Hard drive failed

[mjmcmahon]

I have two 40 gig hard drives in my computer, one for data and the other for my OS (Win XP Pro) This morning all of a sudden I couldn't see the d: (data) from within windows. I restarted and bios was detecting both but windows still couldn't see it. I tried to reinstall XP on my c: to see if it was a software problem (The problem happened right after installing SP1) but was informed by windows that I couldn't install onto the c: and that I would need to use d: I went ahead with this but half way through formatting d: I was told it couldn't continue because of an error. I think it's strange that this happened just as SP1 went on so thought it was a software issue. Any suggestions? If I don't need to format d: I'd quite like to get some of the data back from it, any ideas on how to do that?

Thanks

 

[mjmcmahon]

Sorry - I forgot to mention that I also changed the drive letter to d: yesterday using partition magic 7. (It had been f

 

[TekTippy4U]

My suggestion....is uninstall the SP1....SP1 was probably looking for system files.....found only on C:\....If it told me I can't install it on C:\(where OS is right...?)....I'd say See Ya......
It probably (XP Pro)..needs a setting changed (security wise) to allow it to install....
Check M$ site for possible fixes/details........

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions....I try very hard to impart correct info at all times.

 

[mjmcmahon]

Thanks, I did unistall SP1 as soon as I could (It took me a while to even get into Windows after I installed it) I will try disconnecting my d: tonight and go from there.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Since you've used Partition Magic already....keep using that for partitioning and formatting, as PartMag. and others modify the Master Boot Record(MBR)...for disc access..
TT4u

Notification:
These are just "my" thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions....I try very hard to impart correct info at all times.

 

[wolluf]

Sounds like you might need a data recovery app.