Can't find a drive in Windows Vista

Ok... so this is how it goes:
I have 2 HDDs in my comp, 1 is 80GB and the other is 300GB. After my Vista
crashed I tried to do a dual boot of XP and Vista so I partitioned my 80 GB
drive to 65GB and 15GB. I installed XP on the 15GB partition which was given
the drive letter "E:". After configuring XP I installed Vista on "C:". The
first thing I noticed was that is said one of my partitions on the 2nd 300GB
HDD was titled "Unallocated Space" which is not true as I had filled it's
175GB up to the brim with data. Anyways I tried to make a new partition out
of it and it gave me an error code "0x8004240f" but it didn't do anything to
the partition (the letter "F:" was given to it by XP). So after installing
Vista on "C:" I went back to XP to check and the drive was fine and so was
all the data. I cannot touch the drive on Vista. I cannot modify the MBR on
vista either to correct the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated as
I would like my data back intact!! Thanks in advance!

"DJ_Anonymus" <DJAnonymus@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:17E49D82-9D7F-4180-992D-143DAE611A04@xxxxxx

Hi, DJ.

Hi, DJ.

Whoops! I hit Send by accident on that blank post. :^{

Tell us some details about your drive configuration at the time you
installed WinXP, and at the time you installed Vista. Were both HDs plugged
in during those installs? Did you boot from the Vista DVD to install Vista?
Or did you boot into WinXP and run Vista Setup from there? It DOES make a
difference in how Vista assigns the drive letters.

Remember that drive letters are not permanent, and WinXP and Vista have
different systems for assigning those. That's why I always assign labels
(names) to volumes; these get written to the hard disk and don't change,
even if I add or remove a physical drive or shuffle drive letters. Setup
really uses Disk # and Partition #, then assigns letters later.
When we boot from the Vista DVD and run Setup from there, it has no idea
what letters WinXP might have already assigned, so it starts from scratch.
If you tell it to install Vista on the second partition of your 3rd hard
disk, THAT volume becomes Drive C: - to Vista - even though WinXP may still
refer to it as Drive X:.

Please confirm that Disk Management in Vista shows your first (80 GB) hard
disk as "Disk 0", and the first partition on it as (C. And that C: is
labeled both System and Boot, in addition to other Status labels.

Then boot into WinXP and see which drive is Disk 0 and which partition(s)
have the System and Boot status.

Also, in WinXP, tell us what Disk Management says about all the partitions
on your 300 GB drive. Is it Disk 1 in Vista? What partitions (other than
the "Unallocated Space" are showing?

Please don't run any utilities to modify the MBR. That probably will just
dig deeper the hole you are in.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

"DJ_Anonymus" <DJAnonymus@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:17E49D82-9D7F-4180-992D-143DAE611A04@xxxxxx

actually the drive letters r the same in Vista and XP. there r 4 partitions,
1 is C: which I left empty, D: which have all my games and stuff and is a
part of the 300GB HDD, and then E: which had XP and finally F: which is on
the 300GB HDD and, in XP, was working fine. When installing from Vista is
read this as "Unallocated space". I had to uninstall XP from my system
yesterday and did that by re-installing vista, only this time I merges the C:
and E: drives. Still the same. I was considering modifying the MBR but like u
said I had better not try. Oh yeah and I also found out that my XP when it
was installed was done so on a logical partition which was created from
within the XP installation. and also I used the DVD to install Vista and
started from boot and not from XP both the times.
In Disc Management I see, now, Disc 0 having C: marked with loads of stuff
incl. "System, Boot, Primary Partition..."
The Disc 1 contains D: (100GB) and another one of those blank box thing with
"179.49GB" written on it, and nothing else. When I go there and right click
and select properties it said "Operation failed" and that the DM Service is
not up-to-date. I tried refreshing... still no change.

No Idea?? Anyone!? Please I really need help...