HD Partitioning gone wrong....

[SMessier]

First post after a major problem. Not the way I wanted to start here, but anyway.

Earlier I decided to go back to 2 from 3 (FAT-16) partitions set up on my lone hard drive. Using Partition Commander, I deleted partition E, converted partition D to FAT 32, and then moved it down 54MB (there was some empty space left between the first and second from this being a 6.4GB HD set up with 3 FAT-16 partitions).

Everything seemed to go fine, except that now my D: drive has the label "cva__Y_x" (close to that, actually it's worse). Although the space used/free space info is correct, the folders/file names are also total nonsense, and I cannot open any of them (Folder has moved/does not exist.)

While the important data is backed up, I am wodnering if there is something that can be done, or if I should simply format over and forget about it.

C: is just fine, the PC runs, yet knowing that my files are "somewhere out there" but as good as useless now is darn depressing.
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

Any help would be much appreciated.

[RobRich]

I hate to ask the obivious, but have you scanned the drive with any form of diagnostic utility? While I doubt if scandisk or even Norton can fix you problem, it is worth a try.

Since you have your crtical data backed up, I recommend using FDISK and FORMAT. It will save your time and effort, not to mention much aggrevation.

I would also recommend creating only FAT32 partitions. There is limited need for FAT16 anymore, unless your extensively using OS/2 (not many of us 0S/2 supporters left), NT 4 (if so, why not use NTFS), or a very early version of Win95 (if so, upgrade now!).

Later,
Robert Richmond

[SMessier]

I hate to ask the obivious, but have you scanned the drive with any form of diagnostic utility?

Yes, I did use Scandisk (though after posting, hence I didn't mention it). Basically, the drive is full or errors - top level folder is bad, as is everything else. Hoping for some miracle, I did not get it to fix errors it found. It looked like everything on the drive was going to be treated as lost clusters, and had there been some other chance of recovery, I thought this would not help.

I would also recommend creating only FAT32 partitions. There is limited need for FAT16 anymore,

Indeed, that is what I was in the process of doing, having put it off after upgrading from Win95.

Thanks for your help - and apologies for posting in the wrong forum.

[Target]

Unless I misread your post, I think I know what the issue was. It sounds as though you moved your partitions, and then converted your D: drive to FAT32 correct?

Did you then also convert your C: drive to FAT32? If not, then that could be what caused this issue. FAT16 cannot read FAT32, and if your OS partition was still FAT16, you could cause yourself some rather large problems. If you do this again, I would recommend you move your partitions to where you want them to be, then convert the C: drive to FAT32 first. That way your OS drive would be FAT32 and could read the other partitions that are FAT16. After that is complete, if you want to, convert any of the rest of your drives to FAT32.

You didn't specify what OS you were using, but you will want to make sure that it supports FAT32 as well.

[Rat]

Since your'e likely looking at a re-format at this point, you may want to try and convert your C: drive to FAT32 and see if you can read your D: drive afterwards.

Rat...
"The object of war is not to die for your country but to
make the other ******* die for his."
--George Patton

[Rat]

....systopt posted me twice

Rat...
"The object of war is not to die for your country but to
make the other ******* die for his."
--George Patton


[This message has been edited by Rat (edited 10-25-2000).]

[SMessier]

Unless I misread your post, I think I know what the issue was. It sounds as though you moved your partitions, and then converted your D: drive to FAT32 correct?
Did you then also convert your C: drive to FAT32? If not, then that could be what caused this issue. FAT16 cannot read FAT32, and if your OS partition was still FAT16, you could cause yourself some rather large problems.

Hmmm, I had not thought of that - obviously. I am using Win98, and C: is (and remains) a FAT16 partition. I guess I had assumed that since Win98 supports FAT32, it would not matter what its (C) partition would be in terms of its ability to read the moved & converted (D) FAT32 partition.

As I've said, the important files are backed up, but it would still be nice to recover them. I can certainly try different things at this point, having nothing to lose.

[This message has been edited by SMessier (edited 10-25-2000).]

[This message has been edited by SMessier (edited 10-25-2000).]