1 of my hard drives (WD1000) has five partitions, all have run fine for a long time.(OS=XP Pro). Now, one partition claims it's not formatted and the file system has changed to RAW.All other partitions and other drives run as normal. Will Recovery SW allow me to get things back to normal w/o losing my data? Suggestions? Thanx, Mike.....

Try 'testdisk.exe', be sure to read the how to use first. do a goggle for download site. Many times your problems is due to a corrupted Volume Boot Record.

rules of partitioning dictate you can only have 4 primary partitions per disk. Or three primary's and one extended with logical drives. Since you mention 5 partitions which one is extended with the logical? Is this the partition you are having issues with? Or do you have 5 primary's?

Haven't heard that rule. Partitioned this drive long ago and it has worked fine for at least two years. All five identical. Thanx..