Lost Partition

I have one physical disk in my PC, formatted to allow reinstalls without
losing inportant data. I formatted one of the partitions and installed Vista
(RC1) onto it, the other partition had XP Home. Unfortunately the PC does
not see the other drive (the one with the important data on it) and I do not
get the option (as I did with the first Vista version) to select which OS I
would like to boot into. Has anyone any ideas how I rectify the situation?

What do you mean the PC doesn't see the other drive? Are you talking about
the POST in BIOS or Disk Management in Vista or XP?
You don't say which system you boot into. If you boot into Vista, check
which partition is your system partition, then copy the ntldr, ntdetect.com
and boot.ini files to that partition. Using either VistaBootPro or EasyBCD,
make an entry for a legacy system. Make sure that your boot.ini file has
the proper entry. Should be disk 0 in your case and the partition number
that shows in Disk Management for the XP system.

"scottishwhite" <> wrote in message
news:C71E8992-86DF-4281-899E-...
>I have one physical disk in my PC, formatted to allow reinstalls without
> losing inportant data. I formatted one of the partitions and installed
> Vista
> (RC1) onto it, the other partition had XP Home. Unfortunately the PC does
> not see the other drive (the one with the important data on it) and I do
> not
> get the option (as I did with the first Vista version) to select which OS
> I
> would like to boot into. Has anyone any ideas how I rectify the
> situation?

I am booting into Vista, I used VistaBootPro and made the entry for a legacy
OS, copied ntldr and ntdetect and the XP splash screen comes up and then says
that autochk not found and skips it and then restarts the PC. When I go to
the disk manager it sees the 2 separate partitions, just that while in Vista
it cannot see it.

This seems to be related to hidden partitions related to a Hotfix. Read
thru these posts and see if any help your situation.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic7746.html


"scottishwhite" <> wrote in message
news:CB091A74-9572-4A8C-9322-...
>I am booting into Vista, I used VistaBootPro and made the entry for a
>legacy
> OS, copied ntldr and ntdetect and the XP splash screen comes up and then
> says
> that autochk not found and skips it and then restarts the PC. When I go
> to
> the disk manager it sees the 2 separate partitions, just that while in
> Vista
> it cannot see it.

But I can't get into XP to remove the Hotfix.....

I have an update, when I try and install XP onto the 'hidden' partition it
says next to it "OS/2 Boot Manager" and can't install onto it without
deleting the partition, this I don't want to do as I have all my mp3s etc on
there. If I reinstalled XP onto what is now the Vista partition would this
'reveal' the other partition?

It is hard to know what the problem is for sure, as it might be that Vista
hid the partitions. Maybe someone else can recommend a utility to unhide
your hidden partitions.

"scottishwhite" <> wrote in message
news:BF995E0F-2C63-4F7E-A810-...
> But I can't get into XP to remove the Hotfix.....
>
> I have an update, when I try and install XP onto the 'hidden' partition it
> says next to it "OS/2 Boot Manager" and can't install onto it without
> deleting the partition, this I don't want to do as I have all my mp3s etc
> on
> there. If I reinstalled XP onto what is now the Vista partition would
> this
> 'reveal' the other partition?

a quick update, have installed XP onto what was the Vista partition, still
can't see my backup partition

"John Barnes" wrote:

> It is hard to know what the problem is for sure, as it might be that Vista
> hid the partitions. Maybe someone else can recommend a utility to unhide
> your hidden partitions.
>
> "scottishwhite" <> wrote in message
> news:BF995E0F-2C63-4F7E-A810-...
> > But I can't get into XP to remove the Hotfix.....
> >
> > I have an update, when I try and install XP onto the 'hidden' partition it
> > says next to it "OS/2 Boot Manager" and can't install onto it without
> > deleting the partition, this I don't want to do as I have all my mp3s etc
> > on
> > there. If I reinstalled XP onto what is now the Vista partition would
> > this
> > 'reveal' the other partition?
>
>
>

I have never used this, but it is the only free partition manager I can
quickly find. Use at your own discretion. Only doing attribute changes
certainly have less risk than resizing.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...c/1138879100/1


