DuVall
asked on
Help accessing my slave drive
Hello and Thanks if you can help me!!!
Situation: I have a dual boot computer. It functions perfect in every other way. It is a dual boot, in the sense that it has 2 hard drives in which it can boot to - one hard drive with a english version of windows xp - the other being a hard drive that is loaded with the chinese version of windows xp. I also have another hard drive installed in this computer (which is my problem right now) - which was my old drive, which contains many files I wanted to save but did not necessarily want on the new drive.
The problem is that although I can access this third drive from either the english or the chinese windows - BUT I CANNOT SEE BUT A FRACTION OF THE FILES ON THE DRIVE!!! For some odd reson all I see are a very few files that makes no sense to me? I cannot see any of the major files or folders. What I do see are actaully some letters I had written at some point. I do not see any of my programs, the windows folder itself, my huge folder of images, etc.
I am not new to computers - but I am at a loss as to why I do not see but maybe 1% of the drives contents. And what makes it even more confusing is that it seems that most of what I do see has their titles displayed in random characters - which is characteristic for windows to do when it is in a foreign language that it does not know what to do with??? I'm assuming the chinese version of windows has had some effect on these files or the drive itself?
I assume I can reconfigure my computer to boot to this drive - and then copy what I want off of it on a DVD or CD - But I hate to go to this trouble if not necessary. I would like to be able to access this drive directly - at least long enough to copy my files over.
Can somebody give me a clue as to what may be wrong? Or how I can easily copy some of the files over to the new drive? I hope somebody can help me with this problem???
If you need further details - please ask. I will try my best to provide anything you need to make a good evaluation of my situation.
Thanks,
duvall
Situation: I have a dual boot computer. It functions perfect in every other way. It is a dual boot, in the sense that it has 2 hard drives in which it can boot to - one hard drive with a english version of windows xp - the other being a hard drive that is loaded with the chinese version of windows xp. I also have another hard drive installed in this computer (which is my problem right now) - which was my old drive, which contains many files I wanted to save but did not necessarily want on the new drive.
The problem is that although I can access this third drive from either the english or the chinese windows - BUT I CANNOT SEE BUT A FRACTION OF THE FILES ON THE DRIVE!!! For some odd reson all I see are a very few files that makes no sense to me? I cannot see any of the major files or folders. What I do see are actaully some letters I had written at some point. I do not see any of my programs, the windows folder itself, my huge folder of images, etc.
I am not new to computers - but I am at a loss as to why I do not see but maybe 1% of the drives contents. And what makes it even more confusing is that it seems that most of what I do see has their titles displayed in random characters - which is characteristic for windows to do when it is in a foreign language that it does not know what to do with??? I'm assuming the chinese version of windows has had some effect on these files or the drive itself?
I assume I can reconfigure my computer to boot to this drive - and then copy what I want off of it on a DVD or CD - But I hate to go to this trouble if not necessary. I would like to be able to access this drive directly - at least long enough to copy my files over.
Can somebody give me a clue as to what may be wrong? Or how I can easily copy some of the files over to the new drive? I hope somebody can help me with this problem???
If you need further details - please ask. I will try my best to provide anything you need to make a good evaluation of my situation.
Thanks,
duvall
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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And if the drive is off of another computer, beware....especially if the drive is really really old. Using it on another computer, without knowing & resetting the original bios settings for that drive, can corrupt the data. Let me know if its from another computer & I can help on that.
One more thing, do you have drive-overlay (such as EZ-BIOS) on any of the drives? IF you do, that makes things a bit more tricky...let me know.
You may have ez-bios if computer is 5 years or older combined with your hard drives being more than 30Gig
You may have ez-bios if computer is 5 years or older combined with your hard drives being more than 30Gig
What is on the old hard drive? How big are the partitions on the new drives? If old drive has Win98, then Win98 has some limitations in regard to being able to see what's on the newer drives (size, NTFS vs. FAT32, etc). If it's XP, all should be well.
SOLUTION
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SOLUTION
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SOLUTION
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ASKER
I AM CONCERNED THAT I HAVE THIS OLD DRIVE "JUMPED" AS A SLAVE. iF THIS IS TRUE - HOW CAN I MAKE IT BOOT AS THE PRIMARY DRIVE? i WAS TRYIG TO AVOID HAVING TO PULL IT OUT TO CHANGE THE JUMPER SETTINGS. PLUS I FIND IT MUCH EASIER TO COPY THE FILES IF I CAN MAKE THE COMPUTER JUST RECOGNIZE THE DRIVE PROPERLY AND THEN ALLOW ME TO COPY THE FILES TO THE NEW DRIVE.
