem could be easily corrected.

When I rebooted into Windows 2000, my 125GB E: partition now appears
unformatted with file system unknown. The new 5GB F: partition looks fine.

When I investigate drive E: with PM7 it shows no errors and displays a
seemingly correct number for the files, directories, used and free
space. Using PM7's "Check for errors" it shows none.

How can I get my E: partition back to a state in which Windows 2000 can
read it again. PM7 can find no fault!

Surely, it's just a few bytes that need changing in the partition
tables? Any programs I can download to fix it?

Thanks for any help!

Nikki
 
I just purchased Active@ Partition Recovery, maybe complete waste of
money. I'm not quite sure what's wrong with the unreadable partition so
I don't know what to get!

Active@ Partition Recovery displays no abnormal information for my
"lost" partition, except for the partition size which it says is ##.3
GB. It shows me that all the files and directories are completely
intact. If there's nothing wrong, there's nothing to fix.

So why does Windows 2000 show it as unformated with no known file
system? It appears that only Windows 2000 thinks there's anything wrong
with it.

Anyone clever out there?

Nikki
 
All solved.



Nikki said:
I just purchased Active@ Partition Recovery, maybe complete waste of
money. I'm not quite sure what's wrong with the unreadable partition so
I don't know what to get!

Active@ Partition Recovery displays no abnormal information for my
"lost" partition, except for the partition size which it says is ##.3
GB. It shows me that all the files and directories are completely
intact. If there's nothing wrong, there's nothing to fix.

So why does Windows 2000 show it as unformated with no known file
system? It appears that only Windows 2000 thinks there's anything wrong
with it.

Anyone clever out there?

Nikki
Click to expand...
 
Nikki said:
All solved.
Click to expand...


Hello, Nikki:

Post your solution, please. That's what these computer newsgroups are
for, mainly...sharing knowledge, among the Usenet community.


Cordially,
 
Running Windows 2000 with SP4, Maxtor's Big Drive Enabler and a Maxtor
160GB hard drive with FAT32.

OK, I told Partition Magic 7 to add a new 5GB partition at the very end
of my 3rd 130GB partition on my 160GB hard drive. At the very end of the
process PM fails with:

"Error 626 Operation is to be performed on a hard drive not visible
from boot mode"

So what did that mean? Well, it meant that my 130GB E: partition now
couldn't be read any more by W2k (unformatted with 0 bytes available)
and the newly created parition F: was fine.

PM 7 & 8 diagnosed the E: partitions as perfectly fine and readable.

Not knowing what the problem could be, I downloaded "Active@ Partition
Recovery 2.1". Well, that also diagnosed the E: partition as having no
problem whatsoever! All files were visible from its navigator. Nothing
to fix!

Next I downloaded "Partition Table Doctor 2.0" and it immediately
noticed that the beginnings of partitions 2, 3 and 4 where starting at
wrong head and sectors. I told it to correct this. When booting back
into W2K, W2K still couldn't see my E: partition correctly, with 0 bytes
free and used.

I then told Partition Table Doctor 2.0 to reconstruct all the partitions
tables from scratch in one of its options. This worked!

I shall never use Partition Magic again on a hard drive larger than a
few gigabytes. Use the free BootItNG instead.

Nikki
 
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