I'm about at my wits' end here, I need help. I have

File: 1469714454597.png (66KB, 640x384px) Image search: [Google]

66KB, 640x384px

I'm about at my wits' end here, I need help.
I have a tablet. Chink thing, but it did the job (Zaffire 1010).
Up until recently, it was working fine. Some days ago though, apps that were on the internal storage partition (which worked as SD storage) started crashing and not working at all. I rebooted it as usual, because it'd done this some times and that solved it.
Not this time however, as the secondary partition, the one acting as SD storage, had vanished. There was nothing there anymore on the settings storage screen. It was just the main partition and that was the lot. In place of the disappeared storage was a Mount SD Card button that doesn't seem to do anything, and now I can't install big apps on it because it needs "external storage" separate from the main partition.
I've tried all, including a recovery mode factory wipe, but the second partition is gone. I wasn't fiddling with it before it happened, it just did it out of nowhere. I've never installed an Android ROM, but from the looks of it the stock one used in this model is long lost and I'm afraid to install shit that doesn't belong in it and officially finish it off.

Is there anything I can do about it? Is it dead? Should I throw it in the river? Why did it happen in the first place?
I'm not in the best position to afford another, so I have to make sure I do everything I can to salvage this one.
Pic unrelated taken from goog images, picture mine had a second partition like the one seen there, but now it's gone and replaced by a button that does nothing.