Hard drive missing file table?! 2

[hayt]

I recently got a new maxtor 200 gig HD, and have been using it for about a month in my system as my primary master and boot drive. I am running win2k. Last night, i was testing some new codecs on my machine, and transfering files from a dvdrom to a second drive when my system rebooted. when it came back up, i logged in, and the machine hung for a bit. All i got was the start bar, and the cursor. nothing else. I restarted my PC (cold boot) and when it rebooted, it told me i was missing nt loader (ntldr).

I immediately began to panic. But then after recovering myself, i put my 2k disk in and tried to repair the drive. unfortunately, the disk could not locate a win2k installation.

Panic once again insued. After calming down again, I entered the recovery console and discovered that my primary slave was now listed as my c drive, and my master could not be found anywhere. The bios could see it fine, so i unplugged the drive, and placed it into an external enclosure, and took it to another pc. The drive was discovered, but disk manager (in win2k) showed the drive as unallocated!

This begat more panic. After saying every expletive in every language i know (including c++), I went to bed.

Here is what i am asking...

1) WTF? Does anyone have any ideas why this happened?
2) Is there any way at all to recover my data without spending $$$ that could buy me another drive!

I will name my first born after anyone that can help me.

Thanks,
-Hayt


System Specs:
MSI K7N2-Delta2 MB (400FSB)
AMD Athlon 3200+ Barton
1 Gig Kingston HyperX pc3200 Ram
200 Gig MAxtor DiamondMax 10 (BAD!!!)
80 Gig Western Digital (Good!!!)
30 Gig Samsung External (Ugly!!!)
MSI 256 Nvidia 5600 XT VC
(Other peripherials)

 

[LloydSev]

I will name my first born after anyone that can help me.

I will hold you to this.. lol.

Anyways, did you try, in recovery console, fixmbr

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[garebo]

Lloydsev would be a funny name for a cute little girl, lol!!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[LloydSev]

lol.. hey now, my first name is Lloyd.. and that wouldn't be to funny for a little girl.. haha.

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[mainegeek]

hayt,
I use GetDataBack frequently with high success rate. It is ideal for your current situation. You have to buy it, though
it is worth it, because it is a very handy tool. I purchased the bundle FAT/NTFS

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

 

[hayt]

Sorry i haven't been able to reply. thought i had an extra PC that worked. turns out i did not. I tried r-studio. that didnt work. nice tool....waste of money.
I then tried recover-it-all and a copt of getdataback (from a friend of mine). Those got it all. thanks so much to everyone for their help.

Sorry lloyd. mainegeek gets the naming rights. lets just hope that isn't a real name. lol

i also tried to recover the MBR. but alas.....it didnt work. I am currently testing my drive as maxtor will not replace it unless their software finds an error. This is my first and LAST maxtor drive. never again. I am so sorry Western Digital....I have paid for my disloyalty!

I am going to go cry tears of relief. thanks again all.

You all get stars!


hayt