How to unhide partition in USB hard drive.

**zhouyangtomorrow** · March 18th, 2004, 01:28 AM

After trying to install lindows and mandrake 9.2 on WD usb 2.0 hard driver, my Data patition on the USB hard drive (FAT 32) had been hidden according to powerQuest partitionMagic. Now I tried everything (of course I deleted anyother partition on the usb hard drive), but I am not able to get it back. I try to use PQ to unhide it, but it cannot operate on a usb hard drive during boot up mood, since USB, FireWire, or PCMCIA hard drives, none of which are visible in DOS. ~~~ don't know just how the partition could set hidden by it self--I didn't do that, and technically with partition magic, I am not able to do that. Need help!!!!!!

**confus-ed** · March 18th, 2004, 04:46 AM

So welcome to windrivers zhouyangtomorrow

(why did you pick that name ? ... its a place in China !)

So I'm none the wiser to just exactly what you've done, do we require to boot from this 'hidden' partition ? ...

Before we start with any suggestions on how to fix it, can you copy/ghost it to 'somewhere else' so we don't loose what we have ? - on which subject, can you identify just what drives are present & whats supposedly on which ? - your question is too confus-ing even for me !

**zhouyangtomorrow** · March 20th, 2004, 06:23 PM

Hey,confus-ed:

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Sorry for late, I have spent a few days in a Texas ranch.

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Thanks for your idea, I used Powerquest Drive Image copyed all my datas. Now I have everything in another working partition. Thanks again. But by the way, unhide a partition in a external hard drive seems technically impossible. If you have any creative idea, let's try.

P.S: You are cool, how could you know "zhouyangtomorrow" is Chinese? It is not a place , but my Chinese name + tomorrow!

**MobilePCPhysician** · March 20th, 2004, 08:01 PM

Hook the drive up as a slave in your pc. Use Partition Magic to unhide the partition.

**zhouyangtomorrow** · March 20th, 2004, 08:06 PM

But that is a retailer external WD hard drive, I once try to open it, but unsucessful ended. It might not be able to be open.

**confus-ed** · March 21st, 2004, 05:42 AM

zhouyang ? : so that's your name ! ... I have some stupid train simulation game that has it as a place near 'Xuzhou' - I'm none too good at Chinese names or geography !

Since we now have all our data nice & safe & working (?) why not just fdisk our errant drive ? Or if that won't 'get it' then maybe try a zero fill (get the manufacturers utility for that) - that almost certainly ought to !

Partion Magic btw is 'not so sure, often' about external drives - I think it must get 'confus-ed' ! (confused/muddled/not very sure ! - for the non native english speakers I now know are here

- its a play on words ..)

**zhouyangtomorrow** · March 27th, 2004, 07:44 PM

confus-ed:

Thanks, I think I would just format everything, let it reset it back to the manufactory default.

Sorry for reply later, I was all busy with my competition. Now, the AP test coming soon~~

BTW, I am not a native english speaker,either.