Solved Hard Drive gone!!!

[mdieckmeyer]

I have C drive and 3 data drives on my computer. I did a Repair install to fix another issue (thanks Ztruker) but when i started Win 7 one of my drives was not recognized on "Computer", although it shows up in the BIOS.

I went into Computer, right clicked, manage, disk management, selected the drive and i cant remember the rest, but the attachment is the image of my drives now.

The disk i need to access and have my computer recognize is disk 3. Also, why are there 3 partions on disk 3?

There's a lot of important data on this disk, so I want to make sure nothing is deleted.



Thanks for your help.

Marty

 

[whs]

Well, Disk3 looks like a Windows 8 system disk - judging by the 200MB EFI System Partition. And it has only 2 partitions plus an itty bitty piece of free space. Did you ever install Windows 8 on that disk.

 

[mdieckmeyer]

No, only have win 7

 

[derekimo]

It doesn't have a drive letter, try giving disk 3 a drive letter, the large section.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/82994-drive-letter-add-change-remove-windows-7-a.html

 

[mdieckmeyer]

i don't have the option to give it a drive letter. Only have Convert to dynamic disk, offline or properties

 

[derekimo]

Can you post a full size screenshot of your disk management,

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html


Try using the partition wizard bootable CD,

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

 

[mdieckmeyer]

Here's a screen shot.

Will the partition wizard delete any of my files if i delete a partition?

 

[mdieckmeyer]

Here's my screen capture with MiniTool Partion. The bottom disk is the one i'm trying to get my computer to recognize. The screen shot from MiniTool shows the correct name of disk..."PT Data", while the screen shot from Win7 doesn't have the correct name. Also, how or why is there a FAT32 partition?

 

[derekimo]

The Fat32 partition is because that drive is formatted as GPT,

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/244566-hard-drive-gpt-mbr.html

I'm not sure why you want that on a 1TB drive.

Let me get some experts over here before you do anything.

 

[mdieckmeyer]

It showed up after I did a Repair Install.

Ok, I'll wait to hear back from you.

Thanks.

 

[gregrocker]

Disk 3 is formatted for a UEFI install so it was never correctly uninstalled by deleting its partition(s) in Disk Mgmt or wiping the HD with Diskpart Clean Command before using as a data drive. There remains boot code on the drive that can interfere.

If data was there that you cannot now access after a Repair Install to C, is it possible you also changed BIOS settings allowing both MBR and UEFI installs to co-exist on the same system? Check now in BIOS setup for a setting to enable CSM or Legacy BIOS.

Did you also try adding a Drive Letter in Partition Wizard?

All other HD's should always be unplugged during a Repair Install, reinstall or Startup Repairs. OS's should be correctly deleted in Disk Mgmt or by wiping the HD before using as a data drive. It's always best to have your OS HD in Disk0 position if possible, and to format data drives as Logical. PW can easily convert them for that purpose.

 

[mdieckmeyer]

Hi Greg,

I've been running this set up for about 2 or 3 years without incident. I had a BSOD and had to do a Repair Install.

Prior to the Repair Install all worked fine. When I built this computer, I formatted all the drives the same. I haven't changed the BIOS except to boot from a CD, but that's it. This is why Im confused about these extra partitions.

If you look at the image of my partitions on my first post above, you'll see disk 3 shows the EFI partition and a "Healthy" partition. Before the repair install, this drive was called PT Data. How the EFI got there is beyond my pay grade. The last image i posted above, is after i assigned a letter to disk 3. It is now correctly named PT Data, but the EFI partition is there and my computer cant see the PT Data stuff.

Is there any way to get to the PT Data?

Also, why do i have an "E" partition "System reserved" on my local "C" drive? Do i need this? Can i get rid of it without harming anything? And why the unallocated partitions?

This is definitely beyond my abilities, so I'm very gratfull for your help.

 

[gregrocker]

These boot partitions for System Reserved and UEFI do not just materialize without an install being done, nor would a Repair Install contruct one from scratch. So maybe you didn't notice that you had the 100mb System Reserved partition booting C, which is common.

But you surely must have known whether the 1 tb HD was used at one time for a UEFI install of Win7 - perhaps even a failed one - since that UEFI boot partition can only be installed with the OS when it is installed to UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums.

