Help - deleted HDs

[grapsta]

..here's what happened. Bought a new pc - it was already partitioned into 3 drives...c drive is 30gig...d and e are (were) a lot bigger - i think 70 gig each.
wanting to have only 1 unpartitioned drive for the whole pc i foolishly right click deleted the 2 bigger drives in Disk Management thinking this would just delete the partitions and make one single drive - instead the 2 drives have dissappeared and I'm left with 1 30 gig drive. help ! - how can i reclaim old hd space.

[Ajmukon]

doing that should just turn them into 1 "unpartitioned space"
did you try a restart? (this may clear the problem.)

Can you put the HDD in another machine?
see if it detects all 170GB?

[Sylvander]

1. BootIT NG = BiNG (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html) by TeraByte [loaded/run from a bootable floppy or optical disk] can non-destructively re-arrange the partitioning arrangements.
This could be used to make the partition fill the available space on the drive.
Not sure whether a free trial is available.

2. Another way I formerly did this was...
Use a backup/restore program that backs up folders and files rather than makes images of the disk sectors [I used "HP Simple Backup". It made the backup from within Windows to optical disks. I think it restored from outside of Windows]
I just made a backup of the full contents of the C: partition, then repartitioned the drive and re-formatted the partition[s], then restored the folders and files to any chosen partition.
The program would complain if the partition had the wrong drive letter or was of the wrong size [too big], but restored anyway.

3. I've since tried doing a similar thing using "Image for DOS" [IforD] by TeraByte [run from a bootable floppy] to make the image and restore it to any partition that isn't a perfect fit [must be too big, not too small].
But I then end up with some unallocated space on the partition equal to the difference between the image and the partition size.
So I'm then forced to use BiNG to resize the partition to fit the image and eliminate the unallocated space.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I wonder if a Restore Point would bring things back to an earlier state where the partitions are listed and accessible again?

Also,
Sylvander, didn't you use a program in the past with and 'undelete' function? Can it be used post problem?

Grapsta,
If Bing does not allow the partition to be enlarged to the whole hard drive space, it appears you'll need to use a recovery program ( such as GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org/) ) to get your files back and then recreate the partitions and reload your saved files.

Also more information on your system would help, also if you even need to recover any data because if you don't, the fix would be done a bit differently. You'll need to format the RAW areas of the drive and then use something like BING to assemble the 2 areas together as one.

[Sylvander]

1. "Sylvander, didn't you use a program in the past with an 'undelete' function?"
Yes, the EBCD includes both an "un-erase" [actually un-delete] and "Un-format" programs...
(a) But what the un-erase does is undelete folders/files that have been deleted from the recycle bin.
Deleting the folders/files is achieved by changing the 1st letter of the folder/file name [to a Greek Sigma?]. I think that's out on the drive rather than in the file table, but not sure.
The un-erase program just changes the letter from a Sigma to any other chosen symbol.
This is no use in this case I expect.
(b) The un-format program does just that. [Un-formats partitions that have been formatted]
Problem is...
I'm not sure what got done when Windows "Disk Management" "deleted" partitions D: and E:
Probably deleted all the partitioning info. Don't know what's involved in that.

2. "you'll need to use a recovery program ( such as GetDataBack ) to get your files back"
Ah, I didn't pick up on the possibility that grapsta might want to recover his files that were on D: and E:
Apparently BiNG can un-delete a deleted partition.
QUOTE
...from the bootitng.pdf file.
Undelete a partition or volume
1 On the desktop, click Partition Work.
2 In the Partitions list, select the free-space entry that you want to undelete, and then click Undelete under Actions.
3 In the Undelete dialog box that appears, click OK to recover missing FAT, HPFS, NTFS,
Ext2fs, ReiserFS, and Extended partitions or volumes.
Note
• If the partition or volume recovered is not correct, select it in the Partition list, click Delete, select the Clear Boot Sector check box, click OK, and then repeat steps 2 and 3.
I don't know if this only applies to partitions deleted by BiNG.