DISK BOOT ERROR...hard drive shows as unallocated space?!

[gaeko]

Ok I installed Windows on an old 80 gig HD I had laying around, and everything was successful. The system was working great until recently when I try to boot up the machine I would get DISK BOOT ERROR please insert bootable disk. I would then restart the machine, and then it would boot into Windows fine. I found it very odd, but thought it was because the MBR may be confused since on another HD there used to be a windows installation and I had to remove it manually. (Not sure if that was the case)

Ok, so today I tried to fix the error cause Windows would refuse to boot. I ran Windows setup to check the partitions, and initially it showed that my 80 gig HD was unpartitioned space. I reset the machine, went into Windows setup again and then it showed the partitions.

At the current moment I can't get my machine to detect the partitions for the life of me. I currently have it removed from the computer, plugged it into an external HD case and plugged into my laptop. I ran Norton Partition Magic and it's detecting the HD as unallocated space.

Is there a good program I can use to recover my lost partition table? Is it a lost cause? What the heck is going on?!

Please feel free to ask questions, and I will respond promptly. Thank you for reading.

 

[YARDofSTUF]

A BartPE disc or Windows UBCD should have a few data/partition recovery tools.

Get Data Back is a good one.

 

[gaeko]

Thanks, I'll be able to use those tools if I want to recover files.

These are my questions:
1. What could have caused this to happen? Is it a bad HD?
2. Is there any chance I can repair the drive, perhaps repair the partition table? I would really like to be able to use the drive as I did before. I want to try to fix the drive before recovering all the files and reinstalling windows.

 

[Six]

well
i dont thing you nessarly have a bad hdd, fortunaly you do have some options. first. I have some questions about your system.
Is this the only drive in the system currently
Was there other harddrives in the computer when you installed?


to answer your questions
1. Possibly test with dft.
2 Yes we will get to that after you respond to me.