Please Help

[JVC]

Originally posted by cwctv@7 December 2003 - 18:02
What I would do would set the 120 to master disconnect the 40 at the power pull it out for now,get a bootdisk http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm if you want one put the floppy in and boot to dos type fdisk then see if the drive is there with all parts' if it is check fat while there.
Esc back to A:\ now type dir/w c: thats 1 gap space and see what comes up if the drive is there you should see your files.
If all is well then yes do what the other guy said to do get the program and if 20gig is enough for you just go ahead with it , but like he said read the thing as you go.

I am not the most computer savvy person but i will give it a go.Thanks for all your help.

[cwctv]

Just copy and paste this whole or what you want from the topic then print it before you start, if the drive is still there with all files put the lot back together as was and start I would get the file you need while you have internet access.

Have a read about dos here if you want.
http://www.oldos.org/howto.php

[lynx]

Since plugging your 120GB drive back in, have you gone back to bios setup and redetected the drive? If not, it could well be set at the 32GB default.

Alternatively, and I think this is more likely, you need some software such as Maxblast (depends on hd manufacturer) to upgrade the bios to recognise drives of that size. This software has to be installed on the BOOT drive, in other words on your 40GB drive. If you've cleaned your 40GB drive you've probably removed this software.

If it doesn't recognise the size of your drive correctly it won't see the partitions on there.

[JVC]

Originally posted by lynx@7 December 2003 - 19:26
Since plugging your 120GB drive back in, have you gone back to bios setup and redetected the drive? If not, it could well be set at the 32GB default.

Alternatively, and I think this is more likely, you need some software such as Maxblast (depends on hd manufacturer) to upgrade the bios to recognise drives of that size. This software has to be installed on the BOOT drive, in other words on your 40GB drive. If you've cleaned your 40GB drive you've probably removed this software.

If it doesn't recognise the size of your drive correctly it won't see the partitions on there.

I never unplugged my 120 gig drive.

My hd is a Seagate 7200 8mb cache.

Just tried to enter BIOS on startup and for some reason i can't.It says hold delete but i do this and it just starts up normally.My motherboard is a ECS Elite Group K7VMM+...going to try and find out why i can't enter BIOS.

[Robert00000]

My friend had a similar problem before, since that time he has not touched partition magic again.

Partition magic is a very useful software (i use it all the time), but you need to know what you're doing. Certainly dont ever cross the cylinder boundry when making changes to partitions

I want to ask you some silly questions.

1) Did you have Boot Magic installed before you reformated?
2) How did you re-format, by using windows cd or partition magic or both?

[tesco]

i have the same motherboard and u cant access the bios after restarting or pressing reset.

you must shutdown teh computer then turn it on then press delete and go into teh bios.

[JVC]

Originally posted by Robert00000@8 December 2003 - 01:56
My friend had a similar problem before, since that time he has not touched partition magic again.

Partition magic is a very useful software (i use it all the time), but you need to know what you're doing. Certainly dont ever cross the cylinder boundry when making changes to partitions

I want to ask you some silly questions.

1) Did you have Boot Magic installed before you reformated?
2) How did you re-format, by using windows cd or partition magic or both?

I was reading on another forum that a few people have had bad experiences with Partition Magic,i am going to try Partition Expert instead.I did not have boot magic installed and used the XP cd to format my 40 gig.



ROSSCO_2003 Posted on 8 December 2003 - 02:28
i have the same motherboard and u cant access the bios after restarting or pressing reset.

you must shutdown teh computer then turn it on then press delete and go into teh bios.

Thanks for that tip i am very grateful to you.




I have examined the drive using a drive mapper and viewed it in hex and there is data on the 120 gig drive,it is in RAW format though.More research needed.

[Robert00000]

The obvious fact is you have deleted the references to the files and perhaps to the partitions on the 120gig drive, thats why you cannot access it.

This may be the result of bad partitioning, you should not use partitioning software casually, because it can cause problems with your system. I dont know why you had so many partitions, you could have put different types of files in to different folders instead.

When i first used partitioning software i had to re-partition and re-format my drive 5 to 6 times because of the mess i made of it. Now i have a better understanding of the software and dont change the partitions anymore unless i really need to.

Your only option now is to try and recover the data by using some data recovery software.

[clocker]

JVC,

DiskInvestigator 1.3 should solve your problem.
And it's free.