I am having all types of computer problems with this laptop, but the one which bothers me most is one of my partitions has disappeared. Of course, it is the one where I kept all my programs, etc. I can't access the D drive. The programs are still on the drive which is using all the disk space, and I can't reinstall to the C drive for I get the message the program is already installed. Is there anyway to get the D drive back intact? Thanks for any help you might could give me.

Hi, I looked at Microsoft Answers and came across this for assigning a drive letter.


Here’s how you can assign a drive letter using Windows interface. 1. Go to start and type diskmgmt.msc.
2. Select the partition for which you want to change the drive letter, right click on it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the right click menu.
3. You may choose “Add” or “Change” depending on whether drive letter is already assigned or not.
4. From the Assign the following drive letter drop down list, select the drive letter you want to assign and click on OK.
5. You will receive a warning stating that some programs might not run correctly if you change the drive letter. If you did not install any applications on that drive it should be OK to change it. Click on Yes and the drive letter change will be done.
If it goes unsuccessful, try using diskpart utility.

1. Go to start and type cmd.
2. Right-Click on Cmd and select “Run as Administrator”.
diskpart
3. At the DISKPART prompt, type:
list volume
Make note of the number of the simple volume whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.
4. At the DISKPART prompt, type:
select volume n
Select the volume, where n is the volume's number, whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.

5. At the DISKPART prompt, type one of the following:

assign letter=L
Where L is the drive letter you want to assign or change.




See if this helps you in restoring the drive.


Let us know how you get on.


Regards


Elton

Thanks for the quick reply. My question is that the only other drive is C: which contains the windows vista and all updates. Will it be safe to rename this drive to D. None of the applications which were on D show up, but according to disk space they are still there somewhere. The drive D does not show up anymore. Just can see C drive.

Sorry if it isn't clear from my reply.

In Disc Management you will see Drive C and also an unallocated space that used to be occupied by Drive D. What the advice above is trying to do is not rename the C drive to D, but allocate D to the partition it once occupied. Sometimes this can be done without loosing the data. Have a look in Disk Management and report back what the how the Hard Disk Drive is structured.


Edit: I would not recommend changing C to D.

Thanks , hope I did this correctly. I am new to this.

Originally Posted by franny123

I am having all types of computer problems with this laptop, but the one which bothers me most is one of my partitions has disappeared. Of course, it is the one where I kept all my programs, etc. I can't access the D drive. The programs are still on the drive which is using all the disk space, and I can't reinstall to the C drive for I get the message the program is already installed. Is there anyway to get the D drive back intact? Thanks for any help you might could give me.

Looking at your screen shot and MilesAhead's reply I have to concur that the drive has no unallocated space. If the software will not allow you to install again I suspect it has installed onto the C drive. What do you see in the Programs folder?

Also, what is the purpose of the 1GB Fran drive?

The Fran Drive is used only for photoshop and 2 other photo editing programs. They all are large programs. On the drive which disappeared was all my documents, photos, music and word processors, and the like. These must be on drive c: for there is so much space used,. C drive should only have windows vista and updates and the other things that just go with windows. I am just about ready to format all and start over. Thanks for all the help. I dont mean to seem ungrateful--just discouraged.