Hard Drive is permanently partitioned? Help Please?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi. Im new to this site so forgive me if this is posted in the wrong section but i really need help. I recently had my laptop(Dell Latitude D620) fixed and instead of reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows xp, the technician dual-booted my computer between WIndows xp home and professional. Now my hard drive is basically split in half. When i tried to remove the partition, i found out that windows does not recognize the second partition. It simply states that i have one 55.8 gb harddrive instead of the 80gb that my notebook came with. Is there any way to get the rest of my space back? i dont care about my files and i'll reinstall windows if i have to.
 
How did you go about trying to remove the unwanted partition, from within Windows XP?

There's a few things you can do like using a WinXP OEM disk or even a Linux-based OS disk to manage disk partitions. There's also KillDisk if things get really messy. There really isn't a way to permanently partition a hard drive... unless of course you drop it or something ;)
 
when i tried to reinstall windows xp, it said there was only one partition, the 55 gb one. partition editors dont recognize the missing one either.
 
there could be something wrong with the file structure on the drive... have you tried running repair console and logging into each windows xp installation? i would also recommend a nice tool called TestDisk or just download the diagnostics software from the hard drive's manufacturer.

You may be better off slaving the hard disk in another computer and try examining the disk structure that way.
 
i ran killdisk and found the partition. thank you so much for your help. now i just have to remove the partition and reinstall.
thanks
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back