Lost partition Windows 7

[agmck]

Hi

I have a 250Gb hard drive which is partitioned into halves - or thereabouts. I have W7 installed on the partition known as C drive - the second partition is known as D drive. The D drive has disappeared. When I open Explorer it only shows the drive named C drive (123gb).

Can anyone please help with getting the remainder of my hard drive back - preferably without losing the data on the partition? TestDisk shows two partitions including an Extended partition which I assume is D drive.

Thanks

 

[Wishmaster]

What does it show in Disk Management?

If you do not how to get to it:

Click the Start Orb
in Search box type: Computer
2nd result should be Computer Management. Open it.
Then click on Disk management in the Storage Section.

 

[agmck]

Hi

It shows
C: Simple Basic NTFS Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crach Dump) Primary Partition 123.71Gb

 

[nickle]

I have never used Testdisk to recover a missing partition, but since it is recognizing the partition, here is a step by step tutorial to recover the partition: TestDisk Step By Step - CGSecurity.

 

[agmck]

My thanks to you both. In my panic I forgot the basics - check what hardware changes have been made since the PC last worked OK. I have an external hdd connected via eSATA however it was not connected properly - when I sorted that out and restarted the machine the partition appeared again and is accessible.
Your help is appreciated.