Hard Drive Found but Not Accessible

Try this first :
Start>control panel> system management>computer management>Disk management
now right click the drive and select the appropriate action

It shows the D:\ as "healthy" and "active", but it again claims that the drive is not formatted, and there is no format next to the name of the drive. The options it gives me are to change the drive name and path, to format it, or to delete the partition.

And if you got your data, it might not be a bad idea to test it  and zero fill it with POWERMAX :

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Powermax.shtml

It seems as if your MFT went down and got corrupted; It happens many times. Just recover it and it all be back with no time...
Try to use PTDD to fix that problem (dont use the demo version):

Links:
http://www.ptdd.com/

Good luck

Cyber

You could try booting from Barts PE Builder CD and see if u can read the drive and copy the data from there. (it's v. good and free)
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

JB

Well to answer this issue we may need to do some troubleshooting first:
0- Backup your accessible working HDD to CD/DVD or tape...
1-Get the latest antivirus update, scan your system for possible viral activity, if no virus was detected, try to reinstall/upgrade the HDD device driver [by right-clicking on my computer, -->properties -->hardware --> device manager -->disk drives -->double click your new HDD entry -->driver-->update. you may have the drive on a CD /floppy or downloaded from internet.
2-Try to reinstall/upgrade the Intel 8280 controller[from CD/Windows/Manufacturer/Intel website], if problem persists check the following:
3- Restart your computer, and go to the BIOS screen, and check if the BIOS is able to recognize the existance of a second HDD or not
if no, you have to make the BIOS detect your second HDD, if at this stage BIOS is unable to detect, you may have a real Hardware problem with your HDD.
If yes, and you still not able to access your HDD check the following possibility :
4-Shutdown your PC, unplug power cable. Always touch the PC chassis while touching other components.
5- Open your computer cover using proper toolkit, find the IDE CABLE that hooks the new drive, make sure the power supply cable [5 clored wires] is firmly hooked to your HDD.
If you use 2 data cables
6-Smoothly disconnect the problematic HDD data cable from HDD and from IDE slot
7-Smoothly disconect the non problematic HDD data cable from HDD and from IDE slot
8-Firmly connect the problematic HDD data cable to the non-problematic HDD, and conect the end of that cable to the non-problematic IDE slot.
9-Power-up your pc if it doesn't boot with the non-problematic HDD that means the Data cable needs replacement if it does boot we have discarded the CABLE issue.
10-If the non-problematic HDD boots after switching the data cables we need to troulshoot the new HDD.
11-Powerdown and disconnect power cable, Disconnect the non-problematic HDD, and instead connect the problematic one with the same data cable and IDE slot
12-Power-up and while carefully holding the HDD feel if it is spining, if not you have to replace your HDD, and have a professional person do the recovery for you
13- If it spins, that means the new HDD has a working rotating mechanism, but your HDD-IDE controller may have issues
14- If not you have an engine problem or a power problem to resolve the power issue, try to use the same power cable that is hooked to the Old non-problematic HDD
15- If after connecting the power supply cable of the non-problematic HDD the new problematic HDD the issue is resolved that means the issue was a power issue, you need to change your power suppply/cables.
16- Now if the above is non-conclusive for you, put back data/power cables to the initial situation and close your PC.
17-Get a bootable floppy/CD with win98/DOS
18-Have FDISK utility -->option 5 to switch to new HDD-->check the disk partitions by pressing option 4
19-If you do not see any partition that means a problem has killed your partition, you need to revive it by using a disk revival software such as Norton suite or OnTrack.
PS: In the event that your problematic HDD is connected with a Daisy-Chained data cable instead of two cables, you have to just test with the old non-problematic HDD with the Master positition with the second IDE cable.
In many cases this issue could be attributed to viral activity or power surges, another possibility is some windows corrupted libraries or ultimately data/power cables issues. And finally Hardware failure.
PS: Make sure the new HDD Jumper is always set to Slave if it is connected to a daisy-chained data cable. Or to Master if it is connected as primary to the second IDE.
Sometime if it is put on SELECT it may exhibit such behavior.

Good Luck,
Geo...

1) Attempt to make a image using Ghost of your D: drive.  If it works, you may be able to retrieve your data using Ghost Explorer.

2) The heads on your HDD might be out of allignment AND (as mentioned by others above) the MFT is either corrupted or unreadable.  Try booting into DOS with only this one drive connected.  Use NTFSDOS (in case it's NTFS-formatted).  If it will mount at all, then NTFSPRO recognizes the MFT.

3) It could be that your HDD has died an untimely death.  Reformatting will not insure that it will not happen again sometime in the near future.  Microscope is a good tool to test the read/write capabilities of the HDD, but only use those features at the cost of losing your data!

