made C->D, fresh XP pro install, now D missing partition

[Guest]

I bought a bigger hard drive and wanted to make it C, and make the old C to
D. I also wanted a fresh XP pro install, so I just moved jumpers and did a
fresh install on the new C.

Now, when I run XP, there is no D in My Computer. I checked at the BIOS
level, and it all shows fine. So I tried taking the new C out, changing
jumpers, and putting things back the way they were (that is making D back
into C). It wouldn't boot, said I was missing a file. I tried to use the XP
setup disk to fix the problem, but it looks like the partition is gone! Is
there a way to recover the data (I just want Favorites, My Documents and a
few others)? I believe that if I use the setup disk to put the partition
back, the data will all be destroyed. Any third party partition software
that can help?

Thanks

 

[Mcspec]

I bought a bigger hard drive and wanted to make it C, and make the old C to
D. I also wanted a fresh XP pro install, so I just moved jumpers and did a
fresh install on the new C.

Now, when I run XP, there is no D in My Computer. I checked at the BIOS
level, and it all shows fine. So I tried taking the new C out, changing
jumpers, and putting things back the way they were (that is making D back
into C). It wouldn't boot, said I was missing a file. I tried to use the XP
setup disk to fix the problem, but it looks like the partition is gone! Is
there a way to recover the data (I just want Favorites, My Documents and a
few others)? I believe that if I use the setup disk to put the partition
back, the data will all be destroyed. Any third party partition software
that can help?

Thanks

"so I just moved jumpers and did a fresh install on the new C."

I will assume you meant the master slave setting on the drives.

OK where to start. You should take your brand new drive and just
install that in the PC. Then boot from the XP OS CD by making sure in
the BIOS boot from CD is before anything else in the boot order. When
windows starts loading delete any partitions on the drive and let it
create a brand new partition. (Was your old drive NTFS or FAT32?) You
cannot mix and match parition types. You want to setup windows on
whatever format your old drive was in. When Windows is up and happy
then shut down your computer and install the 2nd drive. If it is on
the save chain as the previous one make sure the 2nd drive is the
slave. Now should be able to see everything on that old drive and life
should be good.

If you have a friend with an external enclosure that might be a quick
way to get your data off of the old drive.

C and D are assignmend by windows, physically moving the drives is not
a way to reorder them because your computer already believe that C:
Windows/Sys32 is where to look when booting. If you swap drives you
confuse the PC. Once you start installing multiple OS's on different
drives its time to let Windows reformat them.

Good luck

 

[Kelly]

Did you check your double cables?

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

 

[Guest]

Both drives are NTFS.

The new drive is already up and running fine.

I didn't physically change locations of the drive, or the cableing, just the
jumpers.

Same OS on both drives, I just wanted a fresh install (vs. using the
transfer software that came with the hard drive to copy everything exactly
onto the new hard drive).

The big question is, where did the partition go? Did XP see that D had XP
on it, so in it's attempts to prevent piracy delete the partition? Am I
looking at something wrong. Or, have I set something up wrong which is
preventing me from seeing the partition. When I couldn't see the D drive (in
XP, the BIOS saw it accurately), I made it back into C (again using jumpers
to change it from slave to master, and just unplugging the new drive) and
tried to boot from it. It wouldn't boot, said it was missing a file. So, I
booted from the XP disk, and let it get to the point where it asks about
partitions. It showed the drive, but with no partition. I did not partition
it at that time, I assumed this would destroy my data. Is the partition
really gone, or is the XP setup wrong?

 

[Guest]

Both drives are on a single cable, the other cable has a CD drive and a DVD
drive. I changed the jumpers from master to slave.

 

[Guest]

I ran diskmgmt.msc, and it shows the dirve. It shows the size correctly but
says it's not formated. I went to My Computer, and it shows up there (as D:,
like it should), but if I double click on it, windows tells me that it isn't
formated, and asks if I want to format it. I clicked No, but is there a way
to get this data? Why would doing a fresh install on a new drive, and taking
the old one and making it a slave wipe out the formating? Is windows just
confused?

 

[RScotti]

I hope I am not interfering but I have a HP Desktop and it has a NTFS C:\ and a FAT32 for
D:\ a Recovery partition.
I wanted to change this to NTFS but HP said if I do I will lose the Recovery so I couldn't
do it.

(Was your old drive NTFS or FAT32?) You
cannot mix and match parition types.

Have a good day!
Rich Scotti

 

[Andy]

I ran diskmgmt.msc, and it shows the dirve. It shows the size correctly but
says it's not formated. I went to My Computer, and it shows up there (as D:,
like it should), but if I double click on it, windows tells me that it isn't
formated, and asks if I want to format it. I clicked No, but is there a way
to get this data?

You probably will have to use a file recovery program to retrieve the
files.

Why would doing a fresh install on a new drive, and taking
the old one and making it a slave wipe out the formating?

It shouldn't.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I hope I am not interfering but I have a HP Desktop and it has a NTFS
C:\ and a FAT32 for D:\ a Recovery partition.
I wanted to change this to NTFS but HP said if I do I will lose the
Recovery so I couldn't do it.

HP is very likely right. Don't fool around with their recovery partition.

Besides there's no need to do this. The statement below "You cannot mix and
match partition types" is absolutely false. There is no problem at all doing
this.

 

[Guest]

If anyone has any thoughts, or If anyone else has this problem, it was
suggested (on another forum) that the problem could be Norton GoBack
(included in Norton System Works) which modifies partition information in a
propriatary form. I do in fact have GoBack on this drive and so I am working
to fix that problem.

Anyone have any experience here? I made the problem drive the only dirve
and attempted to boot from it. It gave me the error message "Error Loading
Operating System". Thoughts/experiences?

Steve

 

[POP]

In

If anyone has any thoughts, or If anyone else has this problem,
it
was suggested (on another forum) that the problem could be
Norton
GoBack (included in Norton System Works) which modifies
partition
information in a propriatary form. I do in fact have GoBack on
this
drive and so I am working to fix that problem.

Anyone have any experience here? I made the problem drive the
only
dirve and attempted to boot from it. It gave me the error
message
"Error Loading Operating System". Thoughts/experiences?

Steve

I suspect the install is trashed somehow or it's looking in the
wrong place fo the os. Goback does not modify the partition;
that was bad info. It does create its own gobackio.bin where it
stores all the change information.

Pop