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An empty and a filled partition merged as single "free space" non-partition

1K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  thelamecoolguy 
#1 ·
Hey there:

As far as I remember, I had six partitions when my machine was fresh (I just bought it like 3 months back)
- one for win xp
- one empty (where I would later install Windows 7)
- one where I'd store my documents
- one big empty where I planned to install Linux sometime later
- one big partition where I'd store everything else ('Main' partition)

There was a virus problem with XP - I had AVG installed, and the virus would infect all the exe files on my computr and AVG would simply delete it (the infected exe's) which made matters worse.

Then I installed Win 7 on another partition, and used it for some time without much trouble, except once when I tried some partition manager (so it would be easier when I'd install Linux - for now the Linux plan has been cancelled) when I lost two important partitions somehow (the last two I think, I don't remember exactly). Looking at Disk Management (Computer | Manage | Disk Management), and possibly doing some other things I don't remember I was able to get the partitions back the way they were before (one of them empty).

XP was still there on my PC, I started it once and it damaged the exe files of Win 7 as well. So after a few days I decide to reinstall XP then realised that the drives had disappeared again, this time I wasn't able to recover them. I checked Disk Management, and saw that the two partitions had been merged into one "free space" partition that didn't show in 'My Computer'. Then I realised that I couldn't login to Win 7 as the boot file's been replaced. A repair might have done the job, but I decided to do a proper install by formatting the original installation drive. No progress in Win 7 as well.

I have tried a lot of things, but I've been unable to recover the partition. The remaining three partitions - one Win XP partition, one Win7 partition and one Documents partition are intact. Its just the 'main' partition and an empty partition that's not showing up.

Now what should I do? I would prefer to get things the way they were. Or is recovery the only way?

Thanks in advanced for your help.
 
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#4 ·
Thanks. I tried it, and it did find the missing partitions. It said I should restart the computer, so I did so, and Windows 7 failed to boot up. I told me to insert the installation disk and repair Win 7. XP however worked fine and it does show me the lost partitions. Should I go ahead with the Win7 repair?

I doubt if the program supports Win 7 as of yet as there is no mention on its website and I remember the program asked me if I also wanted to search for Vista partitions (I've never installed Vista on this machine).
 
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