4) It may be that your HDD is recognized as "alive and well" by the OS, but in DOS you sometimes see some strange things.  Using FDisk (as mentioned above) will help.  If it sees the correct formatting, just connect the HDD alone and run the following command from a DOS window:  fdisk /mbr

Hope some of this helps!
Rick

I'm still trying some of your suggestions. Some of the programs outright didn't work for this issue, so I'm going down the list. I want to make sure that ptdd will solve my problem at least temporarily before I put down $40 or however much it costs.

The hard drive is recognized by the bios, and maxblast recognizes it as having a FAT32 formatting but XP Pro does not, and all drivers appear to be properly updated. I have Norton Internet Security with Norton Anti-virus continually updated with new virus definitions. The Hard drive appears to be spinning.

One other thing, in dos, when I try to change to this drive, it tells me "cyclical data error".

Several things could cause CRC errors.  HP has one that is caused by their controller under Windows XP.

HP-Patch:  http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/21870.html

After the Windows IDE/ATAPI Port driver (Atapi.sys) receives a cumulative total of six time-out or cyclical redundancy check (CRC) errors, the driver reduces the communications speed (the transfer mode) from the highest Direct Memory Access (DMA) mode to lower DMA modes, in steps. If the driver continues to receive time-out or CRC errors, the driver eventually reduces the transfer mode to the slowest mode (PIO mode).

I also found a cheaper program, but it appears it is specifically for CRC.  If you have other problems this might not be enough:

Repair Program for $19.95 - http://www.dexadine.com/advanced.html

You can, as mentioned above, use Ghost to image the partition and then Ghost Explorer to extract individual files.  There is a selection option to ignore CRC errors during imaging.

Are you referring to Norton Ghost? I don't have that program if that is what you are referring to.

Yea, I meant Norton Ghost.  If you want to try something without first spending money only to find out it didn't actually solve your CURRENT problem, try connecting the HDD to another PC just to see if your files can be saved that way.  OR, you could try accessing them over a network.  But if your MFT really is shot, you could try running scandisk/chkdsk depending on the OS.  If you've got Partition Magic, that might help you correct the problem.  There is a diagnostic tool there.

Otherwise, it's either spend some money on recovery tools or FDISK and wipe it clean.  Depends on your priorities.  But remember, if the problem happened once, it could happen again!

$40 for software, or $60 for a new HDD!?

Good news thus far, Stellar Phoenix FAT version (this is a demo version though- so I can't recover the files), found my files on the D:\ drive. So there is a possiblity of recovering the files, it's not totally screwed. Finally a little progress with this thing. I'll let you know what solution solves it- hopefully soon.

Good ! Keep us posted...

Ok, here's the good news, I was able to recover all the data that I needed. Somehow after that long scan by Stellar Phoenix (the demo version), the hard drive became accessible in RAW format. Then I zero filled the drive with MaxBlast (the proprietary Maxtor software), but hit a snag, it only zero filled 90%. I rebooted as instructed after I stopped it, and both hard drives "disappeared". Cold booted, and voila, hard drives appeared again. I went into XP, and used Maxblast to repartition/format the harddrive, and it nearly automatically said that it was ready to use. But guess what? You guessed it, can't access the drive. Then I went back and used PowerMax to run a diagnostic on it, and the "drive is failing", and to contact Maxtor about getting an RMA. Since my brother purchased the hard drive at the end of June this year, I thought "should be fine, I have a one year warranty", well according to Maxtor, my warranty expired on October 28, 2004. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but a year is not 4 months long ;) Anyways, I figure if my brother who bought this as a present, can find the bill, I might be able to get Maxtor or the company who sold to honor the warranty.

I guess I'm screwed, and there is no way to fix this error, right? By the way, not that it matters now, but when I tried to use ptdd (well the demo version, just to check if it worked with my system), it wouldn't boot properly for some reason. It just had a flashing cursor on a black screen.

Did you try running maxblast a second time?
It does not give smart errors at booting up?

hi, there

try out this tool

www.partitionsupport.com

Well the last tool didn't work for me, it just went in a loop again when I tried to find the partition. Also, I tried to run Maxblast again. No smart errors appear at booting up, but when I run powermax, it gives me the same code error code, de9a9575, and to contact Maxtor about an RMA. Anyway, my brother found the bill of sale for the harddrive, so I can prove to Maxtor that the Warranty is still in good standing despite their crappy computer system telling me otherwise. I'm going to call them tommorow, and hopefully I can get a replacement hard drive.

Steven

here they say they have a 3 year warranty

  :http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.a14629af82eff9461400585760b46068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Warranty%20Services/Warranty%20Periods#bare_drive_warranty

It's a retail kit, so it has only a one year warranty.

steven

Try the following;
First, try to make sure the hard drive is in a healthy condition and to do that we will operate the 'diskpart' utility;
1. Start => Run... => type 'cmd' to enter command prompt => and type 'diskpart' and press 'Enter'.
2. Type 'list disk' and press 'Enter'.
3. Type 'select disk <the disk number we want to analyse>' and press 'Enter'.
4. Type 'detail disk', press 'Enter' and post results here;
5. Type 'list volume', press 'Enter' and post results here;
6. Type 'list partition', press 'Enter' and post results here;

Have an idea but I just want to be sure that this is the propper solution.

