2 partitions gone!

[bertie11]

Hi. I'm running Win7 HP with all latest updates. I have a single 500gb disk, partitioned as C:\ Windows 7, D:\Editing and E:\Data Backups.
I was working last evening quite happily, when I noticed a lot of disk activity and the system slowed down. I tried rebooting and as it got to the desktop, I noticed that Acronis non-stop backup flashed an alert to say that E:\ was unavailable. I checked further and discovered that both my D:\ and E:\ partitions weren't showing in Explorer.
I tried Easeus Partition Recocovery,which 'found' 416 partitions, only one of which (C:\) was classed as high for recovery. Window is running OK on C:\ anyway so I closed Easeus.
I did notice when I tried to do a system restore that there was an update that may have coincided with the high disk activity and slowing down but when I checked the update list, nothing was shown for that date and time.
Is there a way to recover what appears to be a damaged partition table?
My 2 lost partitions now show as 'unallocated space' so how would it be if I created a single partition, using all that space and calling it E:\ so that it becomes my Data Backup partition. I think I can manage without what was on D:\.
If my data is still there, will creating the new partition retain the data from both lost partitions? Obviously, I will not format the new partition!
I also noticed that System Restore failed, 'might be due to an anti-virus program'. I turned off Norton IS 2010 but restore still failed, although I didn't expect it to solve the problem.
Many thanks if someone can assist please.

 

[electrotune1200]

Have you tried turning off Norton's Product Tamper Setting? (Should be somewhere in Administrative Settings)

I'm not quite sure if System restore will revert your corrupted partitions, but it's worth a shot.

You're best bet though is to invest in an external HDD to keep your important data on.

 

[bertie11]

Thanks for the quick response. I've had a quick look in Norton Internet Security 2010 but didn't see a Product Tamper setting, it was a very quick look though.
Sadly, I do already have an external HDD, but I have made the stupid error of not keeping it up to date, and it serves me right.
I do have Mozy Backup Online which I'm hoping will recover my important stuff, also Evernote.

Update:

I found the Product Tamper Setting and it was already on, so I guess that is not why System Restore fails to work.

 

[theog]

Check your hard drive with a diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

 

[bertie11]

Theog.
I've been running Seagate Tools for most of the day and nothing is showing as faulty, but I don't know if Seagate would find missing partition tables anyway? It seems that is what I need to do, which is why I asked what would happen if I just created another partition from the unallocated space. What I am not sure about is though, would my data still be in the unallocated space or would the data have been lost along with the partition data?
Thanks

 

[electrotune1200]

Update:

I found the Product Tamper Setting and it was already on, so I guess that is not why System Restore fails to work.

You want to turn the Product Tamper Setting off for System Restore to work correctly.

 

[bertie11]

Doh! Of course.
Even so, with it turned off Sytem Restore still failed.
When I uninstslled NIS 2010 only then did Restore work so I need to talk to Symantec.
I was unable to recover the partitions I lost, but was able to work round by collecting my data from offline backups and external disks. I did lose a couple of folders but not a big deal to lose them.
Lesson learnt!
Thanks.