Initialize and converting disk "HELP"!!!! assistancer please!!!!

Hi fellas!

Writing cuz I got a little situation here. I just re-installed Win Xp Sp3 on my system that got a virus and prefer instead to reinstall from fresh. The situation is that I had one HD that was split in two (before in the system was drive E and F). Now that I reinstalled Win Xp fresh, i plug that HD (of course that HD had stuff on it already) but when I am on XP, the drive doesn't show up but under disk management I see a drive that is "unllocated disk. My question to you is how DO I get this drive to show up and not to LOOSE whatever is in there? What would be the rigth step to go with this one?

And what i don't understand is that this drive was working under my other XP (same machine) before I reinstalled Xp back and had access to it and it has stuff in it. And now that I plugged it back it become "unllocated". Is there a possibility to bring it back to show up and see the stuff in it without formatting? Any steps to follow?

Thank you very much for any tip for me to get it up and showing up in XP.

Cheers

P.S the HD in question is a IDE HD not external

 

Did you tried:

Using check disk to repair basic stuff on the HDD?

Start > run > cmd

in the black screen type this, change for the drive letter that you haven't access obviously:

chkdsk F: /f

It will not delete any information that you have in the drive.

 

I'm tempted to make a response in all caps along with tons of un-needed exclamation marks and "quotes".

 

Hi Mortiz!

Thank you very much for your reply. Will give this a try for sure but my question to you before I go on is that if I reckon well, while the drive is in unllocated format, there is no letter assign to it. Am I right or wrong? Will double check and if there is then will proceed and try out your suggestion.

Will report back,

Thanx

 

Don't know if it will happen, but if using windows you can access to the drive then you won't be able to use fdisk command.

I recommend that you get "hiren's boot cd" i fixed a lot of problems with the HDD tools that it have.

Other option is get a ubuntu CD and check if it recognizes the partition.

The most important in this process is that you don't format anything!

Is possible that the format file of the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is broken but the files still there.

Well, going back to the matter:

First

First try to do fdisk as i posted before.

Second

If you don't see the drive, try doing right click in My PC:

My PC > Managment > Disk Administration

tell us if theres appear the disk with "unallocated format".

Waiting for your response.:zzz

 

Hi Mortiz!

Thanx for your reply. Ok to answer what you wrote me:

1- Will verify if the disk as it appear under Disk Management has a letter or not and will let you know.

2- Gonna look for Hiren Bood Cd and will get back to you as well and see what it can solve. (heard a lot about it)

3- U mean getting Ubuntu and install it in a little partition in My C: drive? Will give that a try

4- I haven't format the HDD at all. As I said, it's very weird that before I reinstalled my System with the same Win Xp Sp3, the HD was assigned and was working perfectly and now that I reinstalled.. it's showing as unllocated.

5- For sure I can assure you that under Disk Management the HD appears there as "Unllocated format", that is 1000% sure. Also as I told you before, this drive before in the old Win Xp was partitioned in 2 it hgad the letter : E and F

Will get back to you very soon!

Thanx again for your time, appreciate!!!

S

 

Ok,

1. You don't need to install Ubuntu or Hirens, both have an option to initialize without install anything.

What we need is access to the drive, the way that use Linux to read HDD is different than Windows way, that's why is good to try if we can reach the files using differents environments.

2. Hirens have good tols for HDD recovery, are programs that fixes the Partition Table, MBR, etc... but you have to use them carefully because we don't wanna lose the data right?

The best way to recover the info is fix the surface problems of the HDD and save the data first.

I'll check the best HDD tools for you on the lastest version of Hirens and post them later.

Btw, what Service Pack do you have installed? SP2 SP3?

 

Sounds good Mortiz!

I'm using SP3. I'll wait for your reply back to know what would be the best software to use and move on to try to get back my Data or make the HDD available in Windows again!

Appreciate it!

 

Well, i searched in the Hirens CD and i think this is the best in your case (in this moment).

- Load the Hirens CD as you use with XP, i mean Boot it.

> Dos Boot CD option
..>Recovery Tools
...>Test Disk or Active Partition Recovery

Method 1

*If you choose Active Partition Recovery
*It's pretty simple to use, select the Unallocated Space (select the correct HDD, is better that you unpplug the good one HDD)
*Hit enter and it will scan you hdd searching for Partitions.
*Restart and check if you can see the partitions

If there's no partitions, continue with method 2.


Method 2

For Test Disk

*If you choose Test Disk use the option "no log"
*Theres appear the Hard Disk (make sure is the one that you want fix, you could unplugg the good one to avoid mistakes)
*Hit Enter (process)
*Intel [PC Partition]
*Analyse [Analyse current partition structure and search for lost partitions]

Restart and look if you can see the info or the partitions.

If you can't see the partitions yet, same steps but instead Analyse use [MBR Code], restart and check, if there's no partitions use the second method.

After that i have more options to give you, the Method 3 is drastical but works, waiting for your test in method 1 or 2, if doesn't works i'll told you the 3rd method.

 

Hi Mortiz!

Thank you for your time mate, honestly no matter the outcome, can't thank you enough! Quick question for you, talking about TestDisk. I think while you were typing, I was downloading it but is it absolutely necessary for me to RUN it while BOOTING because I have the Win version latest version in my desktop.

This is the version I have: testdisk-6.11.3.win

Let me know if I can still run it inside Windows and i'll go on and follow your steps!

Much appreciated again!

Cheers

S

 

Yes i guess there's no problem run inside windows, i mean, i used the version that came with the Hirens CD that's why i talk about boot, but if you make it run inside windows go ahead. Just make sure that you choose the correct HDD.

Cheers.:zzz

 

Sounds good mate!

Will go on and follow the steps you suggested and will report back anytime soon!

Cheers

 

Hi Mortiz!

Ok just did the two step you suggested and both i've used the "quick search" option right? and came up with result that "No partition found or selected for recovery". Is this normal? After this I have to restart my computer right? Or should I take the following option saying " Deeper search"? before restarting to check if the Hd is appearing?

By the way.. the HD now is not appearing as Unllocated anymore maybe because I didn't plugged it directly thru my IDE connection from the board. Instead i plugged in in IDE converter that becomes USB HDD.

Please confirm with me, thank you

 

That means you're using an adaptator IDDE > USB to connect the HDD??

It's better than you connect directly to the IDE in the MoBo, that programs are a bit old and maybe don't recognize the disk when is connected as USB.


You can use any options without restart, but when u finish then is better to restart and see any change.

 

Sounds good Mortiz! But the software is seeing the HD even if it's not appearing under Win Disk management. But I think I will plug in to the IDE Mobo like you suggested like that I do the steps exactly as you suggest!!

Thanx, will report back!!

Cheers!!

 

Hi Mortiz!

Want to apologize my silence lately, i haven't reported back about the process we started here to get my HD files back.. but been a little bit busy and i'm back now and we'll go on and proceed from where we left ok!

Thank you for your precious time.

Cheers

 

Ok, no problem, do not hesitate to tell us anything