Several months ago my PC went TU, for some reason. Everytime I tried to start it up it would go to the start up page, shut down and then restart. A big vicious circle! I was under the assumption that the HDD was haveing errors. So I built a completely new system with a new SATA HDD and completely updated goodies. So now here is the question on the old HDD (which by the way is IDE) is a lot of pictures and other DATA I do not want to lose. I attempted to extract that info via an IDE HDD removable rack which I installed into my new PC, but the system wants to "reformat" the disk. If I reformat this HDD (the IDE) as a "slave" or secondary drive will that erase all the info I am trying to save? What is the easiest way of saving all of this stuff? More than anything the only things I want are the pictures, like a MORON I didn't burn them to a disc (which garunteed will happen in the future) and if I do not find a way of saving them my wife may end up killing me in my sleep! Any help as usual is greatly appreciated folks!
If the system wants to reformat the IDE HDD then it is having a problem recognizing the format of the data. If you reformat the HDD you will lose everything. You do not "format" a drive as master or slave, that is a hardware definition. You need to figure out why you new PC cannot "see" the data on the old drive. DO NOT LET THE SYSTEM FORMAT the HDD if you want to save the data. Buy an IDE compatible external enclosure. I would bet that theres something wrong with your mobile rack.
The mobile rack recognizes 2 other HDD's that I have just not the larger one. Been thinking of getting a USB to IDE external adapter to try and see what I can see. Just was hoping someone knew of an easier way to get to the data.
If the mobile rack is OK then there may be some other problem with the drive. Are you sure that you have it jumpered properly? there can only be one master and one slave unless you care running CS (Cable select). Two masters or two slaves on the same cable can cause symptoms similar to what you are seeing.
Ok ain't this your lucky day,i'm in the process of partition data recovery as i speak due to a huge bloody balls up..lol.. First off as has been said don't format & don't write anything to the drive Assuming the drive is ok in that it's just a MFT corruption,there's no reason you can't see the data, however to do so it would be better if the hdd was inside a comp as a slave,if the hdd itself is ok then it will appear as a drive perhaps unformatted,right click on the very left where it says DISK 1 (assuming that's the faulty drive),if it says "intialise" do it (if you don't intialise the hdd will never be recognised if it says nothing that's ok continue reading),next download "partition find & mount",install it & run it,it should pick up all hdd's,highlight the trouble some drive & click scan,for now just leave the default scan setting as is,it won't take long,if there is more than 1 partition it will show them,once job is completed,right clik on each partition & mount it,windows explorer will open & you can drop n drag the data safely,once data rertieved,unmount the partitions then you can reformat
I have tried the jumpers in differant positions. ( I am not sure I tried cable select though, will try that later) However on the same IDE line I have a DVD burner, as I said my system is all SATA except for the DVDburner and the HDD rack. So maybe that is part of the problem?
Just use the rack & run the software i mentioned above it is free open source,if the rack was a problem you would'nt see the drive period. For the new comp create extended partitions to store any data like piks etc, reason being is the data will always be there whether the comp can see it or not & running the software i mentioned will expose it,in most cases using an image to restore c drive will repair the MFT so that the comp will now see the extended partitions so look into getting ghost or acronis imaging software,the cost out ways the data loss,unfortunatley it's too late for your IDE drive for that scenario Do a bit of research on data recovery & why extended partitions are like seperate hdd's & can usually be recovered even if drive c is borked
So I attempted this last night without success. The hard drive (tried in slave, master and cable select) does not show up in the PC, what does happen is this: I turn the IDE rack on (the one that contains the HDD I am trying to get the data off) and the light blinks (indicating that the HDD is working) but at the same time so does my main PC HDD indicator and they flash (like the PC is thinking) syncronistically. My PC slows WAY the hell down and nothing else happens (almost like both discs are trying to operate the system together, is that possible since they both have XP installed on them?Hmmm) I have opened the Disc manager and it is not in there (although for a brief time a dive C showed up in my PC but had no data on it). I am not sure what is going on. I am baffled and do not know what to do. Any help? Ideas? How do I get my PC to recognize the drive? It doesn't even show in find and mount. Is there another program for finding drives? Please help me.
There is only 1 coarse that i can see,you need to place the IDE in another comp that is a dedicated older IDE type comp as a slave,& when it is able to boot or better sill have the POST screen enabled so you can see the problem drive showing as a 2ndry drive,once in windows & in comp management if the drive is showing you should be able to retrieve any data,if it is not showing the drive is stuffed mechanically all hope is lost,i wouldn't waste my time installing the drive in a USB housing if it's seriously corrupted it won't show
So I treied all my other HDD drives which have all worked in the past with my HDD rack and none of them are working or showing up, beginning to think it might be the rack itself or something I have setup wrong. The HDD rack is on the same IDE line (cable) as ONE of my DVD burners, could this be the problem? I have ordered a IDE/SATA USB to HDD cable and will try it. I am very confused, I can hear the HDD's powering up and spinning and as I said befor when they do start my PC does this HUGE slow down. Getting frustrated. I do appreciate the help though, any other thoughts are more then welcome. M
The stall of computer is normal when it has trouble attempting to mount the drive,the USB to IDE cable you ordered will be hit n' miss,so it's 50/50 as to whether it works or not,a black cyclone IDE/SATA external HDD housing would've been a better choice to test the hdd as they are reliable,not all housings are created equal,STLabs s another housing i would trust so long as it was the type that can be fully stripped of it's parts,makes it easier to swap drives,the cyclone is the same but even better as it's a bit larger
Thanks for the heads up. When I get it I will let you know if it works. I appreciate all your help. Just weird that ALL the HDDs I have for the rack aren't workig even though two of them have been formatted and were showing up in the past. Curiouser and curiouser.
