So, I originally had One Primary partition, with one active and one logical. On the active partition I had Windows XP Pro x64. I was in the middle of using my computer and it shutoff because my father had disconnected it from the wall accidentally. I turned it on and got this error "Windows cannot start because of a corrupt file. "Windows\system32\config\system". Insert set-up cd and at the first screen press 'r'. So that is what I did. In the recovery console I typed fixmbr and rebooted and then nothing. So then I booted up the xp cd again but this time going to installation, here to find out my windows partition is unknown. So immediately googled how to fix that. I downloaded Ultimate boot cd and ran checkdisk. well I messed around and now there's 1 extended partition with 2 logical drives. In order to make my windows partition active I have to make it a primary. I searched how to do that, I read on multiple forums it is possible to change an extended partition to a primary by using partition magic. I just need to know how to fix everything so I can boot back into my windows xp pro x64 again without losing all my data. I really don't have a way to backup everything at the moment. Thanks in Advance. For the record my pc specs are as follows. CPU: Q6600 GPU: 8800 GT RAM:4 gigs of DDR2 PC6400 HDD: 250 gig SATA CD/DVD: Dvd rw & dvd reader OS:Windows XP Pro x64 Now there is only one partition witch is 233 gb/, witch happens to be my whole drive. How do I recover lost partitions?
You need o do a chkdsk c: /f . That will fix this problem 99 percent of the time. Anytime you have an abnormal shutdown you run the risk of corrupting the boot partition. The chkdsk will fix the corruption and get your drive to boot again. The best tool for running a chkdsk or scandisk on a non-booting drive is a bartpe. Fixmbr and fixboot won't fix this problem but it won't make the problem worst. When the hard drive shows up as unknown (or raw) it's a good sign that it's corrupted. I've encounter this problem several times and have always been able to fix it with a chkdsk. For the time being I would try and get a chkdsk done on that drive before trying to do changes to the partitions. In it's current state, all your data is recoverable. Only a few misplaced bits of data will make the whole drive look unusable but your data is still there. If chkdsk doesn't work, your next step will be to use testdisk (free software) it has more powerful tools to recover lost partitions it also has a addon (photorec) that can recover data from a corrupt drive.
