I need to know if I can partition a drive w/ info on it and not lose it ...

[Roadmeat]

Or some other solution to this issue.. please help!!


Here's the problem... I have a 2nd drive that won't identify, I've done

everything, changed jumpers, cable position, bought an external drive
enclosure.. same issue across the board. The 2nd drive (which has
everything in this world I need) won't read since I installed windows
on the 1st one. I picked up something somewhere that maybe it needed to

be re partitioned.. so thats why I asked this.. but I can't back it
up.. its just not there.

Here's what it does:


The main WD drive is listed as basic, has a new xp home version on it
and is the master.


This 2nd Maxtor drive is listed as dynamic and foreign, its in disk
manager and device manager but doesn't have that white space in disk
manager showing its good. This 2nd drive did this once in the past and
a friend said it had to be manually mapped becuase it won't identify..
can't figure out what that means... Its an old maxtor and I've tried
their utilities and drives.. won't help. I know how to map a drive
usually but this isn't even found in that option. What all the
utilities seem to be agreeing on is that this drive is there physically

but not logically.

 

[Brian A.]

If you have Windows on the 2nd drive.
Disconnect the 1st drive that boots.
Connect the 2nd drive that you need your info off of.
Set the jumper as Single or Master.
Boot the machine.

You do not want to attempt any type of diskpart (fdisk of xp) or format as you
will loose everything on the drive.
It may be possible to use the Recovery Console to get at the contents of the
drive so you can copy off the important data/files you need.
Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314058

How to enable an administrator to log on automatically in Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312149

How to install the Windows Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;216417

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654

How to remove Windows Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555032

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html



--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375