IT WAS A WIN XP BOOT DRIVE ORIGINALLY - THEREFORE IT SHOULD BE ABLE TO BOOT TO ITSELF AS LONG AS THE COMPUTER IS TOLD TO DO SO.
IT IS A BIG CAPACITY DRIVE BUT I DO NOT THINK I HAD USED THE EZ SOFTWARE TO MAKE IT BOOTABLE IN THE BEGINNING - HOWEVER IT IS POSSIBLE IT HAS BEEN SET UP WITH THE EZ SOFTWARE WHEN IT WAS THE PRIMARY BOOTABLE DRIVE A FEW YEARS AGO/
ANYMORE QUESTIONS - PLEASE ASK.
DUVALL
IT WAS A WIN XP BOOT DRIVE ORIGINALLY - THEREFORE IT SHOULD BE ABLE TO BOOT TO ITSELF AS LONG AS THE COMPUTER IS TOLD TO DO SO.
IT IS A BIG CAPACITY DRIVE BUT I DO NOT THINK I HAD USED THE EZ SOFTWARE TO MAKE IT BOOTABLE IN THE BEGINNING - HOWEVER IT IS POSSIBLE IT HAS BEEN SET UP WITH THE EZ SOFTWARE WHEN IT WAS THE PRIMARY BOOTABLE DRIVE A FEW YEARS AGO/
ANYMORE QUESTIONS - PLEASE ASK.
DUVALL
Have you checked the security settings? for that you don't need to boot from that drive.
>> THEREFORE IT SHOULD BE ABLE TO BOOT TO ITSELF AS LONG AS THE COMPUTER IS TOLD TO DO SO.
<< Please turn off those horrible upper shift letters ! and that is only true if you connect the drive as primary drive (best only drive) or if you have a multiboot installed.
The knoppix cd should do exactly what you asked : if the drive is accessible, you can access it. Note it uses completely different OS and drivers, so any soft problem is eliminated
<< Please turn off those horrible upper shift letters ! and that is only true if you connect the drive as primary drive (best only drive) or if you have a multiboot installed.
The knoppix cd should do exactly what you asked : if the drive is accessible, you can access it. Note it uses completely different OS and drivers, so any soft problem is eliminated
Re: I AM CONCERNED THAT I HAVE THIS OLD DRIVE "JUMPED" AS A SLAVE
IF the computer finds the drive on bootup, then the jumper setting is OK. You CAN boot from a slave drive -- it will boot as the primary drive, so long as it's recognized by the computer & so long as the BIOS tells it to boot from that drive.
When you change the BIOS to get this slave drive to boot up, on bootup it will be C: drive, and the other drives will get a different letter in Explorer.
re: ez-bios. The issue is if ez-bios is on the newer drives. If it's NOT on the NEWER ones but it IS on the OLD one, then you will have NO TROUBLE with windows recognizing the newer drives. If ez-bios is not on any, then nothing to worry about.
(IF however the new drives have ez-bios, only then it gets a bit tricky -- you'll need hard drive utility from the company to to install an ez-bios recognition thing on the different boot drive so that it will find the ez-bios drive all-right. Else, you risk data-corruption on the ez-bios'ed new-drives)
So, considering the above, just go ahead & change the BIOS boot setting. If the drive data hasn't been corrupted, it will boot as it did before. But remember: if the drive is off a different computer, boot into safe mode. If it was the boot drive for this computer, no problem, boot into normal mode.
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One more thing to note: is the old drive more than 137 Gig???????? If it is, and your computer is not relatively new, then you need a special controller card to recognize the drive.
IF the computer finds the drive on bootup, then the jumper setting is OK. You CAN boot from a slave drive -- it will boot as the primary drive, so long as it's recognized by the computer & so long as the BIOS tells it to boot from that drive.
When you change the BIOS to get this slave drive to boot up, on bootup it will be C: drive, and the other drives will get a different letter in Explorer.
re: ez-bios. The issue is if ez-bios is on the newer drives. If it's NOT on the NEWER ones but it IS on the OLD one, then you will have NO TROUBLE with windows recognizing the newer drives. If ez-bios is not on any, then nothing to worry about.
