Killed A Partition... and My Computer Died Too!

[SirReddSir]

In the process of networking my desktop and laptop, I noticed that my laptop had been previously partitioned... an extra "D" drive existed, with about 1.7 gigs of storage. I checked to see if there was anything located on it, and since nothing came up, I felt it fine to deactivate it.

And now my computer won't boot. Bum-bum-BUUMMM.

I changed the "Workgroup" name, and the computer wanted to restart itself so I went ahead with it... and since then, I've only got error message telling me "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem." I can get into the BIOS (and the computer is still set to boot via the hard-drive, not the LAN), but I can't seem to get or find anything that will get my computer back.

All I really need to do is get it to a point where I can do a system restore to about an hour ago... but I can't even get into safe mode, and all my recovery discs just want to re-install Windows XP, not actually boot XP so I can do something.

Please help!

 

[SirReddSir]

UPDATE: I was able to find a boot disk online, and use that to bring the computer back. So now it's running again, but only because of the boot disk.

When I go into Disk Management, I can see the current active hard drive and the former partition, which is labeled "Unallocated." Is there anyway to "re-allocate" that partition, without re-formatting or damaging the information (which apparently has the boot information) already there (assuming I didn't already screw it up)?

While it's running, I'm going to save everything I need (not that there's much), and take screen shots of my layouts, just in case I have to do a clean re-install... but hopefully I can fend that off.

Any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

 

[number13]

you reassign the drive and all the info is gone, the only hope is to do a restore to an earlier time, Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, and pick a time before this started, MAYBE you can save the info that way, but all in all I'd say it's gone

 

[SirReddSir]

you reassign the drive and all the info is gone, the only hope is to do a restore to an earlier time, Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, and pick a time before this started, MAYBE you can save the info that way, but all in all I'd say it's gone

Good suggestion... I tried it last week, but sadly, nada.

Here is the end of my sad tale:

I was able to bring the computer back for a while using the boot disc... and because of it, I was able to save all my stuff onto an external hard drive. I tried Window's recovery program, but because the partition was no longer there, it said it couldn't bring it back. Bummer.

I found a free program from downloads.com, and attempted to do a recovery... but that only messed things up further. After that, I did a re-boot, and got a message that my hal.dll file was gone or corrupted. I attempted to do some things to fix that, but after a while it became apparent that the time to through in the towel had arrived.

The laptop has since been re-formatted, re-partitioned, and re-installed. Now, I just have to set things up the way there were set up... annoying, but not impossible.

Thanks!