Suddenly my D: drive is missing !!!

[Suranjit]

Guyz,

I am in big trouble. I used my computer this morning and everything was fine but now suddenly I don't see my D: drive and all of my files are gone. I tried to access some shortcuts of D: drive by it's not working !!!!

I have all my necessary files on that drive. I am really worried. I did a system restore but yet no sign of my D: drive !!!!

Please help me out here.

Thanks,
Suranjit

 

[James Colbert]

Your system specs aren't complete. Since you are having trouble with your D: drive, we need to know whether you have multiple drives or a single drive with multiple partitions. Give as much information as you can about your system. Include the model# & manufacturer of the drive(s), if you can.

James

 

[Bugsy]

do you have third party disk management software installed?

 

[Bugsy]

can you, From disk management, right click the D:\ drive, select properties, select the security tab and verify the security permissions are set to allow for all users groups.

 

[DarkStar GT]

... also have a look at what Device Manager reports about your disks
.. and see if there is anything relevant in the Event Log

 

[Suranjit]

It's a HP Pavilion dv6-1358ca Entertainment Notebook PC. . .

Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 @2.20GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB HDD with 7200 RPM
IEEE 802.11 b/g/n etc.

I had 5 partitions in my HDD. I have "Partition Wizard Home Edition v5.0" installed in my laptop and used this to create 2 partitions.

Disk Management Information:
there is no drive D: which I had just few hours ago but now it shows "free space". another drive is also missing... and the "free space" shows the total free space for those mission 2 drives !!!

Any idea how can I recover my drives?

Thanks a lot guyz.

 

[James Colbert]

It's a HP Pavilion dv6-1358ca Entertainment Notebook PC. . .

Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 @2.20GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB HDD with 7200 RPM
IEEE 802.11 b/g/n etc.

I had 5 partitions in my HDD. I have "Partition Wizard Home Edition v5.0" installed in my laptop and used this to create 2 partitions.

Disk Management Information:
there is no drive D: which I had just few hours ago but now it shows "free space". another drive is also missing... and the "free space" shows the total free space for those mission 2 drives !!!

Any idea how can I recover my drives?

Thanks a lot guyz.

Not quite clear on whether you had 5 partitions and attempted to make 2 more or whether you deleted any or all of the 5 to make 2 new partitions, but have you tried Partition Wizard's partition recovery utility? Their feature list shows that the home version does have it:

Features Partition Wizard

Here is a guide for recovery:

Partition Recovery by using Partition Wizard to recover lost & deleted partitions for Windows.


When you post back, if you're still having the issue, be as specific as you can about the number of partitions you had before you patitioned the drive and how many after and how many now. Also any info you can provide about what resolutions you've tried, what the results were, any error messages, anything that led to your missing drives and where you are now, including the results of the recovery process. The info you post needs to be as accurate as you can make it, as that is how we are able to give you viable solutions.

Also, screenshots will be helpful, particularly of the drive/partitions in Disk Management.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

The snipping tool works great for this purpose.

James

 

[OEM]

This doesn't sound good, ...but maybe a system restore from the Windows install disk might work???
Its very strange for partitions on drives to go "unused space" on there own, ...Virus/Malware???

I wish the best, Good Luck!

 

[RogerR]

Since you have Partition Wizard I suggest you check that your MBR has not been scrambled. Happened to me a few times and an easy fix.

 

[Suranjit]

Thanks to all for your valuable suggestions.

I used Partition Wizard recovery option and was able to recover both of my missing partitions.
One interesting fact that I want to share is that one partition (where I have all my important files) was visible right after the recovery. But for the other partition (where I have LINUX installed using VMWare Player) was not visible. When I checked Disk Management, I found that there was no Drive Letter assigned for that partition (but before there was one !!). Then I assigned one and it is now visible !! Don't know why that happened !!!!

Thanks all again.

 

[James Colbert]

Thanks to all for your valuable suggestions.

I used Partition Wizard recovery option and was able to recover both of my missing partitions.
One interesting fact that I want to share is that one partition (where I have all my important files) was visible right after the recovery. But for the other partition (where I have LINUX installed using VMWare Player) was not visible. When I checked Disk Management, I found that there was no Drive Letter assigned for that partition (but before there was one !!). Then I assigned one and it is now visible !! Don't know why that happened !!!!

Thanks all again.

Thanks for posting back with your results!

James

 

[DeaconFrost]

Five partitions? On one drive? Can't think of any reason to do that! Over-partitioning can lead to issues like this. Now that you've gotten your data back, I'd seriously look into creating two at the most. One is for the system volume, and one for data. If you burn your recovery discs, you can do away with the HP recovery partition as well.

 

[OEM]

Thanks to all for your valuable suggestions.

I used Partition Wizard recovery option and was able to recover both of my missing partitions.
One interesting fact that I want to share is that one partition (where I have all my important files) was visible right after the recovery. But for the other partition (where I have LINUX installed using VMWare Player) was not visible. When I checked Disk Management, I found that there was no Drive Letter assigned for that partition (but before there was one !!). Then I assigned one and it is now visible !! Don't know why that happened !!!!

Thanks all again.

Very happy to hear it has worked out for you. Was thinking about drive letter assignments, but when you remarked about DM showing "unused" it wouldn't have helped. It was only till you could see that partition (volume) in DM that you would be able to assign a drive letter.

Great Job!

...your scenario had me concerned and I wasn't too confident of recovery, Glad I was Wrong! lol

Added:
Hey whata ya know, 400th post. hey now

Where do I go to collect my prize?

 

[Slong]

Or its different particions?