Partition lost after using Acronis OS Selector‏

Yesterday I installed OS Selector‏ to manage my 3 Windows systems, and it proved to be a big mistake.
Here are the details:
Before
HDD1:74G SATA1 with partition CDEF,LBA mode
HDD2:250G SATA2 with partition IJK, LBA mode
HDD3:320G SATA2 with partition GH, CHS mode
Partition C,D are FAT32,others are NTFS
WinXP 1 installed on C, Win2000 installed on E, WinXP 2 installed on I

After reboot, I chose to boot WinXP 1 with OS Selector and noticed HDD3 not recorgnized. I thought it would be all right when fully booted but I thought wrong.
HDD3 could not be recorgnized, and changed to LBA mode.
I managed to recover partition G by Acronis*Recovery Expert but partition H, which keeps my home videos and backups, has gone. Recovery Expert could not find any partition records.

Recover My Files is doing a thorough scan and even all data can be recovered, it will take a long time.

Is there a possibility that I can recover the lost partition without data loss?
Suggestions appreciated.

 

crinoah,

While you are waiting for someone familiar with Acronis software could you run Findpart and post the results here.

http://www.partitionsupport.com/utilities.htm

Download fpart489.zip

Open a command prompt at the folder containing findpart.exe and at the prompt type

findpart tables

and press Enter

All your computer partitions will be shown but our interest is in your third HD.

PS:: You could also use

findpart tables c:\findpart.txt

How large were the partitions in the third HD? Were they primary or logical?

 

Thanks for the reply.
Here's what I got:

Findpart, version 4.89 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2007.

OS: Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Partition tables:

Disk: 1 Cylinders: 38913 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 305242

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1*07 1071209727504102406 0 17 1 13054*254 63 NB OK

Partition G was 100G and H was 198G, all were logical partitions.
Now I found HDD3 recorgnized as Disk1 and the recovered partition G marked as active.

 

crinoah,

It doesn't look good. Findpart looks for boot sectors. On that HD you only have 1 partition and it's primary, active, NTFS, 100 GB and doesn't start on a cylinder boundary. Not what you expected as you had two logical partitions before.

In Disk Management, does that HD have around 200 GB of unallocated space?

Could you download ptedit32 from..

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/PTEDIT32.zip

Unzip the file and double click ptedit32.exe. Choose your suspect HD from the drop down menu. I guess it's not going to help but is it showing anything we don't know.

 

Can not run it, "Error #5 starting the PowerQuest Engine"...

 

I've seen that error at times. Try it later.

 

Seems not good...

 

crinoah,

Best of luck with your data recovery. The partition has gone.


Calling all Acronis experts.

Calling all Acronis experts.

 

I think so.
Recover My Files has finished its job and got most of my files back except 6 of them.
Ordered a new hard drive, after it arrives I'll back all my files up and format the dead one.

Also contacted Acronis customer support to see if they can do something before I decide to request a refund, no replies yet.
Wasting a whole day to get everything back to normal, quite disappointed.

Thanks Brian K for the help

 

I'm pleased I could give you something to think about. You did well with file recovery. Which app did you use?

 

"Recover My Files".

 

Man, glad to let you know all my data has been restored after trying a partition table repair software called Discgen.
It simply found all lost partitions within 5 seconds and yes I got everything back.

To Acronis technicians who may read this:
Since I solved my problem by myself, now I'd like to know why OS Selector‏ couldn't recorgnize HDD3 and caused partition table damage. Information you need has already been sent by email, please check it out.