Cyber

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 1.0
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: BASEMENT-COMP

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        19 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online        76 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

Maxtor 6Y080P0
Disk ID: 7127A706
Type   : IDE
Bus    : 0
Target : 1
LUN ID : 0

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 3     D                       Partition     76 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E                       CD-ROM          0 B
  Volume 1     F                       DVD-ROM         0 B
  Volume 2     C                FAT32  Partition     19 GB  Healthy    System
  Volume 3     D                       Partition     76 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary             76 GB    32 KB

DISKPART>

It should be noted that the C drive does have 5.0 gb of free space, not 0 bytes as it says.

Steven

The 0 bytes means all available space has been used for partitions, not the amount of free space on the partition.
I note that it shows "Partition" for drive D, but not the file system type.  Drive C shows FAT32.  I would expect a similar label for drive D as well.  It could very well be that your MFT is not only corrupt, but that physical damage has occurred.  If you can get your hands on Partition Magic, you might be able to use this to correct the MFT (if possible).  The damage might be either in the NULL sector, or at the end of the drive.  Try setting up 1 Primary Partition and 1 Secondary Partition of equal size, but leaving about 7,5MB free at the end.  This might cut off the bad sectors if they are located at the end and still let you use the rest of the drive.  I always leave this free space at the end!

huntersvcs, good call...
It seems as if the MFT is damaged and you can use any software deals with that issue, that is; if it is possible.

Also, I know that you can use Knoppix to fully scan the hard drive for MFT by using utilities from 'NTFS Project' team (great team with great utilities).

Links:
The Knoppix home page:
http://www.knoppix.net/

The NTFS Project team - locate a utility called 'ntfsck' and use it to recover or fix MFT records:
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/

Good luck

Cyber

So I run Linux off a cd to scan for this? which tools do I download?

Steven

sorry just saw the tool name :P

Steven

I tried using Maxblast to do make multiple partitions but it gave me an abnormal runtime error wheneve I tried it.

Partition Magic?

I haven't tried it yet, I have to find a copy.

Steven

Well in the end, nothing to seem to work, but Maxtor is sending me a replacement drive. But Nobus's help allowed me to recover the data on my drive before it completely kicked the bucket.

All you needed was partition magic.  Sorry, I just signed up too bad I wasn't here ealier.  Anyways, I've had this problem happen to me twice.  Only with a western Digital drive.  Maxtor's software needs to run and you do a restore with that then go in to Partition Magic analyze the drive and voila... It's a little more in depth than that but since you're getting a new HD i won't babble on about it.   Good Luck Rocketsp.

I have the same exact problem it seems.  Partition magic gives me error message #90 on startup saying ez-drive has been detected on drive 1, but ez-drive is currupt.  I'm downloading that linux disc now...any more instruction would be apreciated.

Stellar Phoenix - NTFS File Recovery Software has found my files....is there a free program that does the same recovery as this $100 does or should I bite the bullet and buy the program?

YoungDaniel : if you have a question, please post it in your own thread, not in another one's thread !

Sorry, I just assumed since it's the same question it would make more sense to piggy back instead of starting over.

then no one would know if an answer was meant for you or another, and confusion would reign..

We see this issue wuite often in our shop and we have tremendous success with this.  Get a copy of Norton G-Disk and create a bootable floppy with this file on it.  Boot the system with the disk to an a:.   Enter the following comands at the a:
gdisk and enter
check the proper disk id number (dont want to kill os accidentally)
if your disk is drive 2 enter this command or change to the proper number
gdisk 2 /mbr /wipe     and enter     this will clear and reinitialize the mbr and wipe all partitions from the hard drive
gdisk 2 /cre /pri       and enter    this will create an unformated partition on the hard drive

boot to windows and go into disk management and format the drive

Now use your data recovery software and you should have no issues.  Just do not write anything to the drive before running this.  We use and highly recommend R-Studio.    We have had over a 95% recovery rate with this software.  

Just be aware you are formating your hard drive.

I had the same exact thing happen to me.
So before spending money on any the software mentioned above...try this:

Open up the MS-DOS windows.
At the C:/ prompt type in CHKDSK F:/F                    (substitute F: for whatever your drive letter is)  (/F fixes errors on disk)
Give it a minute or two to repair the hard drive... and wah-lah, drive is accessible once again. (with files intact)

No need for data recovery software and the works.
That's my two-cents.  Hopefully it's that simple for the next guy.