Serious Hard Drive Problem!! Need Help ASAP!

[Golden_Eagle]

Hello.

A little new to this forum so, please bare with me!

I have a LARGE problem with my new drive I'll try to keep it short and explain.

First I obtained a large 160Gig HD and Partition it 100Gb to 52Gb then realised I'd need it the other way round. Using Partition Magic 8 I thoguht this would be easy.... NO!

I have "shrunk" on drive down to 20Gb and works fine... The other which is meant to be D: has been lost and I have a G:

On top of which all my files have been lost. See image below and look at status of "Extended Partition" 80Gig used but unavailable. When I right click I just get Properties highlighted. Are these files destoryed or can I get them back to their original state on my forth coming D: ??

 

[tylertherobot]

If you boot from a Knoppix CD you might be able to swtich things around again, I've heard that it can do wonders to hard drive problems.

Honestly, though, whenever I havea problem like that I just format and reinstall, it's always easier for me ( ' ')

 

[Golden_Eagle]

Knoppix CD?!? Wassat and where can I get one?

 

[tylertherobot]

www.linuxiso.org

It's a linux distribution that boots directly from the CD.

 

[Golden_Eagle]

Call me ignorant.... Or complete noob! But would this help sort problems on Windows XP?

 

[tylertherobot]

Yes, Knoppix will, you just have to read some documentation for it. It'll help if you're willing to learn a little bit But don't expect to be spoonfed info basically. Gotta do a bit of work ;p

 

[Golden_Eagle]

Believe me, if I can save this 80gig worth of Data I will move heaven and earth to do it! It's more than my lifes worth to lose it! When it happened I almost had heart failure!

 

[tylertherobot]

I've gotten totally blitzed at hard drive problems before and I've thrown hard drives out my window.

 

[Golden_Eagle]

So is this problem common with drives and usually unrepairable or is there any chance of the information being restored? It's scaring to think that all I was trying to do was merge 2 partitions together thinking my files were as safe as houses til this occurred!

 

[tylertherobot]

OH it's common to mess up the file system - knoppix can basically restore the partitions to their regular state and recover the info. Like a really good sys restore