cgsecurity.org

Ok, data backed up! Very glad to have one good copy of the files so far. But would be great to have a working hard drive again also! What's next?

You should repeat your diagnose to get to this screen again.
http://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/down ... php?id=757
Than it would be just as easy to recover your partition.
Press enter to proceed.
Mark Write and confirm with enter and y.

In case, your boot sector would be damaged, you can get another screen from the boot menu.
If you get it, check Backup BS and confirm with enter and y (for yes) also.

Close TestDisk using quit and restart your PC that changes take effect.
You'll have a basic disk again.
Now your disk is bigger as its physically size.
You should resize your partition that it fits into its physically size.
As far as I know, you use Vista servicepack 2.
Go to your disk management console.
Right click into your partition and choose shrink volume.
Set it back to an appropriate physically size below 250 GB.
Instructions;
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... ows-vista/
If it works, your partition will be back to physically size and your problem should be solved.

Brilliant - thank you so much for your help Fiona! You and TestDisk are awesome!