getting my winxp to recognize fat32

[Guest]

when freeing up space on one of my hard drives I deleted the windows folder
(I didn't think I needed it as it wasn't my primary drive) and then it was no
longer accessible on winxp. it was listed as RAW but everything was still
intact when I switched my primary drive to one that was windows 98, fat32,
and read the drive properly as fat32. I made my windows 98, fat32, into a
windowsXP, fat32. I thought that this would allow me to recognize the drive
so I could use the convert command in XP to change the fat32 to ntfs.
however it recognized it as a RAW drive (even though both were fat32) so
again I could not do anything with it. I can still access it with a form of
dos (non-windows dos) but I cannot run convert outside windows. the winxp cd
did not recognized it as RAW as well and it's been a while since I lost my
windows 98 cd. there seemed to be a similar problem but it was only listed
under windows 2000 (it said there was a boot table error so you have to
overwrite it with a backup...something like that) and I don't want to try it
unless I have to. I have 30 GB or so of files I don't want deleted, so I'd
really rather not format it or take any action that would lose those files.
Thank you for your time.

 

[D.Currie]

when freeing up space on one of my hard drives I deleted the windows
folder
(I didn't think I needed it as it wasn't my primary drive) and then it was
no
longer accessible on winxp. it was listed as RAW but everything was still
intact when I switched my primary drive to one that was windows 98, fat32,
and read the drive properly as fat32. I made my windows 98, fat32, into a
windowsXP, fat32. I thought that this would allow me to recognize the
drive
so I could use the convert command in XP to change the fat32 to ntfs.
however it recognized it as a RAW drive (even though both were fat32) so
again I could not do anything with it. I can still access it with a form
of
dos (non-windows dos) but I cannot run convert outside windows. the winxp
cd
did not recognized it as RAW as well and it's been a while since I lost my
windows 98 cd. there seemed to be a similar problem but it was only
listed
under windows 2000 (it said there was a boot table error so you have to
overwrite it with a backup...something like that) and I don't want to try
it
unless I have to. I have 30 GB or so of files I don't want deleted, so
I'd
really rather not format it or take any action that would lose those
files.
Thank you for your time.

You should have copied the files when you could access them through win98,
if that's what you were saying. It's not clear, really...

As far as converting from fat32 to ntfs, that shouldn't be necessary. XP can
read either. And if you attempt to change anything else on the drive, you're
just making it harder to recover data.

You might want to start looking at data recovery software. After that, run
some hard drive diagnostics and see if the drive itself is starting to go
bad.

 

[Admiral Q]

I'm glad you could make some type of heads or tails out of that, I read it
three times trying to comprehend what the OP was saying - after a while it
became "blah blah blah-blah blah..." ;-)

--
Star Fleet Admiral Q @ your service!
"Google is your Friend!"
www.google.com

***********************************************

 

[D.Currie]

Every now and then the crystal ball starts working again

 

[Guest]

my primary hard drive running windows XP with FAT32 file format sees my
secondary drive as RAW file format when it is a FAT32 file format. of the
programs I can run on a RAW file system it says the drive is working
properly. if it is possible a program to convert from FAT32 to NTFS in DOS
would be ideal. since it read the drive as RAW, data recovery tools will do
the same (which I have tested). like I said before there seems to be a
similar problem listed under windows 2000:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;247575
in case link is bad the title of topic is (search microsoft.com for):
Chkdsk Does Not Use Backup Boot Sector to Fix Corrupted FAT32 Boot Sector

 

[D.Currie]

You keep saying that XP sees it as raw, but it *is* fat32 -- so you must
have some program or other os installed that's seeing it as fat32. So just
use that os or utility or whatever to copy the files you need.

If the hard drive is already having problems with the partition, trying to
change it to ntfs from whatever it is now -- whether it's fat32 or raw -- is
probably going to make the data less retrievable rather than more so.
However, if that's the route you want to take, you could try something like
partition magic.

Now let's ask some questions inline and see if you can clarify this a bit...

my primary hard drive running windows XP with FAT32 file format sees my
secondary drive as RAW file format when it is a FAT32 file format.

What are you using to verify that the drive is still fat32?


of the

programs I can run on a RAW file system it says the drive is working
properly.

What programs? Do they just test the drive's hardware funtions, or do they
test the partitions/data as well?

if it is possible a program to convert from FAT32 to NTFS in DOS

I don't know of any, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Considering
that you're having problems reading the drive in XP, I sure wouldn't try
converting the file format; you could just scramble things worse. But that's
your choice, for sure. As I said, partition magic might do the conversion,
but that doesn't mean the data would be readable afterward.

would be ideal. since it read the drive as RAW,

"It" read the drive as raw? What is IT? And you never said what's reading
the drive as fat32, either.

data recovery tools will do

the same (which I have tested).

Which data recovery tools? There are plenty. I've had some luck getting data
off of drives that XP couldn't read, so even if XP reads the drive as raw,
it doesn't mean that a data recovery program couldn't extract the data.


like I said before there seems to be a

similar problem listed under windows 2000:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;247575
in case link is bad the title of topic is (search microsoft.com for):
Chkdsk Does Not Use Backup Boot Sector to Fix Corrupted FAT32 Boot Sector

Did your error occur this way? Did you try the fix?