Hello,
I suppose using Data Recovery tool - Partition Table Doctor or EASEUS
DataRecoveryWizard.
It is imho the best one among it's family. Easy to use and powerful.
It actually never failed me before. Recommended!

http://www.ptdd.com
http://www.easeus.com/
--
Good work, Good day.


"otitgurd@net.hr" wrote:

> Few days ago I've installed xp pro ( without SP1,2...) on new
> computer ( nForce4-4x + sata samsung 160gb + 20gb pata maxtor).
>
> The pata hdd has 3 fat32 partitions and it's connected as master
> on 1st ide channel.
>
> The sata disk holds system and data partitions.
> In the installation I've creted 2 partitions:
> - ntfs C for xp ( 12GB)
> - ntfs D for data ( less than 130GB)
> The rest will be for linux, for now it stayed unpartitioned.
>
> Yesterday everything was working fine.
>
> Today i turn on the comp. and I see that I have lost
> the D partition.
> In fact there's a new D partition - that linux space now reported
> as raw partition - xp just offers to format it.
> In comp. management I can see my 130gb as unallocated.
>
>
> Is there a way to restore data from that lost partition ?
>
>
>
> Neo
>
>
>
> PS. Here's report from Partition Magic 8:
>
> PowerQuest PartitionInfo 8.0 -- Windows NT/2000 Version
>
>
> ================================================== ================================================== =======
>
> ================================================== ================================================== =======
> Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 19457 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
> 63 Sectors/Track
> System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
> Sect StartSect NumSects
> ================================================== ================================================== =======
> 0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254
> 63 63 24,579,387
> Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
> Actual values are:
> 0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1529 254 63 63
> 24579387
> 0 1 00 1023 0 1 0F 1023 223
> 30 24,579,450 14,520,774
> Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
> Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
> Actual values are:
> 0 1 00 1530 0 1 0F 2433 223 30 24579450
> 14520774
> Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.
> ucEndHead expected to be 254, not 223.
> Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.
> ucEndSector expected to be 63, not 30.
> 24,579,450 0 00 1023 1 1 07 1023 254
> 63 24,579,513 14,522,697
> Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
> Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
> Actual values are:
> 24579450 0 00 1530 1 1 07 2433 254 63 24579513
> 14522697
>
>
> ================================================== ================================================== =======
> Partition Information for Disk 2: 152,625.3 Megabytes
> Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect
> TotalSects
> ================================================== ================================================== =======
> C: NTFS Pri,Boot 12,001.7 0 0 63
> 24,579,387
> ExtendedX Pri 7,090.2 0 1 24,579,450
> 14,520,774
> EPBR Log 7,091.2 None -- 24,579,450
> 14,522,760
> Warning #113: EPBR partition starting at 24579450 overlaps extended
> partition.
> D: NTFS Log 7,091.2 24,579,450 0 24,579,513
> 14,522,697
> Error #113: Logical starting at 24579513 overlaps extended partition.
> Unallocated Pri 133,532.5 None --
> 39,102,210 273,474,495
>
>