4 GB hard drive won't show in WinExplorer

[Guest]

I'm trying to grab data off an older hard drive that came off a PII/mmx PC,
running Win98.

I've tried to install the hd in a newer Dell running WinXP home (SP2). The
disk shows up under My Computer\Manage\Storage\Disk Management as Basic, 4.01
GB, Online, FAT 32, Healthy (Active). No drive letter is assigned.

Right-clicking the drive only allows Delete partition/Help options, all
others are greyed-out.

Any suggestions how to bring this puppy back to life? I'm thinking,
"Something about Mary" about now....

 

[Jetro]

You can try a lot of things:

Ensure the BIOS doesn't protect a Boot sector.
If the disk doesn't properly support CS mode, connect it as Master or Slave.
Use 40-wire flat cable.
Rescan the disks or Refresh: read Help how to do it right.
Uninstall the disk from Device Manager, ensure it disappeared from
HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, otherwise edit it manually, and reboot (you can
combine it with Rescan).
Rewrite MBR on that disk.
Copy the data over a wire, CD/DVD, or floppy )

 

[Guest]

I finally hammered out a workaround.

SOLUTION:

Set up old WD drive as master on new PC, boot up - DISABLE GoBack!!! Jumper
set to cable select.

Boot into Safe Mode.

Uninstall all virus software, firewall software, spyware software (reboot as
necessary)

(suggestion from another source, but not taken here) Delete pagefile.

Shut down.

Reinstall newer PC drive(s - I have two), put older drive as master with
jumper still at cable select on secondary cable (in place of CD drives).

Drive shows up fine.

 

[Sharon F]

DISABLE GoBack!!!

::nods head in agreement::
Many, many Win98 systems shipped with GoBack in place. This is not an
uncommon problem to run into when trying to pull data or cannibalizing the
old drives for extra storage space.

 

[Guest]

Uninstalling GoBack is the key due to it installing itself in the MBR of the
drive. The MBR would have been unreadable to another OS, although it would
detect the drive was there. Good thinking.

 

[Jetro]

GoBack modifies MBR and translates partition structure. MBR is still
readable but not writable and partition content is unavailable, if GoBack
wasn't disabled before the disk move.