Hard Drive Issues. 1

[JSD7878]

Here's what I have:
Motherboard: Abit IP35 PRO
CPU: INTEL CORE DUO E8650
RAM: Ballistix 2GB 8500
Video Card: EVGA 8800GTX 768GB
Power Supply: 850Watt Antec
Hard Drive 1: Maxtor 250GB
Hard Drive 2: WD 320GB
OS: Vista's 32 bit Home Premium

Here's the problem:
I speculated that my a hard drive was going bad in my old setup, I had a recertified Western Digital Raptor that I didn't have much confidence in, besides it was 10K RPM item and was too noisy for me. Sadly this old drive had all of my data on it, so I decided to do two things prior to installing the new 250GB Maxtor, I performed a windows backup to the WD 320GB, and in not having much confidence in this I decided to copy all contents from "C:" the old 80GB drive to the WD320GB drive.

Ok so the next thing I must inform you of, I have Vistas upgrade version, and so out of ignorance mainly, I popped in the new Maxtor Drive, and removed the old WD drive. First I had both drives connected the new Maxtor and the backup data 320GB WD. Next I inserted the Win XP disc formated the new Maxtor drive, but it also wanted to reformat the drive that I had all my good data on the 320GB WD, so I pulled the plug and the after having XP up and running just on the Maxtor drive, I installed Vistas to the new 250GB.

To my shock, when Vista was good to go, I hooked up the Sata cable for the 320HD and it wanted to reformat my 320GB drive, out of desperation I let it, but it formated the drive at 127GB making me think that perhaps the reason it's so low is because my data might be preserved???

By the way the other drive new 250GB Drive that has Vistas loaded on it reads a max capacity of 107GB free, I know there is some loss but this is too much right?

Sorry for the book, but felt it necessary.

 

[wahnula]

First of all, the old Raptor is still in one piece with all the data on it, correct? Raptors go from 36GB-150GB AFAIK, and the new VelociRaptor is only 300GB. So, first we need to straighten this out:
WD320GB= the drive (mistakenly called Raptor) that you were unhappy with; or
WD320GB=a third drive.
Then there is another drive "C:" the old 80GB???

How many drives are there total? Are there any drives you have not connected to the new system that may still have all your data on them?

I need to get the players straight.


Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[JSD7878]

Sorry for the confusion... A total of 3 drives, but only 2 are in the new build.

The old (1) 80GB Raptor has been formated and removed.

The current system has just two drives 250 Maxtor with the OS on it and 320 Western Digital 320GB of which I thought would have all my old data on it that I moved to it from the old 80GB drive prior to doing this change.

 

[wahnula]

I hooked up the Sata cable for the 320HD and it wanted to reformat my 320GB drive, out of desperation I let it, but it formated the drive at 127GB making me think that perhaps the reason it's so low is because my data might be preserved???

Wishful thinking, unless you had partitioned the drive beforehand. The 127GB limit sounds like a 48-bit LBA issue, but that's another kettle of fish. First you need to get your data back off the 320 GB.

I would remove the 320 GB from the system, and install a fresh install of XP (along with F6 SATA drivers) to the 250 GB Maxtor. During setup, create (2) partitions on the 250, ~50GB for the OS and the rest for data. Install all chipset drivers and updates to XP including SP3. You can get the RTM SP3 file from MajorGeeks.com and place it on a flash key to save some time doing updates.

Once XP is installed and working, check to be sure the volume sizes are correct. Format the second partition if necessary in Disk Management. If you are still limited to 127 GB volumes then there is something else wrong. You will want your SATA ports configured in BIOS as "standard IDE" or "legacy mode", not RAID.

Anyway, assuming everything is fine, shut down the PC and attach the 320GB drive. Make sure it is visible in BIOS. If it has a drive letter in XP, explore it and see if your files are there. I doubt it, but check anyway.

You will need a data recovery app like GetDataBack from

http://www.runtime.org

to un-format the drive.

It is not a free app but worth every penny. You should be able to recover the files and place them on the data partition of the Maxtor. Then, once recovery is complete, you can format the 320GB and re-copy the files from the Maxtor to the WD, just for safety.

Finally, you can do a fresh installation of Vista into the XP partition; your data should be intact in the second partition, if not recover it from the WD. Best of luck, sorry to hear of your problems, but this has happened before here and always had a happy ending with GetDataBack.




Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[JSD7878]

Ok I have followed your advice to the letter, and thus far Im having greater success. I reformated the Maxtor 250GB Drive, reinstalled a clean copy of XP and partitioned it 60GB for the primary OS and left the rest for data. Then after installing SP3 I decided to go in the disk management software, and Yes sure enough the rest of my missing space is all there, I partitioned this as another primary. Next I plugged up the 320GB Western Digital drive, and then went into the disk management software to make sure that it was being seen, which it was 298GB free. So next I downloaded the trial version of the software use suggested Getdataback did not see an option for unformating the drive, but I did run recover data option and the 3 step process did recover some 88.3GB which sound about right on what I had on that drive before all this, however when it came time to examine these files, none of files look familar???

Anyhow going to wait before I go any further here... Thanks thus far for all your help.

 

[wahnula]

when it came time to examine these files, none of files look familar???

JSD7878,

I have never personally used that application, but many, many here have, that's how I know it is so good. Perhaps someone can jump in here that is familiar with GetDataBack to help finish off this task. Did you try both the FAT32 and NTFS version?

Glad to see that so far, so good.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[JSD7878]

Hi Tony,

Interestingly enough I found another data recovery software that is a few dollars cheaper and it allows for viewing in a windows like tree structure and it appears to do the same thing GDB, but it's called File Scavenger. Anyhow I have decided that the 320GB HD data is just not there or has been corrupted. But for kicks I through back in the old 80GB drive and ran FS and thank the lord all my data is there.

Ok now that I have gone through this long draw out process please tell me what my methods should have been for this process to have gone smoothly?

Thanks Again.
James

 

[wahnula]

Great! That's the benefit of hanging on to old drives...

As for what you SHOULD have done, I'd say your methods were OK except for formatting the 80 GB drive after copying your data to the now-questionable 320GB drive. You put all your eggs in one basket, never a good idea when you're dealing with mortal devices like hard drives.

I am a data packrat, I have my main 320 GB Seagate 7200.11 drives in a RAID 1 array, partitioned for OS & apps on the first (and fastest) partition, and data on the rest. I have an external 320GB IDE drive that I run an incremental file-copy backup to weekly (SyncBack SE) plus I squirrel away my data on PCs all over my home network.

Every year, I spool off DVDs of critical data like pictures, files and emails. I never throw away a hard drive. I'm sure I have WAY too many copies of individual files, but better safe than sorry.

No need for you to go through all this; just backup regularly (Documents & Settings usually contains User data) and spool off to DVD every so often. Just recently I thought I had lost an important file but found it on one of those DVDs.

When you change OS (like XP to Vista) always do a clean install and make sure you have strenuous backups if the disk gets toasted. I've found it's better than the "upgrade" process or the FAST (Files & Settings Transfer Wizard) method.

You should pat yourself on the back for having a backup of your backup on hand this time; I think you'll be fine!

Tony

Users helping Users...