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Oh man.

JuMeSy - Mar 5, 2004

		JuMeSy	Mar 5, 2004
		Righto...For some reason after my last format I decided to make 2 partitions: the C drive being a 5 gig FAT32, D being a 70 gig NTFS, with WindowsXP installed, thus my PC booting from there. I recently couldn't erase something on the C drive and couldn't find out why or at least which program was using it...so I decided to just format the partition. I did so, but then my primary partition on D: wouldn't boot. With my recovery CD, I could only install windows on C (which I have done to get online now) or format everything and start from scratch (There's also an option to repair a Windows installation, but that leads me to some sort of DOS prompt and I've no idea what to do...). Which wouldn't be a big problem as it's been a while since that last format and I could temp save everything on my old PC... BUT...a certain dufus (me ) saved all his vital and otherwise important files to his user folders on D, which I can't access now due to being in windows with the new C: account. So...now I need to either get the D: partition booting again, or at least be able to access my personal folders there. *has certainly learned another lesson today...* Any suggestions?

		it290	Mar 5, 2004
		What? Why can't you access them? Are you logged in as a reg. user or something? Or is your recovery CD 98 or something like that? Anyway, you still have your Windows install on drive D, right? You can install a bootloader and boot from the D drive (ie your Windows folder can be there - that's how I have this machine set up), although IIRC there is some caveat such as having to install the Windows bootloader on the first partition beforehand or something like that (which it sounds like you've already done).

		JuMeSy	Mar 5, 2004
		My main (and only) account on my defunct Windows install is password protected and whatnot, and so far there seems to be no way to get into them without actually logging in properly (there's no pw prompt for me here). Frankly I lost you when you mentioned a bootloader. I'm not a complete newbie, but partitions, boot probs, and whatnot just isn't a frequented area of mine. Anyway to clear things a bit..., my D drive is AFAI can see completely intact, the problem is it simply won't boot after I formatted c. Then I just went on and installed Windows on the empty C (to get online), so now I have 2 partitions with two Windows installs and cannot get to my D install though.

		Dyne	Mar 5, 2004
		Originally posted by JuMeSy@Mar 5, 2004 @ 09:05 AM Righto...For some reason after my last format I decided to make 2 partitions: the C drive being a 5 gig FAT32, D being a 70 gig NTFS, with WindowsXP installed, thus my PC booting from there. I recently couldn't erase something on the C drive and couldn't find out why or at least which program was using it...so I decided to just format the partition. I did so, but then my primary partition on D: wouldn't boot. With my recovery CD, I could only install windows on C (which I have done to get online now) or format everything and start from scratch (There's also an option to repair a Windows installation, but that leads me to some sort of DOS prompt and I've no idea what to do...). Which wouldn't be a big problem as it's been a while since that last format and I could temp save everything on my old PC... BUT...a certain dufus (me ) saved all his vital and otherwise important files to his user folders on D, which I can't access now due to being in windows with the new C: account. So...now I need to either get the D: partition booting again, or at least be able to access my personal folders there. *has certainly learned another lesson today...* Any suggestions? i thought xp only used fat 32 (where 2000 uses either or). that may be your problem right there. but im probably wrong.

		gameboy900	Mar 5, 2004
		The reason everything went crap for you is that the BIOS expects the bootloader to be on the first partition of the first drive. Which in your case was the old C drive. Since you formated that you essentially deleted the old installs bootloader. What I would do in this case is to install a fresh copy of WinXP onto a NTFS partition (like that small one you are using). Make sure you create an account on that new install with the EXACT same username and password. Once you login to that account you should be able to browse any of the protected files on the D partition. If you cannot browse the D partition period, you will need to go into Computer Management (found in the Control Panel) and then in that into the Disk Management. In there you should see your partition (hopefully). Chances are that it has not been assigned a drive letter and as such it's invisible to Windows. Simply right click on the partition (in the graphical representation below the list at the top) and select a drive letter for it. IF your large partition doesn't appear in this area then it seems you have deleted it as well, or it has been seriously damaged and is probably gonna be a pain in the ass to recover.

		JuMeSy	Mar 5, 2004
		Well the identical profile didn't work. But either way, my problem's solved, found the settings for the boot and now D: is booting again, thanks anyway peeps!

		Alexvrb	Mar 6, 2004
		Originally posted by Dyne@Mar 5, 2004 @ 06:16 PM i thought xp only used fat 32 (where 2000 uses either or). that may be your problem right there. but im probably wrong. XP can use either, and typically is going to be using NTFS.