8 replies to this topic

[cragllo]

Here is the situation: I have a 120Gb Maxtor Hard Drive with Win Xp pro and ALL my stuff on it. It basicaly wont boot into windows, Nor will it show up on another pc when you have it as a slave drive, in BIOS, its there, but you cant access it in windows :S. I know all my files are still there because I used a program called KillDisk and that showed me that all my files are still there.

I want to get all my files off there and stored safely onto another hard drive.

I have tried repairing Windows with the disk, and have tried almost everything... Is there any other way to copy my files from it to another drive? The last option I have is to use KillDisk and wipe everything off and start over, But I will lose everything...

Any ideas will be great,
Thanks,
Craig.

[BuffaloHelp]

Let's start with basics. I am assuming you started the repair process with the Windows XP setup disc, after loading you pressed R to repair? And when the dos prompt came up you typed chkdsk c: /f ?

Can you scan for a virus in Maxtor when it's mounted as a slave? What were you doing/did initially at the time of this "inaccessibility" occurred?

My feeling is that when an operating system cannot even seem to read the directory listing on a slave drive, that drive is inaccessible. You can still see the directory listing under any recovery programs, such as KillDisk (in this case low level formatting program), because KillDisk is picking up the byte information that was left for names, settings, directories, etc.

[cragllo]

No, i inserted the windows setup disk, clicked install, and it picks up the current version, then you can repair that current installation. I tried pressing R, but i did not know what to do, however i did type help and done chkdsk /f lol

When I use KillDisk, All the files where there, But I cant access them either way, I set it up as a slace on a Win98 based pc, maybe thats why... I dunno, I just want my files back...

[BuffaloHelp]

cragllo, on Jun 22 2005, 01:21 PM, said:

No, i inserted the windows setup disk, clicked install, and it picks up the current version, then you can repair that current installation. I tried pressing R, but i did not know what to do, however i did type help and done chkdsk /f lol

If chkdsk /f does not help, also try chkdsk /r

Quote

When I use KillDisk, All the files where there, But I cant access them either way, I set it up as a slace on a Win98 based pc, maybe thats why... I dunno, I just want my files back...

Yes, there is an (actually I'm 100% sure) excellent posibility that your Win98 cannot read Windows XP file formats (that is, if you formated your drive with Windows XP as NTFS).

The questions still remain, what was the last action that caused this drive to be inaccessible? Can you scan with your anti-virus when you mount it as a slave drive?

[cragllo]

I have no idea what made it break, it just stoped working one day Ill try what you suggested

[serverph]

most likely an incompatibility with filesystem between master/boot drive (with win98) and the slave drive (with winxp), as buff pointed out. perhaps access the winxp slave drive from a master boot drive with same OS also (and not win98)?

re-installing windows works most of the time for me (but it's not a guarantee).

[Styx]

try either sticking it as a slave in another win XP computer. or you can try booting from a NTFS-enabled boot disk with the command prompt. then if u can see your files, transfer them over the network, or whatever you have, onto another computer, and then reformat. or another idea is to boot from a Linux disk, or Bart PE, which may be able to boot you into the system so you can burn copies of your files.................
.........those are possible solutions.....

[cragllo]

Thanks guys, put it on a pc with win xp and all files showed up, im transfering them to another hdd for safe keeping... gonna format it now

THANK YOU!

craig.

[iGuest]

1Tb seagate wont allow xp to boot with western digital 1tb hd drive (sata)Windows Wont Boot

I have 2 new wd 1tb seagate harddrives that I want ot install on my computer but when I hook one (have tried both ) to the serial; ata port XP stops at the end of the listing screen before xp splash comes up.

on a second computer I was able to install xp both of these drives with no problems. Is there any thing I can do to make these compatible with WD hard drives?

-question by allen