D Drive suddenly need formatting !!

I am using Sony Vaio laptop that came with a C drive and a D drive installed. It is running on Windows XP SP2 and IE6. The C drive is where all the application software are installed and I use the D drive for storage. I've never had any problem with it for years, but suddenly last week when I tried to access the D drive, it says the drive is unformatted and all my files in it are lost !! I reinstalled the complete Windiws XP then, and after running it for about a couple of days without any problem, the same thing happen again today !!

I do not need to gain access to the files stored in the D drive as luckily I had taken backup to most of them only a few days before. So I only lost a few recent files that I can recall from memory or know how to get antoher copy.

My major concern is why this is happening adn I am worried it may happen again and I next time I may not be so lucky as to have my new files backed up in advance.

I have since done another reinstall and have tested the HDD with a freeware software on a recommendation, and says the HDD does not have any problem. Any advise, help or suggestion how to fix this to prevent it happening again is greatly welcome and appreciated. I am an average user, not an expert.

Many thanks.

 

A few questions:
1. Does your laptop have two hard drives C and D or is it a single hrd drive that is partitioned into C and D?
2. If it is a single partition, did you do the partitioning or is this how the computer came?
3. If this is how the computer came, are you positive that the D partition was empty or in fact contained a restore for the notebook?
4. When you reinstalled, was it with an XP CD or a restore/recovery CD from Sony?

 

Hi plodr - thanks for responding. Here are the answers to your questions as far as I know it:
1) I am quite certain I have one single hard drive that is partitioned into C and D. When I go into Disk Management, it shows at the bottom part after the C and D info that there is a: Disk 0 - Basic 55.88 GB Online, then to the right of it, it shows 3 boxes: (box 1) 5.01 GB NTFS Healthy ( EISA); (box 2) (C)15.01 GB NTFS Healthy (System); (box 3) (D) 35.87 GB Healthy.Then below this, it shows Disk 1 Removable (F) No Media, and below this, it shows CD-ROM 0 DVD (E)
Based on these info. I believe that my C and D is from one single hard disk, which is a Toshiba when I go to Control Panel, Systems and look at disk drive. It only show this, apart from my USB Floppy Sony drive.

2) This is how it was partitioned when I first got the computer

3) as it states there is a 5.01GB EISA, ( yes, I looked up what this represents ), it contains a restore for the Notebook, if I am correct.

4) when I restore, I did it from the VAIO Recovery Media Kit that I made myself as the computer did not come with any other disks and the handbook says the reason is that I can make these Recovery disks myself.

BTW, when I made the first 2 reinstall/recovery, I selected Recover C and D drives. but did not change the partition size and towards the end, I selected the option not to keep the Recovery in the drive, though it was recommended. This last time when I did the reinstall/recovery, I selected Complete Recovery - thus, I suspect that's what's represented by EISA in the current status.

I am beginning to suspect that the first two times of my reinstall/recovery the problem occur is because I did not keep the Recovery in the HDD, but not sure - just a gut feeling.

I await your further info/diagnostic and many thanks for your time and interest on this.

 

What model of Vaio? I want to read the manual.
You recovered twice but didn't keep the recovery in the drive so I need to figure out where it put it when you selected that option.

From my few uses of a restore and recovery CD based on different brands of computers, the computer is back to the way it was when new so I'm not surprised that everything that you put on D was gone.

If I'm reading this correctly, you want to know why you keep having trouble with the D partition disappearing even when you don't do a recovery.

 

My Vaio model is PCG-Z1VA. Well whether I made a recovery or not, the data in D would have been gone anyway, given that before the recovery, I no longer can gain access to them as it says that D drive is not formatted -and therefoe cannot be open unless I format it which will erase all the data then. The drive is still there, so technically, it has not disappeared, just that it has somehow become unformatted. The reason and cause ??

