Problem with partitions switching on their own?

Space Monkey

Space Monkey

Space Monkey

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Hi all,

Bit of a strange one, a friend is trying to help another friend with their PC but is a little stumped and I was wondering if any of the OCUK boffs could help?

The problem: a 1TB HD, 3 partitions - c:Windows XP, d: Docs etc.., e:Empty

Until today the PC was running fine with the above setup, but now the windows partition c: has put itself as partition e: and the empty e: is now c:, so of course the PC doesn't boot?

How can we solve this, and ideally we need to just switch them back rather than re-install if possible as the person has special software on the windows install due to her being blind, so it'd be a major pain to sort out licenses and installation etc...

Also, any ideas what may have caused this?

I hope I've explained it clearly, if not please let me know what info you need.

Cheers all :)

PS. HD is in a caddy at the moment as the friend is trying to sort it on his laptop, but it can be put back in the main PC if needed?
 
if it does not boot, how do you know they have changed?

I would think the issue is NOT what you think, and that the OS you are using to view the partitions is just looking at them differently.

do you get any errors?
 
edscdk said:
if it does not boot, how do you know they have changed?

I would think the issue is NOT what you think, and that the OS you are using to view the partitions is just looking at them differently.

do you get any errors?
Click to expand...

The hard drive is now in a caddy so the friend can look at it on his pc, and its showing the windows partition as the last partition on the drive.

He is using win 7.

Just spoken to him, and he's mentioned that the C: drive is still listed as the primary drive, but is now empty, and the e: has all of the windows data on it, so can we make the e: drive the primary, or do we have to switch all the data back to the c: drive as its the primary?
 
He isn't at home at the moment, so he's going to test the drive for errors later as thats one of the first things I said to him :)

[edit] The PC goes past POST and then just sits there with a blank black screen?
 
Viewing the drive in another computer will not show you the same drive letters at all.
Other things such as active partitions and primary should not change.

You don't want to move files anywhere, however he is viewing the harddrive at the moment is most likely the correct way it has been in the orignal computer.

Not helping you fix your problem, but i would still guess the problem is else where. Changing anything on the harddrive in another computer is likely going to make thing worse.
 
This is still very vague, and i know hes not home at the moment.

Once the drive is back in his computer, after post spamming f8 does it bring up the windows boot menu? Even if it doesn't finish booting, this would at least prove to you its reading the harddrive and attempting to boot up.
 
I appreciate the drive letters will change as on his laptop it shows as G, H, I as opposed to C, D, E on the original PC, but how can the C: drive still be the primary drive (which is correct) and now all the windows install etc has moved over to the E: drive, and the primary C: drive is now empty?
 
Without seeing it, i'll still guess that its correct.

Windows boot loader could be installed on any partition.

The statement, all the files have moved over sounds so very wrong. They will not of moved.

He should be aware of the size of the different drives, i'm sure that all the files are in their original place. Anything that you've used to get to this point has just confused stuff.
 
I'll see whats what as soon as he's worked on it a bit more, but the info is as supplied to me today, it did sound weird as I've never heard of the like but stranger things have happened! I'll update once I get more :)
 
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