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    Partition problem...

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by stevegalante, Aug 18, 2009.

  1. stevegalante

    stevegalante Newbie

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    On my Acer 9410 laptop I have a 150Gb disk that I divided into 2 partitions, each one 75Gb. After having installed a program my 2nd partition appeared completely empty (Windows XP with all updates). It did not even let me re-format it. I ran into UBCDWin and I tried it. From UBCDwin the partitions are ok, all the files are there and I backed up both partitions to an external disk. I used UBCDwin because trying to repair my partition my laptop went into a continous restart loop and other errors, so it was the only way to restart it (apart from Windows install cd). What can be the cause ? Is here a way to rebuild my directories ? I did all the usual (ad unusual) troubleshooting... that is:

    my laptop is (or was...) using XP and it had all the drivers rigorously updated, as well as XP itself. The program I was installing was Mediachance Edit Studio 6. After rebooting, as I mentioned, my "D" partition was 100% free, as if all my 50Gb of data had disappeared. It also had no name (it had a generic "Local disk" label, while before it was labeled as "Acerdata"). Also, this partition "could not be formatted" from XP. First thing I tried was to get to a previous restore point, but Windows warned me that since there was no more D partition it could not recover it, so I did not do it. Then I did my scans with Avast, Eusing Registry Cleaner, CCleaner, Advanced System Care, and then chkdsk, RAM check, etc. with no results. At a certain point I managed to copy part of the D partition on the C drive (I can't remember how), but I think there was little space left on it (the C drive), so my laptop entered into the restart loop (BSOD) with the CONFIG_LIST_FAILED error, probably due to the lack of space for the paging file. Then I managed to stop the auto restart (from the Control Panel, ecc) and it showed me the STOP 0x00000073 (0x00000001, 0xC00017D, 0x000000002, 0xF6818BB8) error. It did not boot in safe mode and/or last known working configuration. With another computer I downloaded and made cds of BART Avast and UBCDWin, I tried many of the utilities in these with no result. Last thing, using UBCDWin (from which all my files were there and the D partition was ok and has its original name), I managed to copy both my original partitions, C and D, on an external USB 2 drive, so I probably would be able to recover all my data if I'll reinstall Windows and format disks from scratch, but before doing this I'd like to see if there's some other option... thanks ! If further details are needed please ask !
     
  2. kiriakost

    kiriakost Notebook Deity

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    Do I smell LINUX in the play , before reformatting for fresh XP Install ?

    Buy Acronis Disk director , learn how to use it .
    And you will manage to undo previews mistakes .
     
  3. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    Is the harddisk ok?
    Check with HDTune the status of S.M.A.R.T
     
  4. stevegalante

    stevegalante Newbie

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    Yes it is ok, HDTune tests all ok...
     
  5. stevegalante

    stevegalante Newbie

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    What do you mean exactly ? A friend of mine tred to install Ubuntu from a CD, but I preferred to first copy all my partitions on an external drive.