Drive now blank, not intentionally!

Well, I finally did it, built a new machine. Installed 7 home premium. Everything worked fine until.....................

Had an external SATA drive on which I had backed up everything important. You know, all my pictures, downloads, documents etc.

Inserted this drive into the new machine. Windows sees it but tells me basically it is blank. No files, no folders, no pictures or documents.

Now, I know all the stuff is still there, used an undelete program and it found all the files and folders which I then saved in a different location, but They are totally disorganized, files not contained in their folders, everything sort of floating around loose plus a lt of stuff I didn't even know was on the drive.

Was thinking to unmount the drive and stick it back in its dock but I'm hesitant to do that, 'cause if it turns up blank there, I'd panic.

So, is there a way to get 7 to see what's on the drive? I figure one of you geniuses knows!!

 

Just to get this post back to the top, does no one know? I'd try just about anything! 60+ views and not one suggestion! If it can't be done, I'd like to know that too.

Pete? Dennis? Mattman? Somebody?

Take care,

Martin

 

Hey Steve, Thanks for the comeback on this.

The drive has retained the same drive letter and description that it had when it was in an external dock. That is "First Backup (F) and disk management tells me it is 458.98 GB NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition) it is not marked as "active "

Much to my surprise, when I opened this drive just now it has a folder containing some pictures. Disk management, instead of indicating that there are 458.98 GB "Free" as it did initally, it is telling me that there are 458.34 GB free. Originally had used about 130 GB.

I swear I did not put this folder on the drive and how it got there is a mystery to me. I have very intentionally not used the drive.

The drive is partitioned into 2 equal Partitions, Dive F being the first. The second partion also turned up blank which it also should not be. But I have used the second partition (G same as previously) for some back up tasks.

I don't know for sure, but it could have been assigned as drive F because of its placement in sequence as there are no gaps in the drive letters.

Finding that folder there is disconcerting as I know it will get in the way of possibly retrieving the prior files and folders.

I have another external drive that I had planned to make internal. It also contains files and folders that I don't want to wipe. Is just plugging it in as an internal drive going to wipe the files on it?? Certainly different behavior than XP which I wish I still was running. I am dissapointed in 7. there are some things I really don't like on 7. I find it harder to navigate and miss some features that were on XP.

Thanks again for your help.

Take care,

Martin

 

I was just thinking about the ability of "Active Undelete" to recover all the files and no folders, everything just a mishmash with no order or reason.

Maybe somebody knows a program that will recover from this drive the stuff in its original folders, organized as it was previously.

Thanks,

Take care,

Martin

 

Yes, and both showed up blank. I looked at "Recurva" online and it appears to recover the same way as Active Undelete. That is file by file, not organized in their original folders. Not in any sequence that I can detect.

That's very usefull in recovering a few pictures or some data, but I have about 22,000 .jpg files, 12 years worth of family digital pictures, all organized into probably 600 or more folders. The recovery software recovers them all, but, file by file, not in any order, not in their original folders. You can see what a challenge it would be to re-organize them.

I can set up the XP machine to run, it is currently in pieces on the kitchen table but the "C" drive is intact. (I hope) I have to use the external USB2 dock for this SATA drive as XP does not recognize the SATA PCI controller card I installed some months ago. Device manager on XP just dosen't see it. I'll try that and let you know what happens.

Take care,

Martin

 

No such luck, partitioned to contain only OS.

Take care,

Martin

 

A related problem with different disc.

I have added an ATA IDE controller card to this Windows 7-64bit machine. Plugged in internal IDE drive to the card.

This drive was previously written to in my old XP-32bit machine. Win 7 added drivers and the drive is recognized and shows up in Drive Management.

Drive shows no partions, files or folders and Drive Management tells me the drive needs to be initallized. I don't want to initialize the drive if it is going to wipe it or make the prior files/folders become unaccessable.

The question: Will intializing the drive in Win 7 make data dissappear? The data was readily accessable in the previous XP machine.

If initalizine the drive makes the data unaccessable, is there a way to add this drive to the Win 7 machine where the files and folders will be accessable?


Any and all help will be appreciated.

Take care,

Martin

Here we go: I disconnected this drive from the IDE Controller card and connected it to the motherboard IDE header. (CD drives there before) Lo and behold all the filles and folders appeared. I am now busy copying to a MOBO SATA drive. @41mbs

 

Hey Martin, sorry to hear about your troubles. Listen, I've always found Windows' Disk Management tool to be inferior when it comes to anything other than basic partitioning. I've been using Acronis software for a good while and I haven't been let down. Download a trial version of True Image and see if TI will "see" your drive and if it does, it may let you browse it so you can hopefully rescue your files and move on. I've had situations where it simply repaired an issue, so go ahead and try it out.

Download it here and good luck to you.

 

Hey Crunch, Thanks for the tip on Acronis. I have their backup program. I checked out the link you gave me and find their partition manager a little too expensive for the moment. I have a copy of Partition Magic around here somewhere, and since it is paid for, I think I'll try that.

I really appreciate the help I get on this site. Thanks to all!

Take care,

Martin