Big problems with Partition - it just disapeared

Hello , i had 1 IDE HDD Maxtor 80 GB. I had 2 partitions on it (C:// with windows) and (D:// with very ipmortant files) , few days ago i bought new Samsung Sata 160 Gb , first had some poroblems with IDE controllers , but this was solved and after installing Windows on Sata HDD , i formated C:// partition with old windows on 80 GB HDD. The problem is that when i turned my PC on - i understud that partition D:/ with important files on 80 GB Hdd disapeared ! I checked the capasy of my 80 Gb hdd and my PC said that its only 30 gb maybe someone know how can i get back my files from that partition ? or how to get back the whole partiton ?

Thank your for help (and sorry for bad egnlish)

 

have already done that - disk management shows that my 80 GB HDD has only 31 gb C:/ partition and thats all , it doesnt show that this HDD has any Unlocated space . It seems that PC just dont see the partition wuth files on This HDD oh yes - i am using Windows XP Pro

 

done what u said - and it didnt help , i made a screen of disk management .

there u will see 2 partitions of 160 GB HDD (everything is ok there)
and u will see that PC thinks that HDD capasy is 31 GB only (Not 80 GB)
and u will see that second partition of this HDD (about 40 GB) is missing

still cant get my files back .

Oh one of my friends brought such idea - Maybe i shall format somehow old HDD so it will be 1 Partition on 80 Gb , and then try to recover files that i need ? But would it be possible to recover files after that ?

Picture

 

thank you

 

Hi NeoAngin!

Definitely DO NOT format any of your disks yet!

You need to try several things, but first tell us what your motherboard is, or at least the brand and model of your computer.

The first thing I'd suggest is unplug the data and power cables to the new drive and then boot to the BIOS (see your manual if the DEL key doesn't get you into the BIOS setup program. There, check what the bios sees as your old drive and there should be an option to look at it again if it sees it wrong. If it still can't see the whole disk, check the manufacturer's web site for a utility to examine the drive non-destructively (leaving data intact).

Let us know what you find out doing these things please. We'll have more suggestions depending on what you find out. Also, if you have questions about these suggestions, let us know, and please give us the info we asked for so we can study it while you work.

 

oh i ran my Hdd hoel alone and ran the widnows install utility - it showed that my HDD has only 1 partition : 80 gb ann only 32gb is free there , but how to get files from there ? my mother board is asus - dont know number , and HDD : 80 gb maxtor and 160 gb sata samnsung


Thanks

 

Hello NeoAngin,

Download System Information for Windows - SIW from here http://www.gtopala.com/about_siw.html Its an execute and run.

Go down to Mother Board under Hardware.

Regards - Charles

 

Intel corportion 865peich5 - this is mother board as i understand

and Maxtor 6y080l0 80gb , but system info prog shows that this HDD is only 30 gb capasy ;[

 

Hi NeoAngin,

SIW allows copy of the info in the right pane by line or page - you can paste it to Notepad and here.

Regards - Charles

 

ah stupid me , sorrry

Motherboard :

Property Value
Model 865PE-ICH5

Chipset Vendor Intel Corporation
Chipset Model 82865G/PE/P, 82848P DRAM Controller / Host-Hub Interface
South Bridge 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge
SMBus Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller @0500h

CPU Intel Pentium 4
Cpu Socket Socket 478
Processor Upgrade ZIF Socket
Max CPU Speed 3066 MHz

System Slots 4 PCI, 1 AGP

Memory Summary
Capacity 768 MBytes
Location System board or motherboard
Maximum Capacity 4096 MBytes
Memory Slots 4
Error Correction 8-bit Parity
Error Correction Capabilities None
Name Physical Memory Array
Use System memory
Maximum Memory Module Size 1024 MBytes

Warning! Accuracy of DMI data cannot be guaranteed



HDD :

Type Vendor Model Size Interface Temperature
Fixed hard disk media Maxtor Maxtor 6Y080L0 33 GBytes IDE ATA 38 ºC (100 ºF)



is this enough ?

 

Sounds like the old HDD has had the two partitions deleted and is now one 80 GB partition, and if that's the case, you have lost the files on the former d:\ drive. Does the drive boot with the new drive disconnected? You don't need windows installed on two drives unless you're dual booting different versions for some reason, as many folks do.. Personally, would repeat the installation removing the 80 GB partition and make at least two new partitions, one for the OS and one for other programs and data. Might help if you tell us what you would like to do. If you want to dual boot, install the older version of windows first

There's an advantage to placing the OS on the IDE drive, because that's where the BIOS looks for the boot drive first, and it avoids complications that can occur when you have both SATA and IDE drives. The difference in efficiency is so small you'll not see the difference.
.
I still wonder if the drive is working properly; only 30 gigabytes free is not expected (too little) after newly installing windows. Have you run any maxtor utilities to test the drive?

 

It sounds to me like a corrupt MBR. Since it is a Maxtor drive, I wonder if EZ Bios was installed on it. It seems like the classical fault EZ Bios shows when you change the drive configuration (although I have found the drive just disappears from the computer's BIOS).

If you can afford to lose the current data on the drive (back it up?), try disconnecting the new drive and installing EZBios from the Maxtor's utility MaxBlast. That may get it working again so that you could backup the data to an optical disk. After that use the Maxtor utilities to uninstall EZ Bios and see if it works correctly then.

Matt

 

I've never delt with a DDO (EZ Bios) but does it not while loading display a message asking if user wants to boot to hdd or floppy ?

NeoAngin-befor you formated C: do you remember if the other partition was listed ?
"first had some poroblems with IDE controllers , but this was solved " how was it solved ?

Enter into BIOS and see if the IDE drive is listed correctly, if it is not see if there is a F key to reauto detect.

On the hdd there is a jumper to limit drive to 32g (cylinder limit jumper) , I can not determine from Maxtor site where the jumper is or if it is to be on or off.
pdf file at http://www.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/documentation/manuals/diamondmax_plus_9_manual.pdf

 

ah tried allmost all what u advised - and this what i got :

After Full format of 80 gb HDD - my pc started to recognize it like 80 gb hdd not 30 one . And now i will try to get some of the most important files by some file recovery tool .


Thank you all for help

 

TopFarmer - its not the jumper , just when i installed windows on sata HDD smth went wrong and PC lost my D:// partition on the 80 gb HDD .