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Resolved Question

Win 7 lost/deleted partitions

Aug 4, 2016 9:14AM PDT

My daughter did something to my HP ProBook 4430s and instead of doing a system restore, she ended up in the partitions and made the HP partition active. Now, when I turn it on, a command screen pops up and informs me there is no OS installed and to install one. Did she wipe out my primary and recovery partitions or are they still there...hidden or not accessible?

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m2262 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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When this happens my first move is to safeguard files.
Aug 4, 2016 9:42AM PDT

Even with decades of PC stories about loss, I find that a surprising high percentage of folk don't have backups.

NEVER REPAIR THE ISSUE YOU NOTED UNTIL THE FILES ARE SAFE.

For this one I usually boot up any of the Live OSes I've used over the years.
Read http://tips.oncomputers.info/archives2004/0401/2004-Jan-11.htm and I've been using that for much longer since it's free, works and I don't have to know Linux.

If that doesn't see the files, I pull the HDD out and put it on another PC to run RECUVA.

Now that the files are safe I can try setting it from the command line.
https://www.google.com/search?q=change+active+partition+Windows+command+line&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 shows methods I've used over the years.

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Lost/deleted partitions
Aug 4, 2016 3:24PM PDT

Thank you very much R. Proffitt for the valuable information you gave. My daughter's panic mode did a number on my laptop but hopefully your suggestions/options bring it back to life. Again, thank you!! Greatly appreciated!!

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Good to read.
Aug 4, 2016 4:08PM PDT

If you have more questions such as how to use recuva, feel free to ask. Remember I might supply a prior discussion but it's usually just to save me typing.