Help!

[tesco]

ffs everyone should be running 2 or more partitions it's just dumb not to. if ur windows installation screws up then u save all of ur downloads (games, music, movies, etc.)...

[Virtualbody1234]

Originally posted by lynx@9 August 2004 - 23:49
You have probably set the bios parameters differently from your friends original settings.

There are different options (LBA, CHS etc) and there give different disk layouts. It is possible that if you had changed the options you may have seen the original partition table, but I think that is unlikely now that you have partitioned it.

Exactly my thoughts. That's why I said:

Well if you partitioned it the data is gone.

[lynx]

Originally posted by Virtualbody1234+10 August 2004 - 16:49--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Virtualbody1234 @ 10 August 2004 - 16:49)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-lynx@9 August 2004 - 23:49
You have probably set the bios parameters differently from your friends original settings.

There are different options (LBA, CHS etc) and there give different disk layouts. It is possible that if you had changed the options you may have seen the original partition table, but I think that is unlikely now that you have partitioned it.

Exactly my thoughts. That&#39;s why I said:

Well if you partitioned it the data is gone.

[/b][/quote]
Yes, I know, but by explaining why, someone else may look at that and realise that their partitions may still be there if they change the bios parameters.

I felt that the cumulative consensus (not just your post) was tending to indicate that the data was already lost so he hadn&#39;t done any further damage by re-partitioning, and I doubt very much that that is the case.

[Virtualbody1234]

Originally posted by lynx+10 August 2004 - 10:33--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (lynx @ 10 August 2004 - 10:33)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by Virtualbody1234@10 August 2004 - 16:49
<!--QuoteBegin-lynx

@9 August 2004 - 23:49
You have probably set the bios parameters differently from your friends original settings.

There are different options (LBA, CHS etc) and there give different disk layouts. It is possible that if you had changed the options you may have seen the original partition table, but I think that is unlikely now that you have partitioned it.

Exactly my thoughts. That&#39;s why I said:

Well if you partitioned it the data is gone.

Yes, I know, but by explaining why, someone else may look at that and realise that their partitions may still be there if they change the bios parameters.

I felt that the cumulative consensus (not just your post) was tending to indicate that the data was already lost so he hadn&#39;t done any further damage by re-partitioning, and I doubt very much that that is the case. [/b][/quote]
Good point.

So if anyone else is reading this with a similar problem then go into the BIOS and change the drive configuration (#cyl, heads... or LBA, CHS etc). If the setting are put back to the same as the machine it came from then the data should be restored.

[firefox]

also if your friend had windows xp and his drive was formated to NTFS and you have windows 98 or ME trying to access it you will not be able to, you would have to have windows 2000 or windows xp

[J'Pol]

I do not understand why partitioning the hdd would lose the data on it. I have partitioned plenty of hdd with data on them (using partition magic) and never lost any data. Provided the partition size of the first partition is sufficient for all of the data. PM will only allow you to create new partitions with free space on the hdd.

If however you partitioned the hard drive in DOS then this would have been done using FDISK, which would definitely delete all data on the HDD. You would also have to format the logical and extended drives after this was done, before you could use them for anything. Including loading an operating system.

When fitting a new (or old) hdd it is simplest to do the following.

Attach it to it&#39;s own IDE as a master. If that is not possible then attach it to an existing device as a slave.

Enter the BIOS and tell it to automatically find all IDE devices. I just set it to detect them every time the PC starts, it only takes a few seconds more.

If you did this and the OS detected the drive, i.e. you could read it in My Computer or Explorer, but could not see any of the files on it then it seems most likely that the files were either using a different storage system (NTFS rather that FAT 32 or vice versa). Or the File Allocation Table was goosed already.