Partitions on IDE drive disappearing in Windows XP

[Galefury]

I asked a few people and this problem doesn't seem to be that uncommon. None of them could help me, though. I looked through the first 10 pages and didn't find a topic about it, though.

Long story short: After switching out an IDE drive (primary slave) for a different one and then switching back Windows doesn't recognize my partitions anymore. I checked with Knoppix, and it's all there, I can even access the files. The Windows storage manager shows the drive as unformatted, though, and doesn't let me access my data. I'm using Windows XP SP2. I would like to get my files off that drive, without having to use Knoppix for it, because Knoppix doesn't support NTFS properly.
All drives are properly detected in the BIOS, all options on Auto.

Long story long: I have a Samsung SP1614N with 160 GB. It worked fine for over a year now (primary slave, with a 120 GB Samsung drive as primary master and boot drive), no problems at all. Now I switched it out for a new drive (Samsung SP2514N 250 GB) to replace the primary drive to copy some data to the new drive, partitioned it with the Windows GUI, formated it and put some data on it. Then I plugged the new drive in as primary master, and placed the drive that isn't working now as primary slave again. I tried to install XP SP2 on the new drive, the install drive display showed both drives as unformattet. I overwrote the partitions on the new drive and tried to install XP SP2 there. It didn't work. I then tried installing XP without any service packs worked in, which worked. It showed my drives as too small, though, and already showed the non-working one as unformatted. So I first checked if my files were still there with Knoppix (everything fine), then overwrote that installation with the SP2 disc by using Repair in the installation. That resulted in a working XP SP2 install (showing the right disc sizes), but Windows still doesn't show my files. Knoppix does, though.
A solution would be formatting the remainder of the new drive as FAT32, moving my files there with Knoppix, then reformatting the non-working drive as NTFS and moving my files back there, then formatting the new drive with NTFS again. This would take quite a while with 100+ GB of data, though, so I'm reluctant to do it. Is there some way to make Windows detect my partitions again?

Things I tried:
- Plugging the drive out, starting and shutting down Windows, plugging it back in. No change.
- Plugging my optical drives out and making the non-working drive secondary master. No change.
- Putting back the old disc that always showed the partitions and data, actually I made them with that installation. No change, but at least its better to work with than the fresh install...
- Installing the Partition Magic 8 trial version to check if it detects the partitions and maybe move my files off them with it. PM doesn't start, error code 90: EZ-drive corrupt on disc 1, then failure to initialize engine. I don't even know what EZ-drive is... The drive is making weird noises though, which is the reason why I'm wanting to replace it.

As the drive is working perfectly in Knoppix (except for being NTFS, which is pretty much read-only in Knoppix) I don't think I got a hardware failure. Any suggestions?

 

[neodorian]

I had the same thing happen last winter but that time I had more luck with Paragon partition manager. This time (today) I had the same thing happen and it's no help. This time it went down like this:

I have a 40gb primary master that has winxp on it, a 40gb secondary master, and a 120gb which is I think a secondary slave but might be primary slave. Either way, the 120gb had all of my music and video and other data on it. I used to have it divided into 2 partitions but recently used Paragon to combine it into one. Windows was recognizing it as a single drive after that. Today, when I reinstalled winxp on the 40gb drive, I noticed it listed the 120gb as still 2 drives as if the partitions were still there. Since I wasn't doing anything with that drive, however, I left it alone and put a new windows on the primary 40gb drive. Now windows is on but the 120gb drive shows up as unformatted with some funky partiton info in Paragon. I know my data is still there. Just trying to figure the best way to get it off or repair the partitions so I don't lose all of my ripped cds and photo albums.

 

[Galefury]

I put my HD into my brother's PC, booted Knoppix and transferred my files via LAN. It took long, but worked.

 

[neodorian]

Cool. I'm at work now, but I had just downloaded knoppix before I left. Can you boot to knoppix on the same pc and access the files and transfer them to a hard drive on the same machine or do you have to do it over the LAN? I can do it that way but like you said, kinda a pain. What's the NTFS read/write capability on knoppix like?

 

[Galefury]

I'm not quite sure, didn't check myself. A friend told me it can read and change files, but not make new ones. Which was exactly why I did it via LAN. Maybe look somewhere else though, I'm not sure if that info is up to date.