Help with NTFS (Unknown) Partition

[tharkhold]

'lo all

I turned on my computer this morning at, unlike previous days, i lost a drive letter! Usually, I have a 10 Gig (NTFS) partition set up as C: for windows XP, and a D: partition, which is also NTFS, where I keep all the stuff I install and create.

Well, this morning, no more D: drive.... when I open up disk management, it displays my D: partition as NTFS (Unknown) Healthy.... I searched on the net and in WinXP help, and the only thing I get is that I can delete this partition and reformat it! I have data on the so called disk!!!

The only option I have now is to copy the whole partition to another disk.. The only way I can do this is via a DOS boot, and loading an NTFS loader.... 50 gigs is a LLLLOONNNGGG time to copy via DOS...

Can or does anyone know how I can extract the data from the NTFS (Unknown) Partition in WinXP ???

Thanks

BTW: it's 1 physical disk divided into 2 NTFS partitions....

[discarnet]

you may find mounting the drive as a slave to a new drive with a fresh copy of xp may make the drive readable then simply transfer your data

if you have a new hard drive with windows on you could mounting the old drive as a slave and try a file recovery program there are a few shareware ones out there that offer time limited use.

What ever you do do not reformat untill you have recovered your data as this will make it a lot harder to recover them

[jaclaz]

It could be a serious problem or a simple one.

What I would do:

1) remove the disk from the computer

2) mount it as a slave on a KNOWN good working one

3) clone the offending partition to a partition on the good working one's disk

4) use some recovery util on the cloned partition, here are some free tools:

http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm (clone util)

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm (recovery utility)

5) if AND ONLY IF data recovery is ok on the cloned partition, modify, access, format, recover or whatever the original one.

jaclaz

[prathapml]

Did you try mounting that (previously D: ) partition back from disk manager?

Or, did you try seeing it with a partitioning tool (partition magic/acronis) ?

Because its possible that somehow the partition's id got changed. It can be as simple as "NTFS" became "NTFS hidden" or more complicated - just change it back to the normal.

[CoffeeFiend]

I wish I would have been that lucky when my server's OS HD's NTFS fielsystem went corrupt too. Slow, maybe, but at least you got most of your stuff back. Nothing I tried would rescue a single byte of data off mine.

[tharkhold]

Thanks guys for the insights,

I followed a couple of links posted in the thread and tried and tired... but somehow I cant get any windows in other computers to recognize it... even with a fresh copy installed...

What I did was Powerquestdriveimaged the partition, for backup, re partitinoned my disk into 2 equal partitions and copied the files in dos... took a helluva long time, but it worked.

Hopes this NEVER happens aggain to others or myself!

cheers