(IF however the new drives have ez-bios, only then it gets a bit tricky -- you'll need hard drive utility from the company to to install an ez-bios recognition thing on the different boot drive so that it will find the ez-bios drive all-right. Else, you risk data-corruption on the ez-bios'ed new-drives)
So, considering the above, just go ahead & change the BIOS boot setting. If the drive data hasn't been corrupted, it will boot as it did before. But remember: if the drive is off a different computer, boot into safe mode. If it was the boot drive for this computer, no problem, boot into normal mode.
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One more thing to note: is the old drive more than 137 Gig???????? If it is, and your computer is not relatively new, then you need a special controller card to recognize the drive.
well, u dont need to change any jumper settings to boot from the old HD which is now a slave drive as mentioned earlier. U need to press F8 or F12 or F2 (depending on the motherboard) to bring up the boot popup menu and then u can select which drive to boot from.
Apart from the above solution, u can go in to the BIOS and under the Boot tab change the 1st Boot priority to the slave drive.
Once u get the system to boot from the old slave HD and then u can copy all the stuff u need and let boot normally and then u can even format the old slave drive to get rid of any problems in the future.
Apart from the above solution, u can go in to the BIOS and under the Boot tab change the 1st Boot priority to the slave drive.
Once u get the system to boot from the old slave HD and then u can copy all the stuff u need and let boot normally and then u can even format the old slave drive to get rid of any problems in the future.
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So, how far you have gone , trying to boot from the old HD..??
Also, do u have anything like Norton GoBack or DeepFreeze installed on ur system ??
Also, do u have anything like Norton GoBack or DeepFreeze installed on ur system ??
ASKER
I have not yet tried to boot from the slave drive.
I have downloaded the software mentioned above but have not had time to try it.
My biggest question here is that some have mentioned the drive may be corrupted........ If this is true - how could it have happened? I installed this drive as a slave when I bought a new hard drive - thinking I would slowly copy files over as I needed them. But have not yet ever copied over a single file. So I am confused as how this could have happened. PLUS what really bother me is now I only see a few files and most of them now have random characters and symbols to make up the title...... How has this happened? I know one drive is in Chinese - but how could that drive have effected this slave drive?
I will post more as I progress - but it may take a few days as I work 3 jobs. But if anybody has more to comment on this (especially since I just now made more comments) Please do so! I really hope to better understand how this happened (and what happened) so I can avoid it happening again in the future..... as I will always have to have a dual hard drive and dual boot machine to accomodate my chinese wifes needs.
Thanks,
duvall
I have downloaded the software mentioned above but have not had time to try it.
My biggest question here is that some have mentioned the drive may be corrupted........ If this is true - how could it have happened? I installed this drive as a slave when I bought a new hard drive - thinking I would slowly copy files over as I needed them. But have not yet ever copied over a single file. So I am confused as how this could have happened. PLUS what really bother me is now I only see a few files and most of them now have random characters and symbols to make up the title...... How has this happened? I know one drive is in Chinese - but how could that drive have effected this slave drive?
I will post more as I progress - but it may take a few days as I work 3 jobs. But if anybody has more to comment on this (especially since I just now made more comments) Please do so! I really hope to better understand how this happened (and what happened) so I can avoid it happening again in the future..... as I will always have to have a dual hard drive and dual boot machine to accomodate my chinese wifes needs.
Thanks,
duvall
Well, there is one of the very good software i had tested in the past, u can download it and it will recover all ur data needed . here is the link :
http://www.runtime.org/products.htm
http://www.runtime.org/products.htm
>> How has this happened? << we'll never know - things happen. it can be by installing/moving /deleting a file, bad contacts, heat issues, anything. . .That is why you need to backup everything !
