Help! Partition not showing up in My Computer

I'm working on a friend's PC which had Vista installed. Vista was installed on the first partition of the hard drive. The second partition was for back up files such as docs, music, vids, pics, etc.

I installed W7 on the first partition. But it isn't detecting the 2nd partition when I pull up My Computer.

I went into Disk Management, and the following shows the partitions. The 2nd partition doesn't have a drive letter. When I right click it, the only option that comes up is "Help".

As you can see in the image. The top one with no letter isn't showing up in My Computer.

No it's not empty. It has all the important data backed up on it. I can try to transfer it all to the main partition in DOS. Then I guess delete the 2nd one so there's only one partition. But I'd rather try to get it to read in Windows. Command promt in W7 won't even show the other partition. I have to actually boot into a DOS with CD to see the other partition with all the important files in it.

The Recovery partition looks like it had been resized to hold data. But for some reason it now shows in the drive listings at top of your screenshot to be empty.

There's a thin chance that at reinstall it might have reverted to hidden status of most Recovery partitions.

You can try unhiding Hidden files such as those on Recovery Partitions in Control Panel>Folder Options>View.

You can Explore it to confirm that are any remaining files using free Partition Wizard which may also allow you to assign a drive letter.

Ya. I went into custom drives during installation. I deleted the extra partion that was there as well as the C partition. I left the other partition alone. So there were 2 partitions. I formatted and installed W7 on the C partition, and left the other partition alone. I already explored it in DOS, and determined the files are all there, and intact.

Then use the Win7 installation DVD or System Repair Disk to rescue the files by copying and pasting to C or external: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console, or use Paragon rescue disk; recover data freeware.

After all files are off the partition, I would delete it using PW CD if necessary and then create a new data partition.

This is one reason why all data must be backed up externally when reinstalling or repairing lest you are missing an important safety net.

I went into the Windows 7 DVD, and followed the instructions for copy and pasting. I don't understand. I was able to navigate to the partition drive. I found the folder I wanted to copy. Then I right clicked it, and chose copy.

Then I went to the main C drive, and tried to paste it there. There was no indicator of transfer, and the screen locked for awhile. After I was able to click, some of the files had been copied, but not all of the files in the folder.

I'll try again.

Explorer will appear to hang as long as the files are copying in WinRe.

What about unhiding the files, assigning a drive letter with Partition Wizard?

I installed Partition Wizard Home version. It was able to see the partition including all the files in it. I set the letter to "H:". I can't copy the files from the partition into the main drive though. And the H: drive still isn't showing up in My Computer. I'll try restarted, and see if it appears.

OK I hit the "Apply" button. Problem solved! Thanks!