Unable to access hard drive after reinstalling XP

Hi everyone. I partitioned my HD into several drives. Recently after I formatted my c drive and reinstalled my Windows XP Pro in it. Just before doing so I copied all the subfolders of c:\Documents and Settings into my f: drive, into a directory called Alan's HD D&S 14-05-05. I used to have some games installed in my f: drive as well. After reinstalling windows, I noticed that the Alan's HD D&S 14-05-05 directory, as well as some but not all of the directories containing my games have become empty and inaccessible. When I try to format the f: drive I got a message saying that it's inaccessible too.

Never seen this b4. Appreciate your help. Many thanks.

 

Alan,
Which OS did you have before you loaded XP Pro ?
How are the partitions formatted after loading Win XP Pro ?
It could be one of those common fights between FAT32 & NTFS formatted drives where drives formatted in NTFS would not co-exist with FAT32 drives.If thats the case you might want to convert/migrate all the drives to NTFS.
Can you run FDISK and goto 4th option to check the partitions on the drive ?
Are you able to create new files on the partition from which data is not being read ?
Try getting into WIN XP's Disk Manager, (right clickMy computers--> Manage --> Disk Manager) and check if all the partitions show up with Heathy state and same kind of partitions.

 

Hello Alan,

After reinstalling windows, I noticed that the Alan's HD D&S 14-05-05 directory, as well as some but not all of the directories containing my games have become empty and inaccessible.
Not clear on what you're saying here. Its not the the drive that's inaccessible, since you say that the directory is empty. How would you know that if you couldn't look at the folders?

There may be two problems here.

If you copied the \Documents and Settings folder under that name, that's a System folder, and the install may have taken it out when it established it's own \Documents and Settings folder on C.

Where were the executables for the games? If on C, there gone, you're going to have to reinstall them.



Hello Shubhashish,

It could be one of those common fights between FAT32 & NTFS formatted drives where drives formatted in NTFS would not co-exist with FAT32 drives.
New one on me, how common is this? For the record, I have a mixture of file format types, never gave me a problem.


Regards - Charles

 

Thank you

Dear Shubhashish & Charlesvar & all readers,

Many thx for the replies.

Before I formatted the HD this time, I had XP Pro. Some were NTFS and some were FAT32. Always coexisted and had no problems. Disk Manager said all drives were in a healthy state.

Executables for the games probably in Drive C. But in the past I have never seen this happened. Now I could not access the saved games I created. The directories F:\Starcraft, F:\WarcraftIII were empty, contianing zero folders and files. Double clicking them gave me an error message saying they were inaccessible.

After numerous more attempts to make the pc work, I THINK it all comes down to a virus. I took the harddisk to my friend's place and found that the boot sector and various drives were infected with virus, using Norton Antivirus 2005. He was not able to get rid of all of them for me but when I went home and used Norton Antivirus 2003, scanning with an updated virus definition, no virus was found!

I am still working on it. My E drive sometimes become very slooooooow and I could not use Norton Systemworks 2003 to analyze my registry. When I do the pc freezes. CPU usage 100% even after I forcibly closed Systemworks. Need to turn the whole thing off and on again.

Guess that explains all the weird things, eh? Still fixing it and still appreciate suggestions and education.

Thank you whoever giving my problem a thought.

 

Hi Arie

Have long felt the NTFS doesn't belong on a personal (individual's) computer, and this seems to be an excellent example of the reason for my thinking; at least not until M$ opens it up to manipulation by the general user.

 

How did you partition the drive? While you were installing XP or after the fact? Are you sure you didn't format your F:\ drive before the partioning took place?

 

RisenDeMoN

Not sure who's being asked

That's impossible. Partitioning must occur prior to formatting, otherwise it destroys the formatting. Formatting is necessary after partitioning, before a drive can be used.

 

:|, Windows XP install RECOMENDS you format BEFORE you partition so don't call me a bloody liar. You format the drive and then partion x:\ so you have x:\ and z:\

How ever: You are correct if you partion a second drive, after windows has been installed, in the Disk Managment.

If you want me to take a screen shot before it's done, I will when I do my next format on July 20th

 

Not calling you anything; just stating the facts. It would be stupid to format and then partition. I'd be surprised and amazed if M$ suggests that. Show us!