Ok...I have the following problem: I have had my IDE 250 GB Western Digital internal HDD for a while now, and I have been using it as a file dump/backup storage device. Of course, when I got my Plextor Premium CD burner, I had to take one of my 4 IDE devices out and try the new burner. I took out my 250GB HDD, simply because I use it infrequently and only for archiving/backup. Then I remembered I needed a file off of it, and put it back in to my computer, same IDE channel, same configuration, everything, and now, it shows up as a 130-some-odd GB drive under Windows XP (SP2). And, all my files seem to have disappeared somewhere. When I go to properties though, it shows that the drive is almost full, (showing the wrong capacity, 137 GB I think with like 4 GB free). So I believe my files are still there, intact somewhere, I just can't see them. I could really use some good ideas with this one guys. I would prefer not to do any destructive actions like re-formating until I am absolutely sure there is no way to recover my files. I have tried several hard drive recovery tools to scan for my files, and they do find stuff, but it's all weird files that are not of my own making. I realize the limitations of some older BIOSes and operating systems to correctly see hard drive size but this is not the issue, because it was seen correctly before, so I would appreciate no posts to this effect. I basically took out my HD, put it back in a couple of days later, and this problem popped up. Nor is the drive physically damaged in any way, or old, or worn out (bad heads, cylinders etc.) HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!
Have you another PC to hook the drive onto? If you have you could try that and see if your files are seen or if you have a friend that would allow you to hook the drive up to theirs?.... Strange : / Have you tried booting in Safe Mode?
The only thing I can think of is that when you removed it and hooked the burner up, the bios saw the change and set itself back to not using LBA translation since the burner would not require it. When you hooked the drive back up it stayed at the default instead of turning LBA back on which is required to support drives over 137 gig. The 137 gig size is almost a dead give away that LBA is not enabled currently since that is the limit of the standard ATA spec.
Thanks Rosco...I went over to a friend's house and did just that...I figured that since his computer (Motherboard, BIOS) are a bit newer than mine, maybe it wouldn't tweak out and recognize the right size. But his computer too showed it as 137. @ Xian... good thinking. Haven't thought of that. But I also don't recall seeing an option in the BIOS to manually turn on 48-bit LBA. Maybe it does it automatically (or in this case doesn't) I'll try safe mode, but what weirds me out tho is that if I pull up a command prompt and type the following, I get the right size: Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. C:\Documents and Settings\Raphael>D: D:\>diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565 Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: SHADOWFAX DISKPART> list disk Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ---------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Online 19 GB 0 B Disk 1 Online 112 GB 0 B Disk 2 Online 233 GB 0 B DISKPART> select disk 2 Disk 2 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> detail disk WDC WD2500JB-00GVA0 Disk ID: 47D6C4AD Type : IDE Bus : 1 Target : 1 LUN ID : 0 Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 4 D FAT32 Partition 233 GB Healthy DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 F CD-ROM 0 B Volume 1 H DVD-ROM 0 B Volume 2 C FAT32 Partition 19 GB Healthy System Volume 3 E FAT32 Partition 112 GB Healthy Volume 4 D FAT32 Partition 233 GB Healthy DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Primary 233 GB 32 KB DISKPART> So there's that...I'll let you know how the safe mode thing goes...
I have the feeling it has not been preped and formatted correctly..... Also i see it is FAT32... Did you use Fdisk at all?
I always format all my drives correctly before initial use. (full format, and I never divide up my drives into more than 1 partition) However, I use Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools to format drives under DOS because they have a few more configuration options than Fdisk does. Also, I did not want to convert my drives to NTFS because I will soon be building a new one anyways, (I'm way... WAY overdue for a new computer...) Though I don't think that having a FAT32 partition would screw me over like this. Maybe it did I don't know. Sooo...just still looking for options.
If you can copy the data to another drive (or your desktop) then do a format through windows this time you can have it as NTFS and you never know it might just solve your problem? Try it.... Then you can just copy the data back to that drive.... (if you really need the data of course : )
Yeah...I'd rather not lose the data. Is there a way (with the help of some software or without) to just dump raw data onto another drive even when the data is not seen under windows? Or is it possible to do this in DOS as a simple drive to drive copy/dump? I am adamantly convinced that my data is there, and until I have a nervous breakdown with this problem, I will be reluctant to let go of years of backed up files (though admittedly most of which I never look at any more or have forgotten that it is even there)...Also, I have looked for more info on this, and I read somewhere (maybe a forum I don't remember, that the MBR on the drive might have somehow become corrupted...I think I also remember reading somewhere that there is a way to reset this, or even delete the current partition and simply create a new one (same exact parameters as originally) and not lose any data. I however am skeptical of this advice, and fear that tooling around with the MBR or partitions at this point will result in data los that will be un-recoverable. If you know of any means to dump raw data in the sectors to another drive, let me know...meanwhile, I will research into it further...
As it is FAT32 you can read it in DOS... Try downloading a 98 boot disc (http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm) then goto the command prompt and type either "C:/" or "D:/" then enter.. Then type "DIR" see if you can see the data on the drive if you can you could use the COPY command to copy data to your C:/ Drive....
