Lost partition after downgrading to XP

T

Train1077

New Member
I have a problem...

After removing Vista and after a lot of problems with installing XP because of some "missing nltdr".. I have now lost a partition of data...

I am very confused, my HDD is now only 120 Gb according to the computer... It used to be 250 Gb...

I am not sure what to do, I had a lot of schoolwork and important things on that partition.. Can't XP read vista partitions or does anyone know about this??

Please help me...
 
When moving XP onto a Vista and vice versa here since both are dual booted the Vista primary was first deleted entirely due to the new boot loader. XP would then have ready access to the second storage partition once on a new primary seeing it as a logical drive.

XP can see right onto any partition created with Vista since NTFS 5.0 is still used in the new version. But you may have to use a live for cd Linux distro to recover files and simply delete the old to see a new storage partition created for XP if you are unable to make it active again using the Disk Management tool.
 
I'll have to show you people a little secret about live for cd Linux distros apparently. The first is the "disk usage analyzer" that will show where data is stored.



The second shows how easy it is to copy + paste files between drives seeing the NTFS 5.0 partition type with a live distro. This image shows copying while booted with ubuntu "Gutsy Gibbon" 7.10 at the time.



XP can see onto the Vista primary itself whether in a dual boot or stand alone installation on a second drive unless you are working with a tool that hides the Vista primary from XP in order to protect the Vista system restore points. Unfortunately a tool being tested here is still in pre-beta form.

With the partition not accessible while in XP the best move would be booting up with a live distro in order to save your data and files. When I reboot into XP here I can edit this post to show how you can access most of a Vista primary since XP was just reinstalled as a stand alone while waiting for the next build to test.

If you look closely you will see both the Vista primary and second storage partition in the image here. This was captured while in XP. The external usb drive being reformatted from the factory Fat32 partition to NTFS was done with the Disk Management tool while booted in Vista yet is readily available while booted in XP as well.

 
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