Dismount for chkdsk, diff HDD, E: drive missing

Hi Everybody,

I have a missing E: drive on my internal backup disk. Here is what I did that may have caused this:

I currently have Win7 with 2 internal HDDs. C: is a 750GB that came with this eMachine (new) and my backup is a WD 500GB. I have been using this setup lightly for several days and everything was working fine. Three weeks ago I had divided the 500GB backup drive into 4 primary partitions (E:, F:, G:,and H) using XP Pro, SP3. I had just the OS and a few startup files on a separate WD-40GB disk.

Then my old motherboard died, so I bought this new eMachine.

I wanted my two startup files from the 40GB drive, so I disconnected my 500GB backup, and connected the 40GB, setting the jumpers to slave. I accessed the files, and moved them to my new C: drive. Fine.

I decided to run chkdsk on the 40GB, and when it asked if I wanted to dismount it to do that, I said yes, knowing that I was going to remove this drive anyway and put the 500GB back in again. After the chkdsk, I did a quick format.

I removed the 40GB disk, and reconnected the 500GB backup disk.

When I rebooted, my first partition in the 500GB disk, E:, is missing, as if the computer still was obeying the "dismount" instruction. I thought the dismount command would go away after connecting a different hard disk and rebooting. I'm thinking that the computer "thinks" that the first (and only) partition in the 40GB drive (E:) was dismounted, so now the first partition (of 4, E: again) in the 500GB drive is also supposed to be dismounted. Maybe that's wrong....it's just a guess.

When I go to Disk Management, Win7 RENAMED that first partition as a Recovery Partition instead of leaving it as the Primary Partition that it was. As a result, I cannot right-click and change the drive letter. When I right-click, all I get is a "Help" message. (See the attached PrintScreen.) I checked the help files and cannot find what I seemingly need. Maybe I'm missing something. I am a bit concerned for all my files, so I don't want to just "try things" willynilly.

I tried a file recovery software that I have used before, but it did not see the "missing" partition -- so I could not move the files.

There is a software program on the internet called "Find and Mount" for "lost" partitions, but it is not compatible with Win7, only XP.

Does anyone know how I can get those files moved or accessed?

Thanks.