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I have a hard drive that had 2 partitions C drive and D drive. My internet stopped responding, so I restarted my computer. However, my computer acted like it no longer recognized my C drive and that there was no operating system. I had a Windows 7 disc in the dvd drive and it automatically loaded. I tried clicking through to see what happens and it wouldn't even allow me to install on the C drive saying it was not bootable or something.
I installed another hard drive and installed Windows 7 on that. I connected my old hard drive using a usb adapter and both old C and D drives connected. D drive was accessible and I could read the files on there no problem. C drive had a popup telling me to error scan the drive. I did but nothing happened. Also, even though C drive connected (and is technically H drive now) and was visible in My Computer, I cannot see its contents. Drive properties says 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free.
Are my files still recoverable on the old C drive? Is it just the partition table being corrupted?
Will accessing the D partition ruin my chances of recovering my files from C partition? – gavsiu – 2012-01-05T00:53:08.680
Accessing it, no. But be paranoid... I would not attempt to repair your C: partition until your D: partition is backed up. The two partitions are recorded on the same partition table. What does testdisk say? I ran a test against my own system. I added the output of a scan of my own partitions to my comment. Could you post what it says about your messed up drive? – mgjk – 2012-01-05T14:29:15.887
@gavsiu: most likely not, but in extremely severe cases (where the head stack of the drive is about to fall apart) - yes. However, if you can browse D, then it's not that bad. Due to that, making an image with dd here might be a bit excessive and probably not needed in your case. – XXL – 2012-01-05T14:36:06.507
@XXL agreed, it depends on the importance of the data though. If the C: drive has the only copy of the family photos... then take a dd. Technically, reading should be safe. Any attempts to perform recovery might trash the C: and D: partition, particularly if you're unsure of the tools. – mgjk – 2012-01-05T14:53:51.403
I mistakenly clicked the scan and repair button that pops up in Windows 7 when a drive that has not been cleanly unmounted is detected for the C drive. The files on there are not as important since I only store Windows and program installations there. I just wanted to back up some settings. After the scan and repair finished, the only folders that came back partially was the x64 version of Program Files. Whatever, I've already written it off. My files and photos are still accessible on the D drive. – gavsiu – 2012-01-08T21:07:08.957