Please respond to my requests for checking the UEFI/Legacy BIOS/CSM settings in BIOS setup and also try to add a drive letter to the data partition with Partition Wizard.

Tap the key to enter BIOS setup on first screen. Look on each tab for settings related to UEFI, Legacy BIOS and/or CSM to see how they are set. Do not change any yet, just report this back along with camera snaps if possible.

 

[jumanji]

I would advise the OP to get on to data recovery mode and try to recover all data into another external HDD before attempting any other procedure. Recommend PhotoRec for it.( In the screen that asks for partition type, he has to choose [EFI GPT])

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/193467-guide-using-photorec-recovery-software.html

 

[mdieckmeyer]

here are 3 BIOS screen shots. I dont see anything related to UEFI/Legacy BIOS/CSM settings in BIOS.

My Mobo is a Gygabyte X58A-UD3R

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have any idea where DISK3 came from? If you don't have a UEFI BIOS then it had to be installed previously on one since it has a UEFI boot partition. Why will you not reply to repeated inquiries about this? It is critical info that needs to be known NOW.

For the third time, what happens when you try to add a drive letter to the data partition using Partition Wizard? Here's a video showing exactly how: How to Change Letter with partition manager - Partition Wizard Video Help.

The reason is that if you can add a drive letter in PW then you should be able to access your data. If not try Partition Wizard Check File System and then try to add the drive letter.

At that point if your data is irreplaceable you'll need to use data recovery software to retrieve it, since messing with it much more than this can put it more at risk. I've done everything possible to see if there is a fix short of this, but in cases like this there is a thoroughness required that is lacking here. If you'd like to reply to all of the questions I've asked I will be glad to work with you to try other things. But we need to know now how valuable this data is to you because 1) trying many more things may make it less recoverable, and 2) actually recovering the data if it is found using a high power program like GetDataBack can cost around $80. This is not cheap but considerably less than irreplaceable data can cost to recover if it is formatted over or otherwise messed up further ($2000+).

 

[jumanji]

1. It is not necessary to have UEFI Bios to do a GPT.

2."I went into Computer, right clicked, manage, disk management, selected the drive and i cant remember the rest, but the attachment is the image of my drives now."

There lies the crux of the problem. After the repair install or whatever, that HDD got corrupted and Windows perhaps wanted to initialise the HDD. You probably initiated a GPT and aborted. All things point to such a mishap.

Whatever, I did not want to go into all these details. ( Honestly, if you can't remember what you had done, we have to go on a wild goose chase which I did not want to do. )

3. "Is there any way to get to the PT Data?" My post #14 answers your query straightaway without indulging in the above wild goose chase . No guarantees whatsoever in data recovery. If one does not work you may have to try another. In PhotoRec you may also try Intel/PC partition type. PhotoRec does not write anything to the HDD and so absolutely safe to try without any fear of mistakes. Hope for the best. My uptime is over. Back to bed.

 

[mdieckmeyer]

Ok, let me answer all your questions.

1. "Do you have any idea where DISK3 came from?" - I bought 4 drives and all the components from MICRO Center and built this computer (this is about my 10th one since my first 8088). I formatted all of them the same way, the same day.

2. "For the third time, what happens when you try to add a drive letter to the data partition using Partition Wizard?"
I added a letter, but the drive doesn't show up in "Computer". See image.

3. The data are recorded songs, so they are very important and I'm will to pay $80.00 to recover the data.

4. "So maybe you didn't notice that you had the 100mb System Reserved partition booting C, which is common."
I'll give you that, I must have.

5. "Please respond to my requests for checking the UEFI/Legacy BIOS/CSM settings in BIOS setup and also try to add a drive letter to the data partition with Partition Wizard." Not available on my mobo.

6. "If not try Partition Wizard Check File System and then try to add the drive letter." I'm going to try this and I'll post my results.

Thanks for your help

 

[mdieckmeyer]

One other comment to add. When I do the "add letter" in PW, it says "Apply all the pending changes successfully." And it shows the partition with the new letter. But, when I reboot, it's not seen in "Computer".

 

[mdieckmeyer]

jumanji - Thanks for your imput. What your saying makes sense. It's obvious i screwed something up.