Need Data Recovery from HD

Physical damage forced me to change mother boards. It was time anyway.
Prior to changing the m-boards but after the damage incident, the old
m-board worked for a short time without the keyboard or mouse
functioning; however, Windows XP came up and I saw the desktop. This
indicates the hard drive, an 80 GB Western Digital, was working at least
at that time and at least sufficiently to provide the Windows XP
desktop.

I installed a new m-board but soon found couldn't boot Windows XP off
the 80 GB HD. I happened to have a 15 GB HD on the shelf which also had
WinXP on it. I hooked that up, but still I couldn't boot XP.

I repair-installed XP (not from the recovery counsel) on the 15 GB HD,
and now I have a working XP machine with that HD, but, of course, all my
data is on the 80 GB.

I disconnected the 15 GB HD and tried the repair-install on the 80 GB
HD, but when the install completed, and I tired to boot, I got the error
screen saying I should check for viruses, unhook any new HDs, and run
CHKDSK.

I called MS, and the guy ran through another repair-install with me and
then had me run CHKDSK /R (if I remember correctly) on the 80 GB HD
(jumpered as slave) from DOS.

CHKDSK supposedly repaired some sections making the drive smaller. It
now comes up as 31 GB.

But I can't open the drive. When I try, a small alert comes up saying
the drive is not formatted and would I like to do so.

So...

Is there anyway I can read the (previously) 80 GB drive?

If I need some data recovery software, which one should I try?

And finally, was it a mistake to run CHKDSK?


--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

Data Recovery by a 'service company' will cost you up to US $ 300 per hard drive.

You can attempt to configure the PC with your 15Gb HDD as Primary Master and the 80Gb HDD as Secondary Master. Don't connect the CD at this time.

Remeber to run your BIOS configuration to make sure that the 2 HDDs are properly recognised in BIOS.

Boot up to XP off the 15Gb drive [this should be automatic] and examine the 80Gb drive yourself.

You may be able to 'see' more than 31Gb of data.

If you have some joy with this, then power off the PC and connect your CD Burner as Secondary Slave or Primary Slave.

Copy / Burn all that you can off the 80Gb HDD to CD.

Once you have got all the information that is recoverable onto CD then switch off the PC.

Reconfigure with the 80Gb HDD as Primary Master and the CD as Secondary Master.

Insert the XP Installation CD into the Drive and configure BIOS to boot off the CD.

Windows will begin the installation process and choose a full installation and reformat the 80Gb HDD as NTFS and as a single partition. This should find a full drive available to you and a working Windows system.

Should you get any Disk error Message relating to the HDD then consider that the drive is about to take a long rest and get a replacement.

"Nehmo Sergheyev" wrote:

Physical damage forced me to change mother boards. It was time anyway.
Prior to changing the m-boards but after the damage incident, the old
m-board worked for a short time without the keyboard or mouse
functioning; however, Windows XP came up and I saw the desktop. This
indicates the hard drive, an 80 GB Western Digital, was working at least
at that time and at least sufficiently to provide the Windows XP
desktop.

I installed a new m-board but soon found couldn't boot Windows XP off
the 80 GB HD. I happened to have a 15 GB HD on the shelf which also had
WinXP on it. I hooked that up, but still I couldn't boot XP.

I repair-installed XP (not from the recovery counsel) on the 15 GB HD,
and now I have a working XP machine with that HD, but, of course, all my
data is on the 80 GB.

I disconnected the 15 GB HD and tried the repair-install on the 80 GB
HD, but when the install completed, and I tired to boot, I got the error
screen saying I should check for viruses, unhook any new HDs, and run
CHKDSK.

I called MS, and the guy ran through another repair-install with me and
then had me run CHKDSK /R (if I remember correctly) on the 80 GB HD
(jumpered as slave) from DOS.

CHKDSK supposedly repaired some sections making the drive smaller. It
now comes up as 31 GB.

But I can't open the drive. When I try, a small alert comes up saying
the drive is not formatted and would I like to do so.

So...

Is there anyway I can read the (previously) 80 GB drive?