"scottishwhite" <> wrote in message
news:E524C2CE-958E-41C6-9CCE-...
>a quick update, have installed XP onto what was the Vista partition, still
> can't see my backup partition
>
> "John Barnes" wrote:
>
>> It is hard to know what the problem is for sure, as it might be that
>> Vista
>> hid the partitions. Maybe someone else can recommend a utility to unhide
>> your hidden partitions.
>>
>> "scottishwhite" <> wrote in
>> message
>> news:BF995E0F-2C63-4F7E-A810-...
>> > But I can't get into XP to remove the Hotfix.....
>> >
>> > I have an update, when I try and install XP onto the 'hidden' partition
>> > it
>> > says next to it "OS/2 Boot Manager" and can't install onto it without
>> > deleting the partition, this I don't want to do as I have all my mp3s
>> > etc
>> > on
>> > there. If I reinstalled XP onto what is now the Vista partition would
>> > this
>> > 'reveal' the other partition?
>>
>>
>>

I purchased partition magic and was able to click on 'unhide' and I have my
songs back!!!! Thanks for all your help John greatly appreciated

"John Barnes" wrote:

> I have never used this, but it is the only free partition manager I can
> quickly find. Use at your own discretion. Only doing attribute changes
> certainly have less risk than resizing.
>
> http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...c/1138879100/1
>
>
> "scottishwhite" <> wrote in message
> news:E524C2CE-958E-41C6-9CCE-...
> >a quick update, have installed XP onto what was the Vista partition, still
> > can't see my backup partition
> >
> > "John Barnes" wrote:
> >
> >> It is hard to know what the problem is for sure, as it might be that
> >> Vista
> >> hid the partitions. Maybe someone else can recommend a utility to unhide
> >> your hidden partitions.
> >>
> >> "scottishwhite" <> wrote in
> >> message
> >> news:BF995E0F-2C63-4F7E-A810-...
> >> > But I can't get into XP to remove the Hotfix.....
> >> >
> >> > I have an update, when I try and install XP onto the 'hidden' partition
> >> > it
> >> > says next to it "OS/2 Boot Manager" and can't install onto it without
> >> > deleting the partition, this I don't want to do as I have all my mp3s
> >> > etc
> >> > on
> >> > there. If I reinstalled XP onto what is now the Vista partition would
> >> > this
> >> > 'reveal' the other partition?
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>

Glad things worked out. Thanks for checking back.


"scottishwhite" <> wrote in message
news:98694CA5-9686-477E-9212-...
>I purchased partition magic and was able to click on 'unhide' and I have my
> songs back!!!! Thanks for all your help John greatly appreciated
>
> "John Barnes" wrote:
>
>> I have never used this, but it is the only free partition manager I can
>> quickly find. Use at your own discretion. Only doing attribute changes
>> certainly have less risk than resizing.
>>
>> http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail...c/1138879100/1
>>
>>
>> "scottishwhite" <> wrote in
>> message
>> news:E524C2CE-958E-41C6-9CCE-...
>> >a quick update, have installed XP onto what was the Vista partition,
>> >still
>> > can't see my backup partition
>> >
>> > "John Barnes" wrote:
>> >
>> >> It is hard to know what the problem is for sure, as it might be that
>> >> Vista
>> >> hid the partitions. Maybe someone else can recommend a utility to
>> >> unhide
>> >> your hidden partitions.
>> >>
>> >> "scottishwhite" <> wrote in
>> >> message
>> >> news:BF995E0F-2C63-4F7E-A810-...
>> >> > But I can't get into XP to remove the Hotfix.....
>> >> >
>> >> > I have an update, when I try and install XP onto the 'hidden'
>> >> > partition
>> >> > it
>> >> > says next to it "OS/2 Boot Manager" and can't install onto it
>> >> > without
>> >> > deleting the partition, this I don't want to do as I have all my
>> >> > mp3s
>> >> > etc
>> >> > on
>> >> > there. If I reinstalled XP onto what is now the Vista partition
>> >> > would
>> >> > this
>> >> > 'reveal' the other partition?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>>
>>
>>