Corrupt HD not recognized

I have a (20GB) hard drive that is corrupt as I have been unable to boot from the drive (originally OE was ME then upgraded to XP Prof.). I think some of the XP operating system files got corrupt or the hard drive is on the way out cause I had some erratic disk problems prior. I tried XP restore, repairing the disk, reinstalling XP, and several other things to get it working with no luck.

So, I purchased a new hard drive (120GB) and installed XP-the new drive works great and is faster too. Then made the corrupt drive the slave so I could try to get some of my files copied over to the new drive. The drive was visible, but I got a message that the file system was unrecognizable and/or that the drive needed to be formatted. So I did nothing. I don't want to boot from that drive, just see the directories and copy some files. My IS dept @ work tells me I may not be able to see what is on the drive because there is an operating system installed on it.

I'd like to know if there is anything I can do access the drive so I can at least copy my important files over to the new drive and then remove the corrupt drive and trash it. My system is a Micron/celeron processor.

 

Hello Honkworm,

*My IS dept @ work tells me I may not be able to see what is on the drive because there is an operating system installed on it.*

Not the issue, lots of people dual boot OSes, I'm one, and can "see" the other partition/drive.

What might be an issue is file format. You write that the old dirve's format is NTFS. The new one, in order to see it, also has to be NTFS. This error will occur if you setup the new OS as FAT32. NTFS can see FAT32 in any case.

Regards - Charles

 

charles---I think you have that backwards as the new drive with XP-prof I think has NTFS format and the old drive FAT32. If that is so I can not see the files on the old drive as you seem to indicate that NTFS can see FAT32. Or do I still have this wrong? Originally the old drive had ME operating system (which I assume is FAT32?). Please correct me if I am wrong. So, if the problem is incompatible file systems, then how do I set the old drives file system to something compatible and not loose the data on it?

 

Honkworm, my appologies - when I saw "Pro" on the old drive, read NTFS, wrong assumption.

You're right, if the new Pro is NTFS and the old is FAT32, that shouldn't be the problem.

Try booting into the old with the XP install disc and see what happens.

Regards - Charles

 

If all else fails, try NTRecover. They have a free version that's read-only but should allow you to copy files from the 'dead' drive to a working drive. The paid version is part of a larger package that has a ton of great utilities but isn't real cheap.

A suggestion - whoever in your IS department told you you may not be able to see what is on the drive because there is an operating system installed on it would be a great person to avoid if you have questions in the future. He/she either didn't listen when you described the problem and answered something else altogether or simply didn't know and tried to fake an answer.

 

charles---looked at NTRecover, but that requires a second PC and serial cable connection. In the meantime I installed the dead drive as a slave in my PC. It is now drive "E" but shows no data. I tried chkdsk on it from a DOS command promt, but get the message "The volume does not contain a recognized file system." Also in My Computer when I click on properties it shows Used space = 0 and free space = 0 and for file system it says "raw" Tried Norton disk doctor and get message the volume does not contain a recognized file system. Also somehwere I saw that the file system was Master Book Record? can't remember where I saw that. Anyway I need some third party software I guess to diagnose the disk which is atleast installed as a slave and seen by my pc as a drive. Any more suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Master Drive is NTFS and works great. I assume the dead drive was FAT32 as it originally contained ME and then upgraded to XP-pro. In the meantime I installed the dead drive as a slave in my PC. It is now drive "E" but shows no data. I tried chkdsk on it from a DOS command prompt, but get the message "The volume does not contain a recognized file system." Also in My Computer when I click on properties it shows Used space = 0 and free space = 0 and for file system it says "raw" Tried Norton disk doctor and get message the volume does not contain a recognized file system. Also somehwere I saw that the file system was Master Book Record? can't remember where I saw that. Anyway I need some third party software I guess to diagnose the disk which is atleast installed as a slave and seen by my pc as a drive. Any more suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Some thoughts:

I have had most success reading corrupt drives using the HDD manufacturer's utilities. You may be able to read it in DOS.

Could it have a Drive Overlay (Disk Manager)? When you booted to that drive it may have shown a "press *key* to boot from floppy" screen. It may be the manufacturers DO. Could try running/reinstalling that program.

Was the disk formatted/partitioned with Partition Magic. Run Partition Magic on it.

Finally could try the Ontrack website, their "TRIAL" programs will want you pay $'s for getting the data. It will tell you, though, if the drive can be read, then you have to find out if you might be able to do it yourself.

Matt

Edit: when testing the drive, I would remove the new drive and set the old as Master.