No, i did not defrag the partitions. Could it be a cause for this? I think i`l buy another HDD, and copy the recovered files to it. then format the D partition. All these problems happened just because i wanted to increase the C: system partition. Thanks God the C: partition is intact or else i couldnt have talked to you.

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Your additional information in response 4 is of some help, but I / we need more information. Please - answer the following questions marked by *. "...my D: partition became corrupted and i cannot acces it anymore even though its visible on My Computer." " Is there a way to repar/restore the partition to make it visible and accesibble again?" Some of the things in those two statements can't both be your case. * Can you see all the folders and files on D in My Computer that you could see previously? * If you can, are you getting, specifically, "Access Denied" or very similar messages when you try to access some folders and files on the D drive, or - are you not able to access anything on it at all? ..... * Were the data contents of this D partition on this computer previously, or did you copy the data from a drive that was previously connected to another computer? .... * Was the D partition made by Vista or Windows 7? Or - * did you set the Acronis software to make the D NTFS partition Vista or Windows 7 compatible? .... * Is this a brand name computer that had it's original software on it? * If so, could you see the D partition in Windows in My Computer and Windows Explorer before you used the Acronis software? (Brand name system software installations either - hide the second partition on the original hard drive and you can't see it in Windows in My Computer or Windows Explorer, - or - allow you to see it but you are strongly discouraged from accessing it or you are not allowed to access it in My Computer or Windows Explorer.) ........ In theory there's a tiny chance you could have problems if you didn't de-frag a partition before you re-sized it, but I've never found that to be a problem. When you do certain things with a "partition manipulation" program, it auto de-frags the data in any case, such as when you copy a partition from one place to another. However, the partition may have problems you may NOT be aware of, and it's a very good idea to run CHKDSK /F (d): on it BEFORE you re-size it, (d) being the actual drive letter, if you're not sure whether the program you're using does that or similar before it re-sizes it. I know Partition Magic 8.0 auto checks the partition for errors before it does most things, and in that case and sometimes in other circumstances it generates an error code if there is something wrong with the partition, and quits what it was doing, and in most cases when you look up the error code, you find the info tells you running CHKDSK /F (d): in 2000 or XP (or scandisk set to fix errors in ME and previous) will fix the problem. I assume the situation with the Acronis software is similar, and it's certainly newer software. .... You haven't mentioned whether you successfully made the C partition larger. When you used the Acronis software, assuming both the C and D partitions were on the same hard drive and there were no other partitions between the two of them, in order for the free (un-allocated - NOT software partitioned or formatted) space you free up by re-sizing D to be available to be added to the size of the C partition, you would have had to re-size the D partition so the free (un-allocated) space was at the beginning of the space previously occupied by D, AND, if D was within an Extended partition, you would have had to shrink the size of the Extended partition as well so the free (un-allocated) space was at the beginning of the space previously occupied by the Extended partition. * If D was within an Extended partition, did you shrink the size of the Extended partition as well?

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The first question: "my D: partition became corrupted and i cannot acces it anymore even though its visible on My Computer." " Is there a way to repar/restore the partition to make it visible and accesibble again?" I am sorry i didnt expressed myself well in this statements. I was trying to say that the D: drive letter appeared in My Computer but was not accesible to open or explore. It said the structure its corrupted. However i did a deep scan with a recovery software and did found all my files intact within. The partition was made with Win XP. I did not finished my plan to increase the C: partition because after shrinking the D: i got the error. I have read some advices and also I`v tried the free TestDisk software and it showed me clearly that the Master File Tabe - MFT as well as its mirror its damaged and cannot be recovered. I dont know what MFT exactly does but i succeded to recover my files with Power Data Recovery and copied them on a new HDD. Then i have formated the D: partition and its available again. On this partition i also had the installed programs. If i copy them back to their D partition would they work as installed again?

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You need to re-install programs in order to establish links to Windows.

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Thats strange. I did a test with some programs and they seem to work. I just copied them to the same folder where they were before. I think their Windows registries are still available

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My mistake, You are correct. I forgot your C partition remained intact. Actually, you have discovered one of the advantages of partitioning and installing as you have. If you restored the C partition from an image the programs would work on D partition, or vice versa. If all was on the same partition the image would necessarily be much larger in order to restore to original condition. One thing worth mentioning is that the complete path and name must be the same as the original.

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MFT = Master File Table, for a NTFS partition As far I know there is no second copy. FAT32 and earlier FAT partition types have two identical FATs - File Allocation Tables. If the first one the operating system uses is corrupted lots of repair programs can use the data in the other one to repair the corrupted one. It's extremely rare for both FATs to get corrupted at the same time MFT or FAT - they keep track of where files and folders are on the hard drive partition (so the operating system knows where they are, and does not try to place data anywhere on a partition already being used for data). If a file is fragmented they keep track of where all the pieces are, in order. When you do a "Quick" Format it just deletes the existing MFT or FATs and replaces it/them with a blank one(s). Deleted files and folders have the first character replaced with a certain character to indicate the space they are using is available for any new data. File recovery programs make "intelligent" guesses regarding what the files are, and are often able to recover many of the files or folders if not too much damage was done and nothing has overwritten the location (been placed on the deleted file's space) where the files were. Sometimes the MFT or one FAT, the first one (it's extremely rare for both FATS to get corrupted) gets corrupted such that the operating system doesn't know where at least some if not all files or folders are, yet the files have not yet been marked as deleted files - recovering from a corrupted MFT or FAT often yields you a better result than trying to recover lots of deleted files, especially if the deleted files or folders were on the partition Windows boots from, which is usually C. You were fortunate that Power Data Recovery worked for you. Sometimes you can't fix a corrupted MFT. You can almost always fix a corrupted FAT because it's extremely rare for both FATs for a partition to get corrupted. You can use FAT32 partitioning if you wish. XP won't let you use FAT32 partitioning for partitions > 32gb because Microsoft considers FAT32 to be wasteful regarding slack space - the space left at the end of files that don't fill an allocation unit that can't be used by the operating system. However, if you have a lot of huge files or a really large hard drive, there isn't much if any difference between using NTFS and FAT32 regarding slack space. You can use 3rd party programs to make any partition > 32gb use FAT32 partitioning. E.g. the free hard drive preparation utilities available from hard drive manufacturer's web sites. I have discovered you can't make FAT32 partitions on hard drives with Vista and probably Windows 7 (I assume), but Vista and probably Windows 7 (I assume) both can read and use FAT32 partitions fine. ....... "I dont know what MFT exactly does but i succeded to recover my files with Power Data Recovery and copied them on a new HDD. Then i have formated the D: partition and its available again. On this partition i also had the installed programs. If i copy them back to their D partition would they work as installed again?" They should work fine. As OtheHill said in response 12, The registry info for the programs you installed on D is all on the C partition. However, keep the recovered folders and files elsewhere as a backup until you're sure everything is there on the D partition. ...... The mystery is - how did the Acronis software corrupt the MFT in the first place, if that's even what corrupted it? Maybe you should have run CHKDSK /F D: first before using the Acronis software ?? I have used mostly Partitiom Magic 8.0, and previous versions of Partition Magic. I don't recall it ever corrupting a MFT or a FAT.

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