BIOS update gone wrong

HELP - just updated BIOS, and PC re-started and seems to have given me fresh win7, with no access to files on desktop.
Luckily most files were backed-up to another HDD several weeks ago, but as I wasn't expecting this, I have lost plenty.
Any ideas how to recover, my files and previous windows setup?
Bearing in mind that I don't believe the HDD was wiped as it all happened very quickly.

 

That does not sound like a bios issue. It sounds like something went wrong with Windows 7, or the drive is going bad.

Download Xubuntu 14.04 and burn the .iso to a DVD. Then run as a LiveDVD, to see if it shows with gparted, the Windows partitions, and files in them.

 

OK, thanks, think you are right.
Approx. 3 months ago i tried to do a clean win7 re-install, of which there were issues, and have only realised now after this, as files missing etc., that my desktop files and win files are on an E partition. How this happened i have no idea, i have also no idea how to resolve all this.
How do use Xbuntu, what will it show me? Is there a website?

 

The BIOS update appears to have changed the boot order of your hard disks. From your other thread we know you have accidentally acquired a second Win 7 installation. Try using F8 at boot to override the BIOS boot order and try to boot from the second hard disk, or others if that isn't the right one. This should restore your desktop.

 

Yes seems so, though now I know where files are i'm not that bothered.
Just want to get my files, rectify, do a clean install from scratch, get rid ofunwanted partitons that have appereaed, and more importantly recover loast data from HDD.
Just njot sure what oder to do it all in!

 

I have a sneaky feeling we will here more about this saga Care to post a current view of Disk Management, top and bottom both viewable?

 

Current view of Disk Management here:
(not sure what you mean by top and bottom both viewable?, but think this is it).

 

If I am seeing that correctly. You have two partitions marked as "G:". Yep, something went wrong.

 

I now know something went wrong, but its more lkikely C & E.
G is actually two halves of a 4tb HDD that win7 canb't show as one.

 

Thanks for the pic. I'm pretty sure I know what has happened. In your pic in the other thread you were booted into disk 2 (numbers start at zero), but now you are booting into disk 1. This change occurred when you updated your BIOS and for reasons unknown it reset your boot order to make disk 1 the first hard disk. Previously disk 2 was first. Windows will look for boot files in the BIOS boot order and boot the first one it can. Just to further confuse you Windows has also changed the drive letters too, so now the second partition on disk 1 is C and the second partition on disk 2 is E. That's normal, Windows likes the Boot partition to be C (the Boot flag indicates the partition Windows is currently running from).

As far as the 4TB drive is concerned it is still a useless distraction and would be better disconnected, but if you want to keep it then it would be best, if possible, to partition it into two equal partitions as that will allow creation of two Basic disks each with its own drive letter. The present arrangement of having this disk showing as Dynamic isn't satisfactory as it causes you to have G: twice.

So of your two Win 7 installations you should decide which one to keep and then remove the other entirely. You do not want two Win 7 installations in the same system unless properly configured as a dual boot. Considerable problems can arise if you continue with both visible to each other - in fact I'm surprised this hasn't happened already. Use an imaging program to keep backups of your chosen Win 7 system.

Finally, running multiple threads on what is really one set of issues can be very confusing so it would really help if you confine all of this to one thread. Then we have at least half a chance of understanding what you have been up to.

 

Thanks again Earthling.
I agree with your assessment of changes of disks & nos of etc.
Also, agree 4TB is a distraction and isnt the issue here, and is to be ignored for now and rectified later.
Haven't had time, nor for a while to start to fix, but I think I will do a clean install, whilce I am at this stage....needed anyway....and am considering an SSD for system only (I have another thread on that!!)....but having bother on deciding size for price?
Re separate thread, i thought these were differing issues when i started and/or posted in them.

 

Hopefully we have cleared the decks a bit and you can move forward from a base you are a bit more comfortable with. I have my Win 7 on a SSD, with a WD HDD for my data and it's a joy to use. Gone are mega minutes for creating images, running security scans etc, it all happens in no time.

Good luck with it all.

 

Yeah...lets hope so.
BTW - what size of SSD do you recomend?

 

Depends on how you intend using it. I only have my Win 7 installation and installed software on mine, all my docs and such are located on the HDD. Also all Windows and browser temp files have been moved to HDD. It means my Win 7 installation only occupies about 39GB so I'm OK with a 128GB SSD. But you normally keep your docs etc in their default location on C so your question really is 'how long is a piece of string'.

 

120Gb SSD bought and installed with win7 and most of my usual programs, with plenty of room leftover. :-D

 

Good, you will love it! Just be sure to move all your personal folders to HDD.

 

Will do, though having bother on that, as I accidentally re-formatted my main HDD with my backed up data, and am trying to recover. :cry

 

You've quite a few drives and partitions, mind if I ask whether you have given them all names or are are you relying on drive letters? Names really help avoid this issue.

 

Letters...will do names in future, made error, in trying to re-join to partitions of C, and picked one of the others...my error.