[Sevenor]

I have an external hard disk drive which had been partitioned into two drives of 20GB and
140GB and which I had named them System Drive E: and Data Drive F:. I now wanted to
merge these two partitions back together using Partition Magic 8.0. But when I tried
to do so it returned with error message "Error 1655 while executing Batch. Error 1655:
FRS not in any directory. File 48443 - 48443". In the end, the whole drive has become
invisible in My Computer.

But in Disk Management, they were visible there except that instead of two partitions it
had now become three partitions, namely System Drive, Data Drive and Free Space with
no drive letters. I believe that was why the partitions were not visible in My Computer.
Data Drive F: has now also become two partitions - Data Drive and Free Space.

I then deleted both the System Drive and the Free Space partitions, which resulted
in drive letters being assigned to them and also becoming visible in My Computer again.

My problem now is I have important data inside the Data Drive which I still want. How can
I recover them as this partition is still invisible in My Computer? Also, if I were to do a
'delete partition' on it, will the data within be deleted?

Please help!
Thanks!

[Mak213]

Hello,

Partition Magic has to assign them a drive letter in order for them to be recognized.

Cheers,
Mak

[Sevenor]

Hi Mak, I know that but the trouble is that to assign a drive letter to the so-called
invisible drive I think I may have to do a "Delete logical drive" in Disk Management
or a "Delete partition" in PM.

My concern is that doing so may cause me to lose the data within that partition.
I'm hoping that somebody may know of a way to make the partition visible again in
My Computer so that I can copy out the data to another external hard drive before
I merge all the partitions into one.

Hope you can show me how.
Thanks in advance.

[Mak213]

Hello,

Check through PM. There is a way to just assign a drive letter without having to delete the partition. If Disk Management shows it as unallocated space then the partition table for the drive has already been lost.

At that point all you can do is create a new partition there and use Recovery Software to get your data back.

Cheers,
Mak

[Sevenor]

Thanks a lot Mak. Your tip really saved my day.

I managed to assign a drive letter to the 'invisible' drive after going thro the PM's Help file.
Now I'm able to view all my data within that drive. Phew! Else would have to use data recovery
software to savage whatever data that's still intact (Been there and done that - Now scare
already, hahaha)

BTW, my 'invisible' drive's status in Disk Management was 'Healthy' and not 'Unallocated
space'.

For the benefit of other readers, here's how to assign drive letter in PM:
1 Select a disk and a partition.
2 Click Partition > Advanced > Change Drive Letter.
3 Specify the drive letter you want to assign to the partition, in the
New drive letter text box.
4 Click OK.

[Mak213]

Hello,

Glad you got it working. Since you were able to assign a drive letter the partition tables were not lost. Jsut didnt have a drive letter assigned. It happens when using Partition Magic at times. I have had it happen to me that is why i knew you could recover it with just a simple Drive letter assignment.

Cheers,
Mak