If I need some data recovery software, which one should I try?

And finally, was it a mistake to run CHKDSK?


--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

With all you have done to the 80 gig drive, data recovery is now a "moot
point". You have already destroyed much of what you want to recover by using
the drive and performing a recovery on the drive.

When you lose data -STOP. Assess your options. The time for data recovery
software is "prior" to doing anything else with the drive.

You can use EasyRecovery Professional (expensive) from www.ontrack.com. If
you buy the program, and it doesn't work, they allow you to apply the cost
of the program toward their In House recovery service (even MORE expensive)!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)


"Nehmo Sergheyev" wrote in message
...
Physical damage forced me to change mother boards. It was time anyway.
Prior to changing the m-boards but after the damage incident, the old
m-board worked for a short time without the keyboard or mouse
functioning; however, Windows XP came up and I saw the desktop. This
indicates the hard drive, an 80 GB Western Digital, was working at least
at that time and at least sufficiently to provide the Windows XP
desktop.

I installed a new m-board but soon found couldn't boot Windows XP off
the 80 GB HD. I happened to have a 15 GB HD on the shelf which also had
WinXP on it. I hooked that up, but still I couldn't boot XP.

I repair-installed XP (not from the recovery counsel) on the 15 GB HD,
and now I have a working XP machine with that HD, but, of course, all my
data is on the 80 GB.

I disconnected the 15 GB HD and tried the repair-install on the 80 GB
HD, but when the install completed, and I tired to boot, I got the error
screen saying I should check for viruses, unhook any new HDs, and run
CHKDSK.

I called MS, and the guy ran through another repair-install with me and
then had me run CHKDSK /R (if I remember correctly) on the 80 GB HD
(jumpered as slave) from DOS.

CHKDSK supposedly repaired some sections making the drive smaller. It
now comes up as 31 GB.

But I can't open the drive. When I try, a small alert comes up saying
the drive is not formatted and would I like to do so.

So...

Is there anyway I can read the (previously) 80 GB drive?

If I need some data recovery software, which one should I try?

And finally, was it a mistake to run CHKDSK?


--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

To check the drive get a diagnostic utility from the drive
manufacturer's web site. This will create a bootable floppy from which
the diagnostics can be run. This will give you an idea whether the
drive has physical problems. It won't fix anything but you'll get an
idea whether the drive is any good.

Nehmo Sergheyev wrote:
Physical damage forced me to change mother boards. It was time anyway.
Prior to changing the m-boards but after the damage incident, the old
m-board worked for a short time without the keyboard or mouse
functioning; however, Windows XP came up and I saw the desktop. This
indicates the hard drive, an 80 GB Western Digital, was working at least
at that time and at least sufficiently to provide the Windows XP
desktop.

I installed a new m-board but soon found couldn't boot Windows XP off
the 80 GB HD. I happened to have a 15 GB HD on the shelf which also had
WinXP on it. I hooked that up, but still I couldn't boot XP.

I repair-installed XP (not from the recovery counsel) on the 15 GB HD,
and now I have a working XP machine with that HD, but, of course, all my
data is on the 80 GB.

I disconnected the 15 GB HD and tried the repair-install on the 80 GB
HD, but when the install completed, and I tired to boot, I got the error
screen saying I should check for viruses, unhook any new HDs, and run
CHKDSK.

I called MS, and the guy ran through another repair-install with me and
then had me run CHKDSK /R (if I remember correctly) on the 80 GB HD
(jumpered as slave) from DOS.

CHKDSK supposedly repaired some sections making the drive smaller. It
now comes up as 31 GB.

But I can't open the drive. When I try, a small alert comes up saying
the drive is not formatted and would I like to do so.

So...

Is there anyway I can read the (previously) 80 GB drive?

If I need some data recovery software, which one should I try?

And finally, was it a mistake to run CHKDSK?

Your "new" motherboard might not be so new. It could be limited to the size
of hard drive it will recognize. A 32GB limitation is not unusual for some
older boards. What is the brand and model number of your motherboard?

