[datahead]

okay, so a while back i decided to reformat my pc again with windows xp, well i get to the screen where it asks you what drive you want to install it on, my primary IDE HDD, and it was partioned 3 times ( C:\Windows, D:\Games, E:\Applications ) well windows install decided to remove the partitions.. it actually said un allocated disk space. it is a 200GB HDD..

after all that BS i spent an entire day doing recovery on all the files i had lost.


now a few months later, my computer was in need of a good fresh install of windows vista. and the same ****** thing happend to me, as we speak im searching and recovering deleted partitions....

i have no clue why this keeps happening, and its only when i use a windows install disk, and for some god forsaken reason decides to delete my partitions ( just on that one drive though )

i have 4 hard-drives

1. IDE: Maxtor - 200GB <--The one that windows likes to mess with
2. SATA: Maxtor - 150GB
3. SATA: Maxtor - 300GB
4. SATA: Western Digital - 500GB

i have a technicians boot cd, and i have run a bunch of different partition recovery software, and partition creation software, and it all works fine and dandy, untill i go to install windows...


please any help is greatly appreciated..

[mssssee2]

I think the boot disc (windows disc) is responsible for this. It also may be the bios that has prordered that option. From which ditributer didi you buy XP (Dell for .ex)? I think you should also mention the brand & the version of the bios installed.

[PolishPaul]

This feels like an issue with the IDE/SATA config... How did you partition your drives? And what kind of partitions are they? When you boot with the XP installer, do you see 1 disk no partitions? What exactly do you see? Can you use the XP installer to partition the drive instead? or are you trying to prevent data loss since the other partitions are setup?

You may also want to diagnose your disk - http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...axtor_desktop/ There is a download (bootable CD ISO) that you can test your drive just in case.

[EricB]

it sound like you go a modified xp disc

[Law]

It's probably with the partition software you use. The software may be putting special thing in the partition table in the MBR. Windows XP may have overwritten it. The partition isn't really gone, just that XP doesn't recognize it. You can still recover.

[datahead]

EricB: i don't have a modified XP disc, its the store bought retail xp pro sp, bought around september 2005.

PolishPaul: i used the maxblast cd that came with the drive and booted from cd, and partitioned them that way. but when i load up the windows installer, i see all my other HDD's partitions and all, except for my 200GB IDE. that one just says un allocated space, and windows xp install will not let me format and or create a partition from it.. but i would like to prevent data loss as much as possible.

Law: thats what i was thinking , but im not sure how to check that out

[EricB]

use the xp disc to make the partitions.

[PolishPaul]

I'd agree with EricB - if you can... use the XP disk for partitions - maybe you can dump the data somewhere else in the mean time?