Windows 7 Data Drive (D:) Suddently Unallocated

jagooch · 19 Jun 2011

I recently shrunk the data partition(D:) to let me increase the system partition(C:) size. I used gParted on the D: partition, but it would not resize the C: partition. However, Parition Wizard successfully resized the C: partition to use the space freed up by shrinking the D: partition. They are both NTFS, if that helps.

I used the computer all day the day after I did this, rebooting the system several times after installing applications, and reading/writing data ( like playing music in iTunes and saving MS Word docs ) on D: without any problems.

The next morning, my system was in sleep mode ( balanced power scheme ). I woke it up, and applications popped up messages about missing files and Dropbox say it could not find my dropbox folder.

The D: drive was gone from explorer, and disk manager reports unallocated space where the D: partition used to be. Its the exact same size (363GB) and location.

I rebooted the system but that did not fix it. I'm at work now, but I'm making an attack plan for when I get home. Can you recommend any tools for resolving this issue? I read a few posts about an application called TestDisk...what do you think?

joel406 · 19 Jun 2011

I think the 1st thing you should do is try running system restore to a point before you resized your partitions.

Hope fully it will restore a seemingly deleted partition.

jagooch · 19 Jun 2011

My bad, I actually reinstalled Windows 7 after resizing the partitions, so there isn't a restore point from before the resizing, as Windows wasn't installed at that point.

Gruelius · 19 Jun 2011

fire up gparted and check the partition table using fdisk -u.

if theres no 2nd partition there you will need to recreate the ntfs partition, there are probably some recovery apps to do so. doing so in windows will wipe your data.

For example to resize my ext3 partition larger on my linux computer i just in fdisk deleted the partition from the table, added a new one with same starting point extending to end of disk and then just expanded the filesystem after a reboot.

tl;dr check partition table from a tool taht reads it. if ntfs missing use a recovery program or guess.. lol

James Colbert · 19 Jun 2011

System Restore does not do partition recovery. Here's a link to free Partition Wizard:

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

And to the bootable CD (also free):

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to boot computer directly to manage partition.

Respectively, links to explore partitions and recover partitions:

Explore Partition - Partition Wizard Help

Partition Recovery by using Partition Wizard to recover lost & deleted partitions for Windows.

And I might as well throw out this link, just in case:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...dows-computer/

James

jagooch · 20 Jun 2011

James Colbert said:

System Restore does not do partition recovery. Here's a link to free Partition Wizard:

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

And to the bootable CD (also free):

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to boot computer directly to manage partition.

Respectively, links to explore partitions and recover partitions:

Explore Partition - Partition Wizard Help

Partition Recovery by using Partition Wizard to recover lost & deleted partitions for Windows.

And I might as well throw out this link, just in case:

Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

James

James - If you read my post, you'll see that I used Partition Wizard to resize the system partition. Given gParted's performance, I wish I had used PW for both. Thanks for the other links.

I'm downloading a System Recovery CD with fdisk and testdisk on it. I'll give that a try before giving up. My critical data is backed up , but there is a lot of other data I'd like to keep as well.

Fingers crossed!

jagooch · 20 Jun 2011

So I burned the System Recovery CD at work and booted it as soon as I got home. TestDisk found the "lost" partition right away, I told it to write changes and then I rebooted the system. It worked!!!

Still, I'm backing up some additional files now before I run checkdisk on C: and D: volumes. If it disappeared once, it might do it again.

Thanks for all of the input!

Windows 7 Data Drive (D:) Suddently Unallocated

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