Emergency 3

[Dtown33]

I have a laptop that is showing a C: and D: drive. However the D: drive has lost its file system type. This makes reading the drive impossible. There is data on the drive, but I can't access it. Everytime I try to select it it says "this drive is not formatted, do you want to format it" When I say no, it says drive is not accessible. Can I assign this drive a file system type without formatting it and losing all the data?

 

[alidabiri]

what operating system? xp?
xp should be able to handle ntfs and fat32.

 

[gbaughma]

Ouch. Well, you can try a partition utility, such as Partition Magic....

That's where I would start.... it's probably the "partition type" identifier has gotten corrupted.



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[Dtown33]

I'm running XP, the C: drive is running NTFS, but the D: drive does not have a file type

 

[cyberspace]

When you look at file system type, does it say RAW?

I remember this a while back on a friends Hard Drive - luckily the data was not important as it was lost.

What I did was run the manufacturers diagnostic utilities which did reveal that the disc was physically damaged. At the time I was unable to retreive data simply, my friend said it wasnt a big issue though so I didnt look too much into it.

I did manage to get the drive formatted but it was binned shortly after has it had seeminly been the cause of many system errors and critical system file corruptions.

I hope the data is not too important, if it is I sure hope it's backed up as you may end up learning the hard way if it isn't.

I'm sure someone will be able to give you a more definite answer. In the mean time though, you should run the manufacturer diagnostics.

Its not a Maxtor by any chance is it??

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[cyberspace]

I forgot to mention that Get Data Back is a frequently reccommended and highly rated tool:

http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[alidabiri]

getdataback is $50 some dollars. you can find freeware like disk-inspector that will do the trick. or google:
"data recovery"+freeware you'll find a bunch.

 

[alidabiri]

you can find some tools here:

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/system/fwdatarecovery.html

 

[Dtown33]

Thanks alot guys. This user committed the ultimate sin. He took it home and let his son work on it. Now there is no telling what is wrong with this laptop.

The problem began with his encryption software. He should have let the technian load it , but nooo, "I know what I'm doing I can load it myself." He began the encryption process, but he turned the laptop off before the software finished encrypting the drives. Then he tried to uninstall it, because he was in a rush, and he could get onto his laptop until the installtion was completed. Not know that you can't uninstall encyption software without decrypting first. He only allowed it to decrypt the C: and not the D: drive. Then he reinstalled XP in the C: drive and was able to access c: then. But, he couldn't access D:. Then he was told he should have decrypted both drives. Some kind of way he decryted D:. But, now D: does not have a file system type, and the only way it can be used again is by formatting it. Which will cause him to lose all his data. But, he would rather feed JAWS with his hands, than lose this data. I personally don't think that there is any data on the D: drive, but I can't tell him that. He won't listen, he knows just enough to drive me crazy!!!

He also used a Unix tool to do a byte by byte copy of D: some kind of way, but I don't think this is going to be of any use, after the format.

I hate when user who have a little knowledge turn a simple problem into a nightmare.

 

[tekuser999]

Hey, on the bright side, they keep us in our jobs!!!

 

[youngnetworkadmin]

Thats very ture.

 

[Dtown33]

True, very true