I don't think the recovery is saved to anywhere when I opt not to save it as it asked for the option if I want to save it or not and it also says if I don;t save it, I will recovery 5 GB to the memory. This is the size of the recovery if I had save it. So I don;t think it was save anywhere. But do let me know what you find and thanks.

 

I was able to download the Quick Start Guide. It says that the Recovery Media Kit enables you to reclaim the space used for the Recovery partition (5GB). My interpretation of this is that it wipes the 5GB Recovery partition so you now have no way to recover!

From what little information I can gather, all the recovery Media Kit does is give you back the 5GB of hard drive space used by the Recovery Partition! Now that you don't have the Recovery Partition, I have no idea what you would need to do to restore your computer to factory condition.

Aside form using the CD you made, what directions were give, if any to restore your computer to factory condition? Can you use the Vaio Recovery Wizard from within Windows? It does say:
* Use the several recovery options to restore your preinstalled software programs and specific partitions on your hard drive
* Discover the advantages of recovering your computer without using CDs or other external media

So, there must be a way to do this without putting the CD you made into the drive.
Start/Help and Support/Vaio Help and Support Center/VAIO Recovery Center
I think that's the way you want to go.

 

When I did the first 2 recovery, I did not save the recovery in my HDD and whenI did the recovery again this recent time, I have no problem doing the recovery again simply by using the Recovery Meida Kit disks that I made. Just pop the firsr Start UP recover disk into CD slot and boot up and then a message will come up to say insert Recovery disk 1 and then then next when the first one is done. So don't know what the guide says apart from this. I've never have any problem at all (fingers crossed) making a recovery whether I save the recovery or not. I don't get any other instructions or use recovery in any other way, so don't know if other method works. So what does any other method of making recovery makes ? But aren't we getting side tracked on the issue as to why my D drive becomes unformatted ?

I have an extra 5GB of memory if I don't save the recovery in the memory. If I saved it, as I did this last time, when I go to My Computer, Manage and then Disk Management, it shows the 5 GB been taken up, but no drive shown, then below it, C Drive and D drive after that with 5GB memory less than when the Recovery was not saved and there is no this "mystery" drive.

 

As I said above

RAM=memory. You can't get more RAM by using software.
The 5GB is hard drive space and that is your recovery partition. If you don't save it, then you no longer have a recovery partition.

It keeps the 5GB "restore partition, puts the original contents on C and formats D but D will be empty. That's my understanding of how the 5GB recovery partition is supposed to work.

If you do it any other way, I suspect you get the results you are getting. The 5GB recovery partition is gone, C has your original setup and D is partitioned but not formatted.

You should be restoring your computer inside windows and not from the CD you made.

 

Thanks for the overview of the situation and apologies for overlooking what you stated about going to Start - Help and Support -.....option for making a recovery.

Yes, if I save the recovery on my HDD, then I lost 5 GB memory as this will be taken up for the recovery programs. But I will have this 5GB if I don't save it - that's what I mean by gaining 5 GB.

If I should be restoring my computer from insdie Windows, then I have a question and a problem, though I am also beginning to think my D becomes unformatted because I did not save the recovery in the HDD. Question is
1) why did Vaio gave the OPTIONS whether to save or not to save the recovery towards the end of the recovery process from the Recovery disk I made if it is meant to be save on the HDD ?

On my first 2 attempts to rcovery where I did not save it on the HDD, D was formatted and accessible - at least for a few days before I get the message that D needs to be formatted when I tried to gain access to it. So D was formatted even when the recovery is not saved.

On the part about making recovery from within Windows,
2) How can I use the recovery wizard in Windows if my conputer crashed ? I have to revert to the disks I made for the recovery as I'd lost Windows and can't gain access to it ?. So there is no way that I can make the recovery from within Windows.

I have done the recovery this way (from the disks I made) many times in the past without the recent problems, though I'll admit I can't remember whether in the past I opted to save the recovery or not. Chances is I probably did not as I'd have that extra 5 GB that the recovery would otherwise occupy if I had save it.

