Can't find hidden partition

Hi, I've been digging through the forums for the last few days hoping to find some suggestions - I can't find my hidden partition and I'm someone might be able to help. There's lots about restoring D2D and unhiding the PQService partition, etc. but I haven't been able to make use of any of the information because I can't find my partition to begin with.

I have an Extensa 5420, came with Vi/ta, 250GB HD.

I've been running Linux and want to go back to my factory settings w/Vista. Silly me, didn't make restore disks (know I can buy them but hoping to try some other things first ;-)

When I installed Linux I let it take the whole drive BUT I expected it would leave my hidden partitions alone since it would be hidden. Some have suggested the install would have even consumed the hidden partitions.

The reason I'm wondering (hoping) my hidden partition is still there is my drive is 250GB but the partitions on disk only add up to about 238 - leaving 10-12GB unaccounted for. Which would be about the size the hidden partition is.

I've booted up using various livecd tools to poke around but can't find anything that looks like it might be a hidden partition. I'm wondering if it's really just not there and my drive has lost 10-12GB to the ethers, or if I might be missing something really obvious.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
Jacqui

 

If you could get your hands on a Windows installer, I'm pretty sure you'd see the PQService partition, albeit it won't show the name, just the size. I'm not sure what you want, though. Do you want to recover your machine using the recovery partition? Coz probably your Linux has overwritten on the Alt+F10 recovery function that's resting within the original Vista install.

 

Thanks for responding...

I do have a WinXP disk I can make use of - not sure how to use it. And yup, my Alt+F10 is messed up.

Some of the reading on the forum suggests I might be able to bypass the Alt+F10 using eRecovery and boot directly from the PQService (if I can find it ;-)

Jacqui

 

That reading eludes me. sorry.

Anyway, it should work in theory. But I'm not sure you can do anything else other than see/delete the recovery partition using the Windows disks, let alone boot from them. And as far as I know, only DISKPART can let the partition show. Try it out, I'm pretty much certain that the XP disk can run a command prompt. I just can't dig up my notes about which commands unhides the partition.

 

when you installed linux it overwrote that partition. 250GB after formatting would be approx 235GB. This is normal, and how the industry works. ( Binary prefix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) see consumer confusion.

there will be no alt+f10 option, you will need to find/purchase recovery media.