Here some recovery links :
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp Free Recovery
http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm Spinrite
http://www.runtime.org/ GetDataBack
http://www.stellarinfo.com/ Stellar
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ RecoverMyFiles
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm pc Inspector
http://www.bitmart.net/ Restorer 2000
http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/ Easy Recovery
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html Restoration
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/activeundelete.html Active undelete
http://www.handyrecovery.com/download.shtml Handy Recovery
and here a link to a backup program : http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm
Here some recovery links :
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp Free Recovery
http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm Spinrite
http://www.runtime.org/ GetDataBack
http://www.stellarinfo.com/ Stellar
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ RecoverMyFiles
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm pc Inspector
http://www.bitmart.net/ Restorer 2000
http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/ Easy Recovery
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html Restoration
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/activeundelete.html Active undelete
http://www.handyrecovery.com/download.shtml Handy Recovery
and here a link to a backup program : http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm
ASKER
Attention NOBUS
I finally had the opportunity to run the software you suggested - It resulted in seeing the exact same info that I could see through windows xp! I could see the exact same drives and the exact same files.
I don't know what to do next. But, I think the most likely step is for me to take the drive out of the slave position and set it as the master and boot drive. Then I may be able to see more of the drive.
I will post here the results of this after I complete it. But do not expect me to post quickly - as it may be a week before I have the chance to try this.
Anybody else - please post any further comments - as I will most likely check here again before I do anything else.'
Thanks All,
duvall
I finally had the opportunity to run the software you suggested - It resulted in seeing the exact same info that I could see through windows xp! I could see the exact same drives and the exact same files.
I don't know what to do next. But, I think the most likely step is for me to take the drive out of the slave position and set it as the master and boot drive. Then I may be able to see more of the drive.
I will post here the results of this after I complete it. But do not expect me to post quickly - as it may be a week before I have the chance to try this.
Anybody else - please post any further comments - as I will most likely check here again before I do anything else.'
Thanks All,
duvall
It depends on what software you had used from nobus' links. If it was getdataback then you would first need to register the software, then you can just copy it from the bad drive to another drive.
But, if there are security settings set on the folders, you would have to follow my instructions above, and once you have taken ownership of the folders and files, you won't need any other software to get access.
>> But, I think the most likely step is for me to take the drive out of the slave position and set it as the master and boot drive. Then I may be able to see more of the drive. << Absolutely not ! I would leave it as slave drive. Most recovery programs let you see what you will be able to recover for free; but you need the full version to be able to copy the data.
If you put it as master drive, you may corrupt things - maybe that is what you did already?
But if you cannot get the data with a recovery program, i would suggest a data recovery cy :
http://www.gillware.com/
If you put it as master drive, you may corrupt things - maybe that is what you did already?
But if you cannot get the data with a recovery program, i would suggest a data recovery cy :
http://www.gillware.com/
ASKER
Nobus.....
When I installed the new hard drive - I installed this drive as the slave. I have never accessed it (that I can remember) and I definately have not run any software on this drive to assist me - other than the one recommended above - and it resulted in me seeing the exact same files that I can see while in windows. Therefore if it is corrupt in any way - it more or less self corrupted itself somehow. All I want off of this drive is my folder of photos. But as indicated earlier - I cannot even see this folder for some reason. And I could not see it also when I used the software emntioned earlier.
So think about this... I had this drive as my master drive for several years. I installed it in the same computer as the slave drive when I installed the new drive. I have not (that I remember) ever attempted to access the drive. I think when I installed the new drive - I did look to see that the computer was recognizing the drive - this is all I have ever done.
I think I burned CD's of the photo files but I have been unable to find them. If I find them - then I really no longer need to access this drive at all. I will keep looking while I try to figure out what the next step should be in accessing this drve.
It seems it is the census here to not set this drive as a master and see what happens - but I would think that since it was the master in this same computer - I don't see what damage this can cause? Perhaps somebody can explain this so I will better understand why this is not a good idea.
Thanks,
duvall
When I installed the new hard drive - I installed this drive as the slave. I have never accessed it (that I can remember) and I definately have not run any software on this drive to assist me - other than the one recommended above - and it resulted in me seeing the exact same files that I can see while in windows. Therefore if it is corrupt in any way - it more or less self corrupted itself somehow. All I want off of this drive is my folder of photos. But as indicated earlier - I cannot even see this folder for some reason. And I could not see it also when I used the software emntioned earlier.
So think about this... I had this drive as my master drive for several years. I installed it in the same computer as the slave drive when I installed the new drive. I have not (that I remember) ever attempted to access the drive. I think when I installed the new drive - I did look to see that the computer was recognizing the drive - this is all I have ever done.
I think I burned CD's of the photo files but I have been unable to find them. If I find them - then I really no longer need to access this drive at all. I will keep looking while I try to figure out what the next step should be in accessing this drve.