BTW you mentioned that you ran CHKDSK from "DOS". Is the drive formatted as
FAT32?
--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


"Nehmo Sergheyev" wrote in message
...
Physical damage forced me to change mother boards. It was time anyway.
Prior to changing the m-boards but after the damage incident, the old
m-board worked for a short time without the keyboard or mouse
functioning; however, Windows XP came up and I saw the desktop. This
indicates the hard drive, an 80 GB Western Digital, was working at least
at that time and at least sufficiently to provide the Windows XP
desktop.

I installed a new m-board but soon found couldn't boot Windows XP off
the 80 GB HD. I happened to have a 15 GB HD on the shelf which also had
WinXP on it. I hooked that up, but still I couldn't boot XP.

I repair-installed XP (not from the recovery counsel) on the 15 GB HD,
and now I have a working XP machine with that HD, but, of course, all my
data is on the 80 GB.

I disconnected the 15 GB HD and tried the repair-install on the 80 GB
HD, but when the install completed, and I tired to boot, I got the error
screen saying I should check for viruses, unhook any new HDs, and run
CHKDSK.

I called MS, and the guy ran through another repair-install with me and
then had me run CHKDSK /R (if I remember correctly) on the 80 GB HD
(jumpered as slave) from DOS.

CHKDSK supposedly repaired some sections making the drive smaller. It
now comes up as 31 GB.

But I can't open the drive. When I try, a small alert comes up saying
the drive is not formatted and would I like to do so.

So...

Is there anyway I can read the (previously) 80 GB drive?

If I need some data recovery software, which one should I try?

And finally, was it a mistake to run CHKDSK?


--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

- Harry Ohrn -
Your "new" motherboard might not be so new. It could be limited to the
size
of hard drive it will recognize. A 32GB limitation is not unusual for
some
older boards. What is the brand and model number of your motherboard?

- Nehmo -
Shuttle AN35N Ultra V1.1 .
http://www.shuttle.com/hq/product/ma..._m.asp?M_id=49
It accepts an 80 GB HD.

- Harry Ohrn -
BTW you mentioned that you ran CHKDSK from "DOS". Is the drive
formatted as
FAT32?

- Nehmo -
The CHKDSK switch I used was /f, which fixes errors on the HD. (I gave
the an incorrect switch before.)
http://www.computerhope.com/chkdskh.htm

The drive had NTFS formatting.

Currently, I see the dirve in Computer Management as 31.5 GB Healthy but
unformatted. I have it jumpered as slave.


--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

"Harry Ohrn" wrote in message =
...
Your "new" motherboard might not be so new. It could be limited to the =
size=20
of hard drive it will recognize. A 32GB limitation is not unusual for =
some=20
older boards. What is the brand and model number of your motherboard?
=20
BTW you mentioned that you ran CHKDSK from "DOS". Is the drive =
formatted as=20
FAT32?

You dumb =A2=FCnt! How in the world can one get into DOS when there is =
none in XP. Even if he had the partition formatted in FAT32, and used a =
98/ME bootdisk to get there (which I am giving you the benefit that you =
got this basic element correct), there is no CHKDSK command line in it. =
How in the f=FC=A2k you got the MVP status is beyond me!

"Nehmo Sergheyev" wrote in message
...

- Harry Ohrn -
Your "new" motherboard might not be so new. It could be limited to the
size
of hard drive it will recognize. A 32GB limitation is not unusual for
some
older boards. What is the brand and model number of your motherboard?

- Nehmo -
Shuttle AN35N Ultra V1.1 .
http://www.shuttle.com/hq/product/ma..._m.asp?M_id=49
It accepts an 80 GB HD.

- Harry Ohrn -
BTW you mentioned that you ran CHKDSK from "DOS". Is the drive
formatted as
FAT32?

- Nehmo -
The CHKDSK switch I used was /f, which fixes errors on the HD. (I gave
the an incorrect switch before.)
http://www.computerhope.com/chkdskh.htm

The drive had NTFS formatting.

Currently, I see the dirve in Computer Management as 31.5 GB Healthy but
unformatted. I have it jumpered as slave.


