I'm using Vista.
I wanted to use my External-HDD
It didn't show up under 'My Computer' as it usually would for XP
So I right-click 'My Computer' and click on Manage
I try to assign my HDD a letter because that's usually the problem.
I believe I may have clicked on either 'Initialize?' or 'Partition'
There were no other buttons... So.. =/
It went through a Setup-Like installation wizard.
I put in which Drive Letter I wanted
It asked me about Drive type or something 'NTFS' thingy ^_^
But I clicked the top box that said 'DON'T FORMAT!!!'
So, I expected that that'd do it, and get i working, as a guess...
Instead... I now have a drive that's just labeled 'A'
Says it's got 100% HDD space
And when I try to open it It says roughly 'You Cant Access This Drive Until You Format It'
So... Yeh, 80Gigs Of 'IMPORTANT' information, can I fix this?
Like maybe a system restore? But I dunno If that'd work with an External =/

Please help ^_^

Thanks In advance!

P.S. I'm sorry If I posted it in the wrong forum... I dunnoes what me is dooing =P

DO NOT USE THE DRIVE until you've recovered what you need - any use may make it more difficult (or impossible) to recover the information.

I recommend GetDataBack (for FAT or NTFS, depending on your drive's file system) to check for what's recoverable - it's free to see what you can get back, but it costs around $80 US to actually recover the data. http://www.runtime.org/ (the downloads are on the right hand side of the page about 1/2 way down)

Other members may be able to recommend free software. I've used the free PCInspector from here: http://www.pcinspector.de
It's a very powerful piece of recovery software, but it's very confusing to most users

I had a similar problem a while back, corrupted the systems partition table
I used http://www.ptdd.com/ to solve the problem.

The program said that I had incorrect Sectors and need to run 'FixBoot' ... I can see the icon on the program but I cannot click it... So, not sure about that =/

Also, it said I need to have a floppy inserted to save my important setting. But, then it says that it'll destroy all of my Files???

If that's the case, then I'm not doing it ^___^ No format for me...

Any help there?

The floppy feature it to create an emergency disk. The contents of the floppy will be erased.

However, I didn't use this feature, I told the software to rebuild the partition table. Sadly it wasn't freeware but It managed to find the deleted partition and restore it.

Sorry I didn't reply too soon ;)

I've sorted the problem.
I scanned it with Usasma's suggested program and it found it all! ^__^
I just had to buy the software then!

Thanks a lot you guys, you've all been a great help =D

Glad it all worked out. Thanks for letting us know