Member Avatar for Marauder

My problem.... :lol:

1st HD: 40GB with XP
2nd HD: 250GB just data

I have a second hard drive(250gigs) installed in my machine basically for data storage, songs etc. Yesterday I tried to install another operating system (Linux) on the larger one. There was an error and seemingly the larger hard drive (I called it F) is now missing from My Computer.

The BIOS is recognizing it. Secondary Drive is 250GB ATA... comes up. Disk Management comes up as shown in the pic attached. I wish to know, is there a way I can get the machine to recognize again. Also, do you think the data is accessible?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Marauder,

dskmng.jpg 238.07 KB
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Short summary and likely cause: ’s 250 GB drive is seen by the BIOS but not by Windows; Disk Management showing a ~125 GB partition plus the rest as unallocated (as noted) typically means the install changed the partition table or the filesystem metadata for one slice. If the installer deleted or overwrote only the partition entry, the raw file data may still be present and recoverable — but every write after the failure reduces that chance.

Immediate do-not-do checklist: stop using the drive (no formats, no chkdsk, no copying files to the same disk). Remove it and attach it to another machine or an external adapter so you can work on it safely. Make a full sector‑by‑sector image to a separate drive and perform all recovery attempts on the image, not the original. If you cannot image the disk or are not comfortable with these steps, consider a professional service.

Suggested recovery workflow (work on the image): 1) try a partition-recovery scan to rebuild the partition table and restore the deleted entry; that often restores access without touching file contents. 2) If the partition is a Linux filesystem, mount the image read‑only under Linux and copy irreplaceable files first. 3) If filesystem structures are damaged, use file‑carving tools on the image to extract common media and documents. Prioritize unique media (music, photos, videos) before bulk recoveries.

Other notes: avoid format/convert operations on the live disk (they destroy metadata). Check for third‑party rollback/backup drivers that can hide volumes (as observed). The apparent “missing” ~17 GB is very likely the decimal vs binary GB difference (advertised 250,000,000,000 bytes shows up as about 232 GiB in Windows), not lost space. If recovery is critical and you are unsure, stop and seek professional help.

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Member Avatar for Cain

looks like the drive only actually formatted out the first 125GB and you have a leftover partition of a hundred and change. whether that 125 GB is your Linux partition or not is unknown but you could probably format the leftover portion as a third drive label. I do see the
250 GB drive.. its just in two pieces. 125 & 107 with a whopping 17 gig of overhead missing.

Member Avatar for Marauder

It was formatted before and I had data on it. I wanted to split it so I could have Linux on one part and whatever on the other. That 125GB was the Linux partition but I deleted it.

If I format the 'New Volume' area it will erase the data on it. Is there any way I can get that back?

Member Avatar for Cain

Thats tough.

It isnt recognized as NTFS or anything and the the original disk label
and file allocation table (or the like) has more than likely been scrubbed..
not the best deal. so while the data is still there more than likely the thing
that tells it where its at isnt.

I would see if I could mount the "unallocated" via knoppix and see what i could see..
http://www.knoppix.com bootable linux from a cd, always a must have

you may be able to find a disk recovery utility that might help you find what
you have lost on the net somewhere


good luck

cain

Member Avatar for Marauder

First of all, Thanks for taking the time to reply to me Cain.

I'm going to forget about Linux for a while and stick with IE. The task is, now, to see if I can recover anything from that disk. If not I will format it.... :sad:

I had over 1,000 songs and videos on that not to mention many games and programs stored there.

Member Avatar for frrossk

Just a suggestion (maybe help:)): that partition of 125G - try to convert it to FAT32 (it seems to be NTFS) (usually I use Partition Magic for this kind of problems).
The rest of 107 gb, they seem to be "unallocated", and I doubt you can convert the partition to a known format; but still you can get the info on it (long and hard way): format the partition (recommended FAT), and try RuntimeGetDataBack (I used it, and it works good for data recovery)

Member Avatar for fraydrope

My problem.... :lol:

1st HD: 40GB with XP
2nd HD: 250GB just data

I have a second hard drive(250gigs) installed in my machine basically for data storage, songs etc. Yesterday I tried to install another operating system (Linux) on the larger one. There was an error and seemingly the larger hard drive (I called it F) is now missing from My Computer.

The BIOS is recognizing it. Secondary Drive is 250GB ATA... comes up. Disk Management comes up as shown in the pic attached. I wish to know, is there a way I can get the machine to recognize again. Also, do you think the data is accessible?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Marauder,

Hello,

Sorry to dig this topic back up but i felt it was important to reply to a couple messages from people who seemed to have similar problems and were outlining the same symtoms.

I had the exact same problem as you and i found that my problem was related to NORTON GOBACK. this software is POS. essentially. If you were running NORTON GOBACK on your system then reinstall it and your drive may re-appear. I found that norton goback appends its self to all mounted hard drives and locks them if there is no association to norton goback available. I was able to retrieve my information, then i uninstalled the horrible software. I hope this helps you or anyone else searching google for answers.

Member Avatar for linux

I have the same problem, but I doubt it can be fixed: I installed RedHat 9 on my 2nd HD and because it isn't a Windows-formatted HD, then it cannot be visible in my computer without *tada* LTOOLS (free).

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