It seems it is the census here to not set this drive as a master and see what happens - but I would think that since it was the master in this same computer - I don't see what damage this can cause? Perhaps somebody can explain this so I will better understand why this is not a good idea.
Thanks,
duvall
If you install the drive as master, the difference is it will try to boot from it and access all those files. If one or more are corrupted, you can easily spread the corruption farther, or if the disk surface is "scratched" it will scratch the disk head, and this will in turn scratch the rest of that surface.
That is why it is always recommended to have the drive with the data to recover NOT as master drive, and only access it for the recovery of the data.
I hope this makes my point clear, and assists you in understanding my previous post.
That is why it is always recommended to have the drive with the data to recover NOT as master drive, and only access it for the recovery of the data.
I hope this makes my point clear, and assists you in understanding my previous post.
And maybe you didn't fully understand my comments. Those windows which can use ntfs as filesystem will make the user's folders (those folders which under WinXP are in "Documents and Settings\UserName\") viewable only by that user and maybe the administrator. The user ID's and administrator's ID are specific for that system only, so if you try reading that data under a newly installed system you wouldn't be able to see these files. But the administrator of this new setup can take "ownership" of these folders, and then it can also set new security permissions for other users for those folders, and then they are readable. So have you checked that out?
Why not just get ultimate boot CD (http://www.ubcd4win.com/), boot from it it instead of your hard disk, and then copy over your files? It has an NTFS reader too...
But re "I had this drive as my master drive for several years. I installed it in the same computer as the slave drive ": Master/slave setting of drive doesn't affect it's ability to be seen as "master" or the boot drive by Windows. Just tell BIOS that you want to boot from it, and it effectively becomes the c: drive & the other drives will get a different letter. I've done this so many times without problems: E.g. On one old computer I have Windows installed on 2 drives. I've switched back & forth, through the BIOS, between booting from one or the other.
But try the free ultimate boot disk, or try a disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm, or an expanded version (for $4 donation) from http://www.bootdisk.com/popfiles.htm (Here's a testimonial: "I corrupted the hard drive of my main workstation....the NTFSboot CD disk! I was able to use that and run a chkdsk and all was back up and running after the fixes. This site is KILLER!!!"
--
Or if you want to pay a bit more for a top-notch utility that can be used with "ANY operating system and ANY file system", try SpinRite 6.0 http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm ("The World's Premier Magnetic Storage Data Recovery, Repair, and Maintenance Utility".)
"How possible is it to recover data from a crashed hard drive? That depends entirely upon "how crashed" the drive is. But SpinRite is often credited with performing "true miracles" of data recovery. Please read some of the true-life SpinRite testimonials..."
But re "I had this drive as my master drive for several years. I installed it in the same computer as the slave drive ": Master/slave setting of drive doesn't affect it's ability to be seen as "master" or the boot drive by Windows. Just tell BIOS that you want to boot from it, and it effectively becomes the c: drive & the other drives will get a different letter. I've done this so many times without problems: E.g. On one old computer I have Windows installed on 2 drives. I've switched back & forth, through the BIOS, between booting from one or the other.
But try the free ultimate boot disk, or try a disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm, or an expanded version (for $4 donation) from http://www.bootdisk.com/popfiles.htm (Here's a testimonial: "I corrupted the hard drive of my main workstation....the NTFSboot CD disk! I was able to use that and run a chkdsk and all was back up and running after the fixes. This site is KILLER!!!"
--
Or if you want to pay a bit more for a top-notch utility that can be used with "ANY operating system and ANY file system", try SpinRite 6.0 http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm ("The World's Premier Magnetic Storage Data Recovery, Repair, and Maintenance Utility".)
"How possible is it to recover data from a crashed hard drive? That depends entirely upon "how crashed" the drive is. But SpinRite is often credited with performing "true miracles" of data recovery. Please read some of the true-life SpinRite testimonials..."
ASKER
I have not abondoned this question. I am still trying to find the time to continue trying the suggestions made here. I will report back as soon as I get the time to do more on this drive.
duvall
duvall
ASKER
I have not abandoned this question. Please do not delete this question. I will get back to this question soon and try to use your advice. I still have not found my back-up CD's - thus there is still a great need to access this drive.
Thanks,
duvall
Thanks,
duvall
Tried Pc Inspector File Recovery yet? (its free & awesome)