WA
1109 posts
ok i need some help getting my partitions back after i accidentally removed them while reinstalling windows xp.
what i did was.
- when it comes to the stage to select the partition you wish to install on, i didnt know my external HDD's where connected, so i deleted the partitions on both hdd's, and the pc hdd, but i didnt format, so all my files are still on them
what iv done is:
-i have nortons partition magic and i opend it up, both my drives apear and i can explore them, so i know my files are still on them.
what i need is:
- a way to get them to come up / appear in my computer so i can get all my files back onto my computer.
and help is appreciated
WA
1274 posts
I didn't quite follow what you have done. Is this right. You have a PC with an internal hard drive and you have an external (USB?) drive. Do you have a working, bootable PC? Where are your files at the moment, on the external or internal drive? Where did you delete the paritions from? Usually when you delete a partition it deletes all data and you can only recover with specific software. If you can see your files, I suggest you put everything on your external drive, double-check you have it all, disconnect it, reinstall XP on your PC. In order to partition your internal hard drive you will need to go into fdisk. In order to do that you will need a boot up disk/cd. Fdisk comes with any Microsoft Operating System. Once you have partioned it, reinstall XP and choose which partition to put the OS on.
QLD
1628 posts
Jordo i think you should try reinstalling the software that came with your external hard drives.Then plug em back in and try.Just a thought ...the drivers for them don't usualy come with xp.
WA
22 posts
If you've deleted the partitions (but not formatted or copied anything else to them), you should NOT use Fdisk. Fdisk is partitioning software but does not recover (search for) deleted partitions. You would need to know exactly where the partitions started and ended to make any use of that.
From memory, Partition Magic has a feature for recovering deleted partions, but don't quote me. The two that I've seen that are both very easy to use and do the job are Paragon Partition Manager and Acronis Disk Director (or similar suite).
It will take some time for it to auto search the missing partitions. When found select the partitions you want and make the disk (or partition) that you want XP on to be the Active partition.
Once you've got the partitions back, I would make a copy of any important data to somewhere else such that when you do further installs of XP, they are not connected to your PC, then go ahead and install XP.
WA
23685 posts
FFS people what are partitions? I thought you just installed schit on the hard drive.
I'm thinking about deleting / formatting / starting over and now you have me scared. Not that easy? Will I end up in Jordo-land?
I'm guessing a nail gun and experience in studwall construction is irrelevant as they are cyber imiaginary partitions.
WA
1109 posts
for zed and every one els
i have an internal hdd wich i only use for my OS, and software. and i have 2 external hard drives, (usb), wich i use for movies, and music, aswell as word docs, and back ups of everything.
i successfully installed the OS onto my internal, and my pc boots fine,
as for what i did, i only deleted the partitions, but not the files, (didnt format the hdd's) and all my files are on the externals still because i can see them in partition majic.
so what i really need is a way to recover partitions, not re-partition, because if i repartition i will loose all my stuff
WA
1274 posts
Ok I think I get it. From a Windows perspective by deleting the partitions you have theoretically deleted the files, or at least deleted the reference to them. So yeah you need to recover the partitions and you'll need 3rd party software for this. Partition Magic should be fine for deleting/adding/recovering partitions, but you already have this so I'm guessing you have already tried recovering them through PM. It is relatively straight forward.
