Can't read Logical G drive 1

[Hpowner]

Hi,

Here is what happened:

1. I have an HP Pavillion a1030N with a 200GB Seagate Barracuda SATA HDD.

2. Windows XP OS hung up while surfing web.

3. Nothing worked so I recycled power

4. After power-up, I was prompted to boot in one of the standard modes (last good config, safe mode, etc).

5. No boot mode worked. No errors were given. The computer simply went back to the same list of boot modes.

5. I removed the HDD, inserted it into a housing and connected it, via USB, to another computer so that I could copy it's files to the other computer before repairing the HDD.

6. The other computer immediately recognized the HDD's recovery partition (F) but took a few minutes to recognize (display) the icon for the main partition (G).

7. The other computer can browse F but not G. I get the following error:

"G:\ is not accessible error performing inpage operation."

8. I put the HDD back in its original computer and attempted a recovery by selecting F10 when powering up.

9. During recovery, I get the following message:

"The Section IDA_CREATE_USER_DRIVE_U does not contain a valid dialog template"

10. I put the HDD back into the external housing, connected it again to the other computer, via USB, so I could perform a check disk via the XP OS.

11. When I right-moused the G partition icon and selected properties, it displayed zero size and zero used space.

12. I ran the check disk and it completed it with no activity. That is, is said "check disk complete" but no check disk occured. However, I ran a check disk on the F partition (Recovery partition) and it ran normally.

13. The HDD sounds odd too. It makes a tripple click sound, followed by a disk accessing sound, followed by a tripple click. This sound repeats constantly.

14. Microsofts web site says that the error, "G:\ is not accessible error performing inpage operation", is most likely being precipatated due to a drive hardware or I/O error.

15. I put the drive into a freezer for about 20 minutes to no avail. As you can see, I'm starting to grasp at anything. I wonder if there is a patron saint of computing....

Anyway, does anyone have suggestions? I'm afraid I hosed my HDD when I recycled power.

Thanks!

 

[wahnula]

The patron Saint of computing is Saint Fiasco...

The only thing I can think of that you have not already done is boot to recovery console and run FIXMBR

Drive freezing is a last resort and shouldn't be done as a matter of course...it can cause moisture inside the HDD. Good luck!

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[G0AOZ]

The fact that another machine can recognise the drive has two partitions is encouraging. I'd try running recovery software on that partition, something like GetDataBack. Another one I've had success with is MHDD. You could give SpinRite a go, but you may be in it for the long haul if the disk has severe problems on that partition. But like Tony says, leave the freezer option until last.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[wahnula]

And, just to be sure, you did run (in cmd line) chkdsk g: /r, correct?

A worthwhile effort might be to boot to Linux CD (like Knoppix) to see if you can see the files. As Roger mentioned there are many data recovery apps, so don't get impatient and do something you might later regret, like opening the drive.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Hpowner]

Thank you each for your advice! I'll give them each a try. I had not ran checkdsk g:/r. (I thought that the XP GUI utility to chkdsk was the same). I'll try chkdsk first before using other data recovery software.

 

[wahnula]

Most definitely try something free before buying something!

To be clear, here are MS' KB articles on both procedures:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/314503

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Hpowner]

Hey Wahnula!

The checkdsk g:/r worked like a charm! It didn't finish until about 2:00am today but man was I relieved! I got all my files back - the most important being my daughter's college essays and resume's. Oh yeah, before going back to bed, I backed up everything to another drive!

Thanks, again.

Mike

 

[wahnula]

Glad it worked for you. Hard drive problems can be stressful. Remember to say a thank-you prayer to Saint Fiasco!

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Hpowner]

That I'll do. And also one of thanks for these forums.

 

[DarkAgesDesigns]

Hello,

I am receiving the same error message. I also have a HP (7060n). I am little more than "Switch Savy", meaning I know how to turn it on. I would like to "checkdsk g:/r", but how do I get to the command prompt? XP never starts and when I choose one of the three choices: safe mode, safe with networking or safe wiht command prompt, it just cycles through again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am sure the computer guy on the corner will say that I need a new hard drive and a bunch of new software.

Chris

 

[wahnula]

DarkAgesDesigns,

You should start a new post for a new topic. There, that's done.

You can get to command prompt if you boot to the Recovery Console from Windows' CD. Follow the on-screen prompts and you should be fine. If you don't have a Windows CD, try borrowing one, any similar SP level CD should work.

The correct syntax usually involves chkdsk C: /r

This person had the boot drive as G: for some reason. There is a space after chkdsk and C:.

Tony

Users helping Users...