--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

Are you certain it is jumpered correctly? Some large hard drives have a
capacity limiter jumper setting so they can be used with older boards. I do
not know if that is true for your drive but if the jumper is set incorrectly
that could be one reason why the size is not being properly displayed.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

You will need decent recovery software. Some of it can be quite expensive.
One of the best tools I've used is Disk Commander from Winternals
http://www.winternals.com/products/r...pid=ap#diskcom
however it is definitely in the higher end price range.



--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


"Nehmo Sergheyev" wrote in message
...
- Harry Ohrn -
Are you certain it is jumpered correctly? Some large hard drives have
a
capacity limiter jumper setting so they can be used with older boards.
I do
not know if that is true for your drive but if the jumper is set
incorrectly
that could be one reason why the size is not being properly displayed.

- Nehmo -
After I send this post, I'll physically remove it and put the jumpers
off and then back on to make sure of the contacts. But if Western
Digital's literature is correct, then I have the drive correctly
jumpered as slave - 1&2 connected + 3&4 connected, both jumpers next to
the power connector.

The size of the drive showed up as reduced after I ran CHKDSK /F. While
I was running that, BTW, CHKDSK correctly listed the name of the drive
and it's size. Now I can't even get the name.

Since the drive is now listed as healthy in Computer Management, I
believe if I formatted the drive now, it would be usable at the reduced
size. But that's relatively not important. I want to retrieve the data.


--
*********************
* Nehmo Sergheyev *
*********************

Crusty "Old B@stard" wrote:

For your information, chkdsk certainly DOES exist in Win98, if you use F8
and boot to the command prompt.

So, in addition to having a foul mouth, you are also quite stupid!

Also exists in XP and will quite happily check an NTFS disk. But if one is
being obnoxiously pedantic, then one would insist that it's running from a
"command prompt" rather than from "DOS".

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Crusty "Old B@stard" wrote:

For your information, chkdsk certainly DOES exist in Win98, if you use F8
and boot to the command prompt.

So, in addition to having a foul mouth, you are also quite stupid!

Also exists in XP and will quite happily check an NTFS disk. But if one is
being obnoxiously pedantic, then one would insist that it's running from a
"command prompt" rather than from "DOS".

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Crusty "Old B@stard" wrote:

For your information, chkdsk certainly DOES exist in Win98, if you use F8
and boot to the command prompt.

So, in addition to having a foul mouth, you are also quite stupid!

Also exists in XP and will quite happily check an NTFS disk. But if one is
being obnoxiously pedantic, then one would insist that it's running from a
"command prompt" rather than from "DOS".

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Crusty "Old B@stard" wrote:

For your information, chkdsk certainly DOES exist in Win98, if you use F8
and boot to the command prompt.

So, in addition to having a foul mouth, you are also quite stupid!

Also exists in XP and will quite happily check an NTFS disk. But if one is
being obnoxiously pedantic, then one would insist that it's running from a
"command prompt" rather than from "DOS".

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

"jazz" wrote in message
... a bunch of crap ... OP was not
that smart - MS Support was stupid - and Jazz finishes it off.

- Do NOT write to the victim disk at all, no more checkdisks or whatever.
- Get some read-only data recovery software (demo versions intially) and
have it scan the victim disk.
- If it doesn't find the data, simply try another product (again, a demo
intially). All products have their strenghts and weaknesses. Someone may
recommend product X because it helped this person out in *one specific
scenario* and another person may recommend product Y for the same reason.
You need to find the product that helps in *your case* and you can only find
it by simply trying.

--
Joep

"jazz" wrote in message
... a bunch of crap ... OP was not
that smart - MS Support was stupid - and Jazz finishes it off.

- Do NOT write to the victim disk at all, no more checkdisks or whatever.
- Get some read-only data recovery software (demo versions intially) and
have it scan the victim disk.
- If it doesn't find the data, simply try another product (again, a demo
intially). All products have their strenghts and weaknesses. Someone may
recommend product X because it helped this person out in *one specific
scenario* and another person may recommend product Y for the same reason.
You need to find the product that helps in *your case* and you can only find
it by simply trying.

--
Joep