Partition Magic 7.0 : lost a partition and can't recover it !!!!

[Metalized Blood]

Damn.

I had three partitions C:, D:, E:. I tried to merge D and E partitions and PM froze while merging the partitions.

Then I reset the computer and got into Windows. When I open Partition Magic it says :

Your system appears to have lost power during a partition operation. The partition was marked with recoverable partition indicator, so your system cannot acces it and cause corruption. The partition and all of its data can be safely recovered. Would you like to recover the partition now ?

When I press yes, PM starts recovering the partition and (according to Windows Task Manager) freezes !

Is there anything to do with this, I had lot of important stuff on that partition .... ?

[VHockey86]

How long did you let it run after it said it was frozen?
Ive found sometimes if a program is busy enough it will just appear not responidng but if u let it do its thing it'll work. Do you see alot of activity (such as the HDD activity light on constant)? or is it totaly dead.
If it appears to be working id just let it go for awhile, couldnt hurt

[Mntsnow]

Yep....call PowerQuest

[shahani]

Firstly, how could you use PM on a drive with important stuff on it? PM cautions you to back up first.

Well, can't squeeze toothpaste back. As Mike suggests, see if PowerQuest can help, though it may cost you something.

[Chuckiechan]

Have you tried your PM rescues disks? Best bet are the ones you made prior to partitining. If you don't have those, you can still make a set from another computer if you need to. It's in DOS, so you have to be really careful...

Basically, the rescue disks made pre-partition have a copy of the information needed to put Humptey-Dumpty back together again.

Another thing to try: get a larger Hdd and do a clone. Be sure to clone each partition. I think you ran out of HDD space on your original. When it's fixed clone it back to your original.

Or pull data off onto a CD and then delete it. Dump some programs you don't need or can re installed from disk. Getta make some space.

Good luck...

[Metalized Blood]

The problem is that the OS (WinXP) doesn't even see the partition that I am having problems with.

I ran PM for all night yesterday and it recovered the partition (PqRP Partition) to a Xenix BBT. How do I make a valid, FAT32 one out of Xenix BBT ? BBT - Bad Block Table.

Now I can see that partition in PM, but not in Windows. When I try to activate it from DOS using fdisk, the Windows partition (c gets desactivated ...

I will try the rescue discs then too.

[Chuckiechan]

From my help file:

PqRP Partitions

"If your computer fails during a PartitionMagic operation, you may see a partition that displays as PqRP or PQFLEX in the partition list in the main screen. PartitionMagic flags a partition with a PqRP file system and a PQFLEX label, so you know that the partition has been modified. You should assume that a PqRP partition is not stable. Contact PowerQuest technical support for help in recovering data from a PqRP partition.

Copyright © 1994-2002 PowerQuest Corporation. All rights reserved."

You may want to go to thier site and look for info. It sounds like you aren't totally shafted (yet )! Don't give up!

[TM12]

You might also try booting with a Win98/ME start-up disk and using Norton Disk Doctor from the Norton Utilities or Systemworks cd. After the start-up completes, change to the cd drive and then cd\nu to the Norton Utilities folder. Then run ndd and follow the instructions. It's saved my butt many of times, especially with Linux, hopefully it'll help.

[Oryx]

Hey, Metalized Blood, I have the same problem, and can't find a way to fix it yet. So if you find out, please post it !

[bouncingmolar]

HEY, sorry for digging up an old thread, but its for the greater good

I had the same problem and i googled millions of forums none with solutions and this is one of those threads i looked at which didn't have a solution, so i figure other googlers might also dig up this thread when they have the same problem.


short story:
resizing partitions using PQ Partition Magic 8.0
Lighting hits reset computer lost access to partition
Partition magic desplays drive as a Pqrp partition and i have lost me stuff.



Solution.... (dunno if u need the first step but in my blundering blind experimentation in order to discover the solution this is what i did)

1. I went to dos and loaded PTedit (powerquest PM Dos folder)

- changed the crashed partition to Fat32 file system again (the original file system that it was
-reset

2. Important step: used "GETDATABACK 2.31" to search disk for fat32 file system and recovered to my spare HDD. YAY...

If you can't get getdataback, then you might have some luck with All in One Top 5 Data Recovery Apps (5-in-1)

I hope this helps someone