adding laptop hard drive to a PC 3

[Dougalston83]

My laptop hard drive fails to boot into windows xp. To retrieve data from this drive I have added it my my desktop pc with a 2.5" to 3.5" hard drive adaptor.

However when booting up my desktop PC, Windows xp fails to idenitify the laptop hard drive within "my computer" however the drive is identified within the computer mangement console. However although the disk volume is identified as "Laptop Hard Drive" (no drive letter) I cannot give it a drive letter or change the drive letter (option greyed out). The drive (disk 1) is showing healthy and active & ntfs file system.

Can anyone help me access this drive?

 

[wolluf]

Try the drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility - usually available on their website.

See if a data recovery app can read the drive at all (eg, getdataback).

 

[Dougalston83]

Tried getdataback (free trial) however after scanning around 25% of the disk, the programme would indicate continue for the remaining 75% of the scan with unknown file error. Futhermore the disk would "disapear" from the computer management console and is not shown not be shown within system properties,hardware, device manager, disk drive. Only re-booting the pC will reactivate the drive.

Futher suggestions ofn retrieving data would be appreciated

 

[wolluf]

There are many data recovery apps out there - suggest Googling and trying as many as you can. There are various recommendations in this forum too. If you're lucky, you'll find one that will do the job.

btw - have you run diagnostic (can sometimes fix problems too)?

 

[satrow]

Did the laptop require a password?

 

[Dougalston83]

re requiring a password - I had a password on my user account

 

[satrow]

But no password before you get to the logon screen? Ok that rules out a password protected hard disk.

 

[Dougalston83]

I can confirm that there was no password before the login screen.

However I did have Norton Go-back running and I cannot not un-install it from its initial set up page. Corrupt files or partition?

 

[Freestone]

You had GoBack running on the laptop or the desktop? If the former, then XP on the desktop system will not recognize the laptop partition(s) until either GoBack is removed from the laptop drive, or possibly after GoBack is installed on the desktop system.

 

[micker377]

This is for Win 98, but still holds for XP. See if this will help you.

I'm still using Windows 98SE. I was replacing the hard drive in my old computer with one twice as large. I did a drive to drive copy with Drive Image 2002 using the rescue disks. It was late and I was tired and like a dummy I forgot to disable GoBack on the old drive. After the copy was complete I was shocked to discover that both drives were now useless and it looked like I just lost several years of irreplaceable files. Instead of 4 Fat 32 partitions on the drives, I now had only one partition the full size of the drive, and it was unreadable and the drives were unbootable. I used all of my rescue disks from several programs all to no avail. Some programs identified the file type as other, some just said bad. Finally one rescue disk identified the file as a Hex 45. Using that information I searched the web and found others with the same problem, but no answers. A search at PowerQuest sent me to Symantec where a knowledgebase article explained that GoBack monitors your system using the Hex 45 file system and therefore must always be disabled before making a drive copy or image or even a defrag. Still no information on how to get out of this mess and back to where I started. I e-mailed Symantec support with all of the details and asked for a fix. The Tech replied that I screwed up and there was no fix or workaround. He pointed me to the same knowledgebase article I had already read and suggested I might try one of those (very expensive) data recovery services. I was down, but not out. I was sure that only the MBR had changed and there must be some way of returning it to it's former state. I searched the Symantec knowledge base some more and found an article on removing the changes GoBack makes to your boot record. There is a tool, GB_PROG.EXE that is hidden on the newer versions of Norton System Works. It's included there in case a failed installation leaves your hard drive unbootable. It's easy to use, insert a floppy in drive A. Click on GB_PROG.EXE and the files will be extracted to the floppy. Restart the computer with a startup disk, switch to the floppy and type: GB_PROG.EXE /U, hit enter and GoBack is removed from your boot record and disabled in Windows. Remove the floppy and when you restart everything is back to normal and all of the Fat 32 partitions are still there. I don't have the newer version of Norton System Works, but Symantec has the tool as a download. Get the info and download link here,

http://langa.com/u/5g.htm

---Vic Laude

 

[Dougalston83]

Great shouts Freestone & Micker377 - Goback was the culprit. Once removed via the gb_prog.exe HD was could be seen by windows and files recovered (though ownership/ permissions required altering)

much appreciated all the help by those who contributed to this thread

thanks again

 

[Freestone]

Great find Micker!