computer problem

[tw]

Post 182 reported the data (Windows) partition had bee deleted. That partition had to exist previously to boot from the Windows installation CD. Sometime previous to that, the partition was deleted by something.

You have courage. I would never fix something without first executing the diagnostic - without first learning what exists. Otherwise problems can get exponentially more complex. I worry about preserving data.

Spinrite will probably take something like 36 hours – probably will not be done until AM Tuesday.. When done, you should have at least two partitions on the hard drive. One about 8 Gb and a second something like 290 Gb.

Still completely unknown (another reason for executing diagnostics long before fixing anything) is why that problem existed. So that it can be averted. My bet is it will happen again because we are probably only curing symptoms - not identifying and then solving the original problem.