New Compaq Presario won't reqonize old Hd as slave

Wife's old computer went down for the count. Bought a new Compaq. Thought that the easiest way to save/transfer her old info would be to install her hard drive ( primary master with XP pro )from her old computer into the new. Removed new Hd and did the install. The computer tried to boot but went into a continues loop once it tried to start windows.

Removed the old Hd; replaced the new and installed the old as a slave. Booted the computer. The Bios recognized the old Hd ( slave ) . Computer booted up; went to My computer to check if the slave was showing and it wasn't. Went into disk management. It showed the old Hd as the slave; however; it didn't show any drive letters or identification for the drive at all.

This is when it dawned on me that my problem maybe was that I had Ez-Bios installed on the old Hd. I also had the old system set up so that it could dual boot. I therefore took the old Hd and installed it in my second computer as a slave. There was no problem; as it showed and all it's information was available.

At this stage I didn't know what else to do. I then took the old Hd and removed the Ez-Bios from it using the "Maxtor" MaxBlast program. I then tried it in the new computer as a master and then as a slave. As the master; it would now give me an error that it didn't have a system installed; and as a slave; it did the same as before; didn't show in "My Computer ". I then tried it again on my second computer; now the Hd doesn't show in "My Computer" and data from it is not availble; but it does show in "Disk Management ".

Can't remember for sure; but I believe that I used "Diskeeper" to set up this drive for dual booting. Diskeeper doesn't recognize the drive at this time.

Right now I'm trying to recover the data with a Hd Data Recovery tool ( OnTrack ). The recovery is turning into a mess also. Reports that I have 108 Gig of data. Dah; the Hd is only 40 Gig.

What is with this Drive ( Maxtor; 40 Gig )? Won't hesitate to throw it in the garbage; but I need the data that is on it. Any suggestions. Don't care if it ever works in the new computer; just would like to retrieve the data.

Thanks in advance!

 

Don't know if this will work but could you hook it up to the old computer as a master and use the Windows Xp recovery console to repair the master boot record? I once had a dual boot, Windows XP and something else and I successfully repaired the MBR so it would boot into windows xp again. What was the other OS in your dual boot?

 

Old computer doesn't work. Cpu fried. The two operating systems where Windows XP pro and Windows 98.

 

Then what you might try is to install it as a master in the new computer and choose to rrepair windows when you follow the installation procedure with the Winxp disk. You don't want to choose the format option on the windows repair option.

 

Hi theslaz,

I think...

I think the problem was caused by EZ-BIOS. It works fine until you change the configuration of the drive. Maxtor have a "disclaimer" that says once you change the configuration of a drive running EZ-BIOS...you are...mmm...on your own (so to speak, as they say).

I would try Chuck_W's suggestions first. You may be lucky. All the drivers will be directed at the Compaq though. I might be inclined to try running the repair as slave to your current HDD and if it stated that the "boot sector" or MBR was repaired then Cancel out and see if you could then read the data again.

Another way might be if, because you say you have "removed" EZ-BIOS...actually install it again.

As long as you do not FORMAT, repartition or remove the partitions...hopefully...your data should still be there.

Matt

 

Still having problems. First tried to us the Xp recovery console. Couldn't get to it as it keeps telling me that the version of Xp that I have on my computer is newer than the one that is on my installation CD. I then tried to boot from the floppies that I have; that didn't work as it just went into a continues loop at the first disk. Don't know what happened there; they use to work. I then re-installed the Ez-Bios to the problem Hd. Xp still doesn't recognize it.

Me thinks that the recovery console is the way to go; however I may have to uninstall the SP in order to get the version of XP back to it's orginal state.

My question is this. Is there a way to get into the recovery console other than the installation disk. If not; will uninstalling the service pack do the trick?

 

I don't know much about the recovery console, although I suggest you look at www.bootdisk.com

Apart from that, try the Ontrack recovery now that you have reinstalled EZ-BIOS.

Matt

 

Tried On track twice. The first time ( not knowing how the program worked ) I removed my larger slave from my working second computer and installed the problem HD. On track did it's thing; recognized the files and showed me the file tree and all the files as they were before the problem. Size was right on as it showed 19 Gig of data. Asked me where I would like to restore the data to. The only location I had was my primary boot drive; however it was about 1 Gig to small.
Removed the problem Hd; reinstalled the orginal larger slave ( 38 gig available ); installed the problem HD in place of one of my Cd Rom's. Ran the On track program again. It recognized the problem HD; but this time it showed data that was completly different from the first attempt. It's final result gave me a directory tree of only about a dozen entries; including one that was named "Lostfiles ". The total size of these entries was listed as 108 Gig. My problem HD is a Maxtor 40 Gig drive. Where this "108 Gig" came from is beyond me.

That is my experience with "OnTrack ". Will make an inquiry on this board as to the workings of the "Recovery Console" just to see what ;if anything comes out of it.