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320 Gig now 160 RAW + unallocated

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bmackkc

MIS
Dec 19, 2002
4
US
I took my 320Gig out of one computer, planning to use it as the system drive for a new box I'm building. The drive contains about 100Gig of data. My XP install disk is pre-SP2, and I am (now) aware of the drive size limitation.

I booted from the CD, chose the location of the install (the drive in question). I was puzzled when it said there was only 161G available, but in my late-night mental haze, didn't question it at that point. When the next screen asked me whether I wanted to format with NTFS or NTFS-quick, I knew there was a problem. I stopped the install, and then researched the problem (which was when I learned about the 48-bit addressing issue).

I used another drive for the XP install, installed SP2, and then reconnected the 320Gig drive. When I attempted to open the drive, I about fell out of my chair when I received a message saying that the drive wasn't formatted, and did I want to format it now. Disk Manager shows that the drive has one RAW 161 Gig partition, with the remainder unallocated.

AUGHHHHH. Is there anything I can do to recover the data? I can't believe that the XP install would blow the partition away without specifically warning me...and I have done enough installs in my life to know that I got no such warning.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
bmackkc

I had a similar experience a while ago now, maybe take a look at faq779-5234

See if this rings any bells with your situation

Happiness is...not getting what you want but wanting what you have already got
 
Thanks Binnit, not exactly the same scenario, but close. I haven't written any data to the drive, and I'm guessing that the MBR has been blown away. I'm sure all the files are there; I just don't know how to get at them. I'll read some more case histories before proceeding. Thanks!
 
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