Missing partitions/non bootable drive problem
Posted: 05 Sep 2013, 08:39
OK - got a non booting PC (win7 64 bit) which has an mbf problem but also has partition issues. It did have twin 1tb Samsung drives one of which may have some use as a doorstop but is not recognised by any software. The other has accessible data on ("Data and work" drive) but has three "missing" partitions. One I am fairly sure was an OEM install type partition and was hidden anyway. The others were a C: named Windows (with almost solely programs on) and a D: which might have been called "Odds" which had anything that wasn't on the other two disks on! I have pretty much up to date backups of almost everything worthwhile anyway on external drives (& not in some proprietary format - I do learn somethings from experience!). Equally the "Data and work" drive is accessible via the Dos prompt via Win recovery so I've copied off an odd file that was updated since the last backup.
As such I am not tearing my hair out but
1. It would be useful/time saving/helpful to get the disk up again. Even in a non booting state I could just run my eyes over it to see if I missed anything obvious on the backups. I do know I didn't backup the music cds I ripped for example so access would be good in some form.
2. The other issue is anyone got any thoughts on what the problem might be. I have no problem getting another drive, putting it in and installing win on it but if there is an underlying problem that would be rather a waste of time longer term. I do know a couple of weeks ago I got a couple of boots over 2/3 days which had a POST error. Rebooting worked so I happily (wrongly?) ignored it. Like an idiot I failed to note the exact code but it was either 3 or 4 beeps - might be related on not? Random problem or some underlying hardware issue likely - motherboard, memory?
Any help/thoughts will be much appreciated - can supply any other info needed on request. I do have the testdisk log but it doesn't seem to like me uploading a file with a .log extension (or .txt or none).
TIA - Herby
As such I am not tearing my hair out but
1. It would be useful/time saving/helpful to get the disk up again. Even in a non booting state I could just run my eyes over it to see if I missed anything obvious on the backups. I do know I didn't backup the music cds I ripped for example so access would be good in some form.
2. The other issue is anyone got any thoughts on what the problem might be. I have no problem getting another drive, putting it in and installing win on it but if there is an underlying problem that would be rather a waste of time longer term. I do know a couple of weeks ago I got a couple of boots over 2/3 days which had a POST error. Rebooting worked so I happily (wrongly?) ignored it. Like an idiot I failed to note the exact code but it was either 3 or 4 beeps - might be related on not? Random problem or some underlying hardware issue likely - motherboard, memory?
Any help/thoughts will be much appreciated - can supply any other info needed on request. I do have the testdisk log but it doesn't seem to like me uploading a file with a .log extension (or .txt or none).
TIA - Herby