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Need data from multi-partition SATA: no drive letter

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I need to obtain data from one of the 2 partitions off a SATA drive. It’s a Seagate Barracuda from a Dell Optiplex. For whatever reason the recovery disc is not working and we keep getting a corrupt file which won’t let it boot to XP.
There are 2 partitions. The second partition (also the larger partition) has the data that needs to be retreived and is listed as drive E:

I have the ability to connect it internally or externally with enclosure. Results are the same: Drive is recognized. No drive letters available. Will not give an option to change drive letters (when using Disk Management). First partition just gives ‘Help’ option. Second partition gives ‘Help’ and ‘Delete Partition’ option.

I cannot lose the data.

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Clarifications

In reply to Need data from multi-partition SATA: no drive letter

Clarifications

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In reply to Need data from multi-partition SATA: no drive letter

have you scanned it with seatools diagnostics?

Corrupt Partition table?

In reply to Need data from multi-partition SATA: no drive letter

You can try to use a Partition Editor to verify that the partition table is the correct type. One example is the ptedit command on Partition Magic disks (also many freeware ones available. Here is a link to common partition file system types.
Note that a 12 is usually a diagnostic or recovery partition and may safely be changed to a FAT32 ID if the partition will not launch the recovery method. Also if GoBack was installed, you may want to try to boot the system while holding down the space bar to try to access the GoBack menu (to remove it). You can also access a GoBack partition by changing the Hex to the file system type.

http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html

Re: Need data from multi-partition SATA: no drive letter

In reply to Need data from multi-partition SATA: no drive letter

I have put a link here for you, and by the sound of some elses joy it seams it was the cure, hence the person did by it and it cured his hdd. I hope this works for you.

http://www.ptdd.com/

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

Fixed the Problem – GoBack issue

In reply to Need data from multi-partition SATA: no drive letter

I got a copy of Partition Magic because I wanted to see more details of how the drive was showing up as. It showed up as a “44” partition. This is a Symantec <I was so ecstatic that it was recognized and had a drive letter. I then used Partition Magic to copy the partition, and I imaged it to another drive. All my data was recovered, and the other drive boots to WinXP fine. Go figure.

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