While Merging different partitions partition table got corrupted

In most cases, a Windows user divides his/her hard drive in more than one partitions. Each partition – whether primary or extended – is allocated certain important entries, which are saved in a 64 byte data structure known as 'partition table'. The entries saved in the table can be corrupted due to various reasons like improper system shutdown while partitioning process, fatal virus attack, and operating system damage. In such cases, the partitions become unmountable and the data saved in them becomes inaccessible. To overcome such partition table damage situations and access the hard drive data, the user needs to format the hard drive, re-partition it, and then restore the data from an updated backup. However, if in case of no or incomplete backup, the user needs to search for an effective third-party Partition Recovery Software to recover all the partitions.




Consider a real-time scenario to explain the above situation. Suppose you have three partitions (C,D,and E) in your Windows XP based system. You decide to merge two partitions (C and D). To do so, you use a third-party utility. However, when the utility is performing the merging operation, the application crashes. The crash could have occurred due any of the following reasons:

Bug(s) in the third-party application.


Operating system malfunction.

Now, when you try to boot your system, it does not boot. Additionally, the data saved in all the partitions becomes inaccessible.

Grounds of the Issue:
Corruption in Partition Table entries. The entries remain in partially changed state due incomplete merging process.

How to Resolve:

Format the hard drive and recreate all the hard drive partitions. After re-creating the partitions, restore the data from an updated backup. Although the resolution is easy and simple, it fails to resolve when you have not maintained any valid backup. In such situations, you will need to opt for a commercial Partition Recovery utility. Such Partition Recovery tools use advanced data recovery algorithms to recover and restore all the lost data post formatting of the hard drive. These tools are easily understandable and allow even a non-technical user to perform recovery.