Partition Gone ?

[ZaFoD]

Hey Guys,

A family member brought their PC over to night 'cos it won't start'
I've had a quick look at it and it appears the first partition of the HDD (C:\) is missing. The second and third partitions (D:\ and E:\) are still there and accessible.
I'm guessing the Partition Table has been lost or corrupted.

Anyone had any luck with repairing this sort of thing.
Even a temp fix will do, so we can grab a handful of family pix and files from the C:\ drive.

Thanks Guys.

[gazz10]

Hi just used my best friend 'google'

stumbled on this
http://www.ptdd.com/partitionerror.htm am not sure if any good .

[ZaFoD]

Hi Gazz10,
Thanks for the link.

I saw those along with about a dozen other utils earilier today.
Nearly everyone claims to be able to fix this type of problem in the 'Paid for Versions' but their all pretty expensive, and none offer your money back if they trash the system completly. :(

I'm going to try Acronis and Spinrite.
Both have been recommended multiple times on another forum.

[gazz10]

i will have a look to see if there any versions that are hmmm free , but wont be till tommoz till i get roound to it..

[Spud1966]

Mmm if the os system has been deleted i think you are ~~~~ed m8 , if it's a corrupted boot sector try

HDD regenerate , have a google for Hiren's BootCD on the torrents

[ZaFoD]

No worries Gazz10,
I'm not going to try anything with this PC till sunday afternoon.
That way i'll have plenty of time to collect utils and ideas. :)

Hi Spud1966,
I've got a Ultimate Utility CD here.
i think I saw HDD regenerate listed on that, but I'll have a look for Hiren's BootCD too. :)

The partition wasn't formated, the owner has trouble working out which button starts it up, so formating is way to technical for him. :D
He got some sort of Virus or Trojan. AVG was poping up warnings, his desktop had turned white and it was running very slow. So he tried to reboot it ??? But he got a warning about 'Another user is still copying files' so he panicked pulled the plug.
It hasn't start since, it POST's then says it can't find an Operating System.

I booted it with an Ubuntu Live CD, C:\ was emtpty D:\ and E:\ were fine, then there was a new F:\ which had weird file and folder names.
Hence my geuss the Partition Table is messed up.