I live in Pakistan where we suffer from frequent load shedding like after 1 hour. I noticed from yesterday that when my computer was shutdown by power failure, and turned on again, partitions of my hard drive were missing. However, when it was restarted, they appeared back again. I have a 500 GB hard drive, and another 250 GB (on which i've installed OS!). But from today morning, i just see the partitions. When I click on them, the explorer just starts searching for data, and green loader on top starts working. And then finally, all partitions of my 500 GB disappear. I've restarted my PC again and again, but this problem isn't resolved. Is it the OS failure, or hardware issue? When I try to install new copy of windows 7, it simply writes expanding files. Then gives an error that active partition doesn't have enough space (though my C drive has more than 30 GB free). Moreover, I've tried drivemgmt.msc to solve this issue but in vain. How can I use data recovery software to view missing 500 GB data !!! specially if I don't see any partitions? No help from internet, forums or anywhere. Can anyone, anyone help me to view my missing partitions? Regards.

I'm not hugely confident but it's worth trying these: Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Folder Options > View Tab and make sure there is not a tick in ’Hide empty drives in the Computer folder‘ and further down, confirm that there is a tick in ‘Show drive letters’. Now right-click Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management, then right-click the disk’s graphic icon (or unallocated space) and change the drive letter to one nearer the end of the alphabet. If it doesn’t have a letter, assign one to it.

Hi, I would like to confirm if the disk is available in diskmgmt.msc. Since it occurred after a power failure, I suggest performing a system restore first: System Restore=============1. Click the Start Button, type "system restore" (without quotations) in the start search box and press enter.2. Click "Choose a different point" and click next.3. Check Show more restore points box.4. Choose a date before this issue happening, and click Next.5. Click Finish. Please also run Check disk: Check Disk=======================1. Click the Start Button, type "cmd" (without quotation marks) in the Search bar.2. Right click on the search result listed upper and click Run as Administrator. 3. In the open command window, input the following command and press Enter Key after it. Chkdsk /f /r 4. Please type Y and press Enter.5. Please restart the computer and let the tool check all drives on the computer.Vivian Xing - MSFT