Can't assign letter to hard drive that disappeared

[murgeanudan]

Hi!

I wanted to partion a hard drive and I installed partition magic 8. At the startup screen, the program said that it found some errors and need to fix them, and I clicked yes...my mistake.

After this, Partition Magic said that the problems are fixed, but the program got stuck at the splash screen. Now 3 of my hard drives disappeared from explorer.

The problem is that I can see them in Acronis Disk Director or EaseUS Partition Master, but I can't do nothing to assign a letter to them (the drives have a * next to them)

Deleting / formatting the partition is not a solution to me, I have important data there.

Is there a solution that is not involving deleting my data ?

 

[USAFRet]

Deleting / formatting the partition is not a solution to me, I have important data there.

Where's the backup of this "important data"?

 

[Grobe]

Having a drive with important data, the worst ting ever is not taking backup. Second worst thing to do is to play around with partitioning software while the data is still there.

Your best bet now (depending on how important/costly your data actually are) is in my opinion is to visit a professional data recovery company and make them try recover your data.
It may work, or it may not work. The last thing you should do is to write any data to your drive if plnning to recover any data.

 

[murgeanudan]

The data is still there, I can browse to drives from Acronis, but I can't access them in windows because I can't assign a letter to them. Partition Magic messed things up and the drives can't be accessed in Windows 10.

 

[USAFRet]

The data is still there, I can browse to drives from Acronis, but I can't access them in windows because I can't assign a letter to them. Partition Magic messed things up and the drives can't be accessed in Windows 10.

Might it be possible to create an Image of that drive, to some other drive?
And then reconstitute that Image to somewhere else.

The more you mess with this, the greater chance of it going more wrong than it already has.

 

[karenjoly]

The web site for this pos says some bad things about it.

OS Support :

Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 8.

An editor's review on the site says:

The software is very dated and a new version is long overdue. It only allows you to create rescue disks using floppy disks, which many computers don’t have anymore.

Also says:

"This program does have a few compatibility issues and it does not run on Windows 7 or Windows Vista. However, it can manage partitions on both of these operating systems if it is started from a compatible OS, such as Windows NT, Windows XP or Windows 2000."

A ray of light perhaps ?

Attach the disk to a Windows machine with a supported OS, load PM and have a look .

 

[murgeanudan]

I can't access the files so I can't make an image of that drive. I don't know if this has any relevance : the important data is on a hard drive that has two partitions, one working fine.

I saw a similar thread here somebody saying it fixed the problem with Mini Windows XP from Hiren's Boot CD. I have run Mini Windows XP, but don't know what to do from here (I can't see my drives from here).

 

[Rocky Bennett]

Actually, if that was the only place that you stored that information, then it wasn't important information.

 

[USAFRet]

I can't access the files so I can't make an image of that drive. I don't know if this has any relevance : the important data is on a hard drive that has two partitions, one working fine.

I saw a similar thread here somebody saying it fixed the problem with Mini Windows XP from Hiren's Boot CD. I have run Mini Windows XP, but don't know what to do from here (I can't see my drives from here).

You're playing with ancient tools.

Recent imaging tools can make a forensic image of the entire drive.
Sector by sector. Doesn't matter if Windows can read that partition or not, or "see" the files.

An image of the entire drive.

 

[murgeanudan]

Yes, I know they're ancient.
Do you recommend any recent software that I should try ?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, I know they're ancient.
Do you recommend any recent software that I should try ?

Macrium Reflect will make a full forensic copy of that drive to a different drive.
You can work with the copy, and possibly maybe fix and recover the data.

As to what's actually wrong with it? Unknown.
But working on the one already broken copy is a fast way to disaster.

 

[murgeanudan]

In Windows 10 Disk Management, when I right click on the disk and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" I get the error :

"The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close the Disk Management console, then restart Disk Management or restart the computer"

In Acronis Disk Management the process work fine, without any errors, but nothing happens. Acronis only shows some error codes when I try something different like merging the two partitions (the one that works with the one that does not).

I will try to make an image with Macrium Reflect.

 

[USAFRet]

In Windows 10 Disk Management, when I right click on the disk and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" I get the error :

"The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close the Disk Management console, then restart Disk Management or restart the computer"

In Acronis Disk Management the process work fine, without any errors, but nothing happens. Acronis only shows some error codes when I try something different like merging the two partitions (the one that works with the one that does not).

I will try to make an image with Macrium Reflect.

Stop messing with it until you have a good forensic backup.

"when I try something different like merging the two partitions" is a fast way to total data loss.

 

[murgeanudan]

I managed to recover the data from one of my drives. Thank you so much USAFRet for suggesting me to use Macrium Reflect, you saved me!
Create image of the drive > Restore to a different drive.
Thank you all for your answers

 

[haz002]

Try opening it up with a linux os (free) or a android phone that can use usb's (I have a Galaxy A5 with a usb c port and a cheap cabel off of amazon that allows me to read usb sticks and use mice and keyboards).
If linux doesn't automaticly mount the drive try mounting it manually with the mount comand in terminal (https://linuxconfig.org/howto-mount-usb-drive-in-linux).
Also try to image it with 'dd' (linux terminal) but be very careful as 'dd' can wipe the drive clean fully with no chance of saving it again. Also you could try other imaging tools but 'dd' is the only one i know. If you are going to use 'dd' make sure you are extra careful and read up about it and what exactly to type as one letter off can even wipe the machine as well. ( https://www.computerhope.com/unix/dd.htm )

 

[Rocky Bennett]

Try opening it up with a linux os (free) or a android phone that can use usb's (I have a Galaxy A5 with a usb c port and a cheap cabel off of amazon that allows me to read usb sticks and use mice and keyboards).
If linux doesn't automaticly mount the drive try mounting it manually with the mount comand in terminal (https://linuxconfig.org/howto-mount-usb-drive-in-linux).
Also try to image it with 'dd' (linux terminal) but be very careful as 'dd' can wipe the drive clean fully with no chance of saving it again. Also you could try other imaging tools but 'dd' is the only one i know. If you are going to use 'dd' make sure you are extra careful and read up about it and what exactly to type as one letter off can even wipe the machine as well. ( https://www.computerhope.com/unix/dd.htm )

This thread was solved weeks ago, the OP has no problems now.