Windows 98se not recognizing used drive space.

I just got finished recovering my PC after a trojan virus formatted my drive (I used my recovery disk.) Now, Windows isn't recognizing my drive space. I know for a fact that I have at least 10 gigs of data on my HD, but Windows is only reporting 2.15 gigs used. I have a Western Digital 40gb 7200rpm ATA100, and my motherboard uses the Intel 815E chipset. I used my same recovery CD when I first bought the drive, and I didn't have this problem. What could be the problem?

 

If you or the virus truely formatted the drive I'm afraid your data's gone. When you used the recovery disk before perhaps you only reinstalled windows and didn't format the disk. If this was the case you wouldn't lose your data. Now; did the disk get formatted or did you just reinstall windows?

 

If I am understanding you correctly, it does recognize the whole 40GB drive, but not the data you had on it. Right?

I wasn't aware that 98SE had a recovery disk. Not unless you made a recovery Image disk of your OS yourself, with a program like Drive Image. If you did make one, then it should contain, & recognize any data that was on the drive when you made the image, if the data was contained within the partition where the OS lived, but not any data that was put on the drive after making the image disk, nor any data that was in another partiton that got wiped out by the Trojan, because as Zander said, the data is gone if it got formatted.

The best insurance for this type thing is to have the proper security programs, & keep them updated. Have the OS backed up on CD's, and if your have additional partitions, all data on them backed up on CD's. Update the back-up's regularly.

A total wipe out is really a bummer when nothing, or very little, is backed up.