Windows 7 has lost my partition!

Argh! I'm seething!

Booted up my 6920 this evening and I don't have a drive D: anymore! I checked the disk management utility and it's showing the drive as an healthy OEM partition, with no drive letter. Right clicking the drive only gives me the Help option for the DMU, so I can't assign a letter or do anything with the drive - even format it!

I don't actually want to format it, of course. I want the drive letter back.

So far, I've tried a Windows System Restore to a checkpoint yesterday (when I last accessed the drive), but that's not sorted it.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

So just to clarify, your system sees your D: partition (your data one) as a hidden OEM partition (like the ones at the start/end of your hard drive)?
That is strange - I've never heard of anything like that happening.

 

That's correct, I seem to have three hidden/OEM partitions, once of which is my data drive

I've not seen it before either! I've downloaded and am running TestDisk, which can see the data on the drive, but I'm not sure how to restore the drive letter without destroying the data on the drive.

TestDisk is allowing me to copy the directories to another directory, so I'm going to do that for now.

I'd like to say it was something obvious, but the only real 'system change' I've made in the past day has been to update Acer Arcade Deluxe. I'm reluctant to blame that as it wouldn't affect the partition tables, nor does it do anything else destructive. Not only that, I was able to access the d: yesterday after the update!

 

Try looking into something like GParted - it might be able to remove the OEM or hidden flag from your partition.
Of course, do so after you've backed up your data.

 

Sooooo, where am I now? I hear you ask!

I booted the laptop using a Windows 7 disc hoping to repair the drive and, oddly, the command line can see it, but the repair tool can't! (I'm guessing because it thinks there's nothing wrong with it. The command line in Windows 7 proper can't access the partition.

I'm going to give Gparted a try, but I'm hoping someone might suggest a Windows freeware app that might allow me to do something with my missing partition

 

Have had great luck with this app. A lot of partition managers don't offer 7 support yet, but this works well. Should let you change it from hidden to un.

Forgot to link: http://www.partitionwizard.com/

Is freeware, btw.

 

Thanks to TehSuigi and jeremysdad, I now have my data, partition and drive letter back.

Having used TestDisk, I managed to copy my data to a separate hard drive as well as check the state of the partition to make sure it was healthy, followed by Partition Wizard, which allowed me to reallocate the drive letter in seconds.

I'm betting TestDisk would have let me do the same, but I was a bit daunted by the number of options.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

Nice one, Jeremysdad! +rep

 

I'll spare you the story of how I came across that, but it was approximately 3 am, after a full work day, 7 hours in to a 'favor' for my Dad.

Once I found that app, what I had spent 6 hours trying to do took 20 minutes. I was all 'Grrrrrrrrrrr...'

It's really weird, but Acronis Disk Director 10, which Acronis admits doesn't work in 7, works fine for me, in 7 64bit. Would not run on my Dad's Studio 17 (7 64 bit), and even broke Windows Disc Management. Who knows...

 

Hi all!

The same weird thing just happened to me...
Same laptop, same OS and same Acer Arcade Deluxe update which made my D: partition look like an untouchable healthy OEM partition (now tagged '0x12 Compaq').

Upon finding this discussion, I restored the system, uninstalled AAD and finally downloaded 'Partition Wizard' which enabled me to change the partition type back to '0x07 NTFS'. My partition was then back in the explorer with its letter D: and all its contents.

Unfortunately, this only seems to be temporary because after each reboot, my partition is hidden again...

Any ideas about what I could do now?

 

moamoamoa (great name, btw), welcome to the forums!
That is strange. Partition Wizard should be making the change permanent. Is it possible there's a start-up service or something that's forcing the change back?
I'd look into GParted as well - it's contained on its own Linux Live CD/USB, so it doesn't go int Windows at all and might be more handy.
(I'd back up your D: drive just in case, of course)

 

Thanks for your reply!

I was also thinking about a limitation coming from Windows or something preventing the change at the next startup considering the drive works until I reboot the computer...

That's why I tried Partition wizard boot CD to change the partition type back to 0x07 NTFS without Windows but it does not work: I close the program, Windows boots and the partition is still 0x12 Compaq.

I then downloaded GParted live CD but was not able to find where I could change the partition type. I also tried Ptedit32 to edit the partition type but it does not seem to work either...

I am really stuck now which is not funny considering the partition is fine and just blocked as OEM...

EDIT: Found this tutorial: http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/903126-solved-hard-drive-partition-has.html
I will try it tonight and keep you informed. It might be handy for other people too.

EDIT2: Unfortunately it did not work... I tried on another partition (the Arcade Instant one) and it worked so I guess there is something preventing the D: partition from changing its type...

 

Okay so after trying a lot (I mean it) of stuff, I finally fixed my issue using the command bootrec.exe /fixmbr. One thing I am now sure about: I won't touch Acer Arcade Deluxe again!

 

Glad to hear you at least were able to fix the issue.
And yeah, Arcade Deluxe is a bit of an oddball. If I didn't need it for Blu-ray playback, I'd ditch it too.

 

is this problem related to the 'instant on' feature? i have never used it myself but would arcade try to enable this feature but maybe get confused about which partition its for?

 

I also had this problem after upgrading the Acer Arcade Deluxe. I'm struggling to get the partition to stay in place. Looks like some solid advice above so I will try it.

Its a new Acer Laptop that I bought about a month ago after another laptop died on me. I'm really not too happy with this happening!

 

I have the same problem!
Could someone help?

 

@gazzacbr: It wouldn't try to "turn back on" the feature - if the Windows XP Embedded partition that Arcade Instant-On resides on isn't present, the Arcade button will simply turn the machine normally. I've got AAD without Instant-On, and I've never run into this issue.

@pekkav: Read the whole topic, and try some of the things mentioned here. moamoamoa was able to fix the problem by running "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" without the quotes from a command prompt.

 

I have the same problem. Partition D disappears every time I boot my Acer Aspire 8530G. Could someone help?

 

bootrec.exe does not work. my computer says it's not as vali command.

 

Thanks, I finally succeeded to fix the problem!!!
It took me two days of work!

 

Great work, pekkav! Please post what you did to fix your instance of the problem.

 

Here's what I did to fix the problem:

1. I started Windows RE with my Windows 7 installation disk

2. I started Bootrec.exe from command promt in Repair Your computer - mode

3. In Bootrec.exe I executed "/FixMbr"

After restart I used Partition Wizard to change the partition ID to "0x07 NFTS" from "0x12 Compaq". Then the partition D came visible and stays so also after restarts. Now everything is OK!

Thanks for advice on this thread

Best wishes from a happy finn in sunny Spain!

 

Of course - the Windows 7 Recovery Environment!
Good thinking, pekkav!

 

Just to say I encountered this problem today after an Arcade Deluxe upgrade, and fortunately found this thread. After doing what pekkav said, I had access restored to my D and E drives.

Many thanks to all, and Partition Wizard (Easeus and Acronis had both failed miserably).