Partition repair program needed

manveruppd · 24 Apr 2010 at 15:04

One of the HDDs in my dad's PC seems to have "lost" two of its three partitions (ie. they simply disappeared and OS handles pointing to files on them result in errors), and now I've got to help him fix it over the phone. Are there any partitioning utilities that can also repair damaged partition tables so that I can try and recover them for him? Preferably easy-to-use ones since he's not comfortable with that kind of stuff, I always did it for him. I don't think I have the patience to talk him through a complete reformat and reinstall of Windows over the phone...

Pho · 24 Apr 2010 at 15:36

TestDisk repaired partitions for me, not very easy to use mind.

manveruppd · 25 Apr 2010 at 10:33

Thanks, I'll give it a go.
Very strange that a partition could simply disappear like that. I did the formatting on that HDD myself, there were no problems, and its SMART data seemed fine. Plus, the other drive in that PC (which is all a single partition) is fine, as is the system partition on the faulty drive. Surely if the partition table had gotten corrupted, or if the PC had been infected with a boot sector virus of some sort, then it would've gotten the system partition too?

Uhtred · 25 Apr 2010 at 11:23

test disk is good but if you can't get the partition back try a deep scan with recuva

bledd · 25 Apr 2010 at 11:31

Pho said:
TestDisk repaired partitions for me, not very easy to use mind.

It's really easy to use..

You just follow what is says on the screen.. :confused:

Pho · 25 Apr 2010 at 12:37

bledd. said:
It's really easy to use..

You just follow what is says on the screen..

But it looks slightly daunting to someone like the OP's Dad who doesn't really know what he's doing.