But thanks for the explaination of the possible cause of D becoming unformatted a few days later. It seems to still be formatted at the moment and it's longer than the last 2 times before it becomes unformatted. So fingers crossed ! Perhaps having saved the recovery did the trick and not that my HDD is at the end of its useful life as some as suggested ( ???). If it becomes unformatted again, I'll drop you a line here.

All the same, thanks for your time and help on this problem. Cheers !

 

The option was do you still want the 5GB recovery partition on your hd as a safety net or would you rather have 5 more GB in hard drive space.

D has nothing to do with whether you chose to keep or not keep the 5GB recovery partition.

Exactly.
The CD is meant to be used only when you can't load windows, otherwise you repair using the Vaio Wizard inside windows.

Also on the off chance that you did not make a set of, Sony also sells this item.

The manual says for the latest information about using the VAIO Recovery Wizard or Recovery Media Kit go to
http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/news/hddrecovery.html

I suggest you contact Sony and ask what is going wrong because your D partition keeps losing the formatting. Maybe there is something wrong with the CD/DVD Recovery disk(s) you made. I assume that everything was fine with D until you started using this disk.

 

The option was do you still want the 5GB recovery partition on your hd as a safety net or would you rather have 5 more GB in hard drive space.
Sorry for not being too technically versed.( Can't even get certain parts of what you said here highlighted in quoted form after trying several different attempts - thus they are in bold here) But isn't .....not wanting the 5GB recovery partition on the hd the same as rather not have 5 more GB in hard drive space ?

D has nothing to do with whether you chose to keep or not keep the 5GB recovery partition.
You lost me here as this seems to contridct what you stated previously when you said :
It keeps the 5GB "restore partition, puts the original contents on C and formats D but D will be empty. That's my understanding of how the 5GB recovery partition is supposed to work.
If you do it any other way, I suspect you get the results you are getting.The 5GB recovery partition is gone, C has your original setup and D is partitioned but not formatted.

AND by ....the result I am getting.....I take it you also mean that is why D becomes unformatted ( ? )

Exactly.
The CD is meant to be used only when you can't load windows, otherwise you repair using the Vaio Wizard inside windows
OK got this bit - thanks for the clarification

BTW, I know that Sony sells the disks, but they are very expensive. In any case, I don't think there is anything wrong with the Recovery CDs I made as I have used them many times in the past without any problem until recently, unless, they are now corrupted. In any case, since the latest recovery, everything seems to still be working without any problem - fingers crossed. And I will make another set of Recovery Disks just to e of the safe side.

Thanks also for the link to more info to using the Recovery. the link doesn't work at the moment, so will try again later.

 

No, not having the 5GB recovery partition on the hd means exactly that, the 5GB partition will NOT have the recovery info and you will have a 5GB partition with nothing in it so you get an additional 5GB more space for storage. (I guess you could repartition and add it to C BUT, I don't recommend that you repartition. Keep the hd the way it came from Sony).

I'm getting a 404 on the url I posted. Let me doublecheck the url in the manual.

You go here, http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/select-system.pl?PRODTYPE=24
put in your country and then download the manual for your computer.

Code:

http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/news/hddrecovery.html

This is the same link but maybe with the board truncating the link, it shows a 404.
It still gives me a 404 so appernetly even the info in the manual is incorrect.

At this point, I've run out of ideas.
My advice, contact Sony.

 

If memory serves, before my latest recovery, when I elected not to have the 5GB partition towards the end of that recovery process. There is aslo no 5GB partition shown when I go to My Computer, Manage and Disk Management. Also my D drive has 5GB more compared to now where I have elected the 5GB partition.

Thanks for this link. I was under the impression that the previous link you gave relates to new and recent additonal info.

No problem. My laptop is still working since the last recovery. ( Hope I didn't speak too soon! ). Appreciate all the time you spent on this to help. Cheers !