unhiding partitions

Gone West

After a botched install of longhorn and mandrake, I am now left with a bit of a problem.
I have 2 ntfs partitions which were incorrectly dismounted during install. However, they still contain lots of data. They appear in disk management (in control panel) as (healthy - unknown).
If I R-click on the partition, all options are greyed out.

Now, I downloaded a program called partition table doctor 3, which has the ability to fix the problem. ie-unhide the partitions

BUT: It is shareware and wont allow me to fix the problem without buying the software (which is overpriced, mid you )

QUESTION: Is there any way to unhide a partition from windows? ie registry/console commands/keys?

or Is there any free software which will do this for me?

thanks in advance

Sparky

yea there is a way of alright, but the one i know requires Norton ghost. I used the main recovery prog. that you use on the boot-up cd, and then used the partition prog. to unhide partitions. I noticed that when i lost my dell MBR after installing Linux i had no way of getting the image file that is hidden in a partition on the part of the HDD, so i used the prog. to unhide the partition and then copy the image to DVD.

I hope this helps you, i dont know of any other software but hopefully someone does know or have an easier way.

Sparky.

Gone West

unfortuantely norton ghost costs €€€!
I have partition magic installed on one of the hidden partitions and all! just cant get at it.

Sparky

if you know someone who has a disc, because you dont need to install norton, the install cd is a bootable recovery cd.