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I reinstalled Windows XP over a windows 7 Ultimate. I have a SATA HDD (320go) and now that I installed Windows XP pro, I only see a C:\ drive with 130go. So basically, my 2 other partitions are gone... where?!?!

In my computer I only see the C:\ drive.

In Computer Management, I only see Disk0 as my C:\ drive. 130go still.

Is there an apps that can recover my 2 "lost" partitions or I would need to perform something else?

Thanks!

David.

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  • So ... what happened? I'm curious as to what happened with your hard disk? May 28, 2010 at 13:42
  • I only bought a new HDD because this one was craked... or broken... Then reinstall from scratch. It was not a big deal to lose all of it but I needed an answer quick
    – r0ca
    Jun 2, 2010 at 13:28

4 Answers 4

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+100

There are 2 things I can think of to try.

The first is to put the Windows XP disc in and go to the Recovery console. Once there, running a "fixboot" and a "fixmbr" may help reset the boot record to see the missing partitions. The order never seemed to make a difference and I've never had a data loss event from running these options.

The second is to use a GParted LiveCD which should be able to help you adjust your partitions. Gparted is free to use. A brief walk through on using GParted is available at howtoforge. You may want to backup any significant data before using GParted. It's generally okay to use on live data, but better safe than sorry.

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Are you complete sure those partitions need to be recover, insted of just assing it a Drive letter?

I had that issue so many times with XP. Try the Following:

  • Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
  • In the console tree, click Disk Management.

If you can see the partitions here, just right click any of those and select Change drive letter and asing one.

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  • I don't see it. Well, I see Disk0 but it's only 130go. In fact, the HDD is 320go...
    – r0ca
    May 18, 2010 at 14:58
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Is it possible that during the install of Windows XP SP0 ... if that is indeed what you did ... that the partition table in the Master Boot Record (MBR) was "corrected" (truncated) because the software did not see the entire disk?

How much space is reported for the disk by Disk Manager? (Run the command diskmgmt.msc in a command window to open the Disk Manager utility in Windows)

BTW, I'm confused by your usage of "go" instead of "GB" (for GigaBytes). What the heck is "go"?

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You'll need to install XP from an SP1 (or higher) CD to get it to see above 130GB from the get go. It's due to XP SP0 not having 48-bit LBA addressing.

If you install SP1 (or rather SP3 these days) after the fact, you may have to go edit the registry to turn on LBA48 so you can see over 137GB.

Check out this MS article ("How to enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing support for ATAPI disk drives in Windows XP") which explains it well, and tells you how to enable it via the registry (etc.).

You can also make a new XP install CD with SP3 built-in via 'slipstreaming'.

Here's one of a about a million how-to's on doing it. :)

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  • I upgraded the SP0 to SP3 and still nothing... any idea why?
    – r0ca
    May 18, 2010 at 18:51
  • Not sure what you mean by "nothing"? Enabling LBA won't make your existing partitions any bigger, it will (should) just make the drive visible to Windows (ie: in the Disk Manager) so you can use it. So after applying SP3, what does the Disk Manager show? May 18, 2010 at 19:08
  • Well. The issue is not the LBA because the partition is already set at 130go... I just don't see the 100 and 90go other partitions.
    – r0ca
    May 18, 2010 at 19:19
  • But do you see the full size of the drive in Disk Manager now? May 18, 2010 at 19:36

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