External hard drive

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Guest

I had to reinstall xp and left my external hard drive plugged in while it
reinstalled. Now I am unable to access the hard drive, it is recognised in
device manager but I cant view any of the files on it. it says that there is
something wrong with the partition, that the partition needs to be created.
Is there anything i can do to sort this problem out before i end up losing
nearly 120gig of stuff. If I create a partition without formatting will this
enable me to access the files I had on the drive? Any advice greatly
appreciated.
 
I had to reinstall xp and left my external hard drive plugged in while it
reinstalled. Now I am unable to access the hard drive, it is recognised in
device manager but I cant view any of the files on it. it says that there is
something wrong with the partition, that the partition needs to be created.
Is there anything i can do to sort this problem out before i end up losing
nearly 120gig of stuff. If I create a partition without formatting will this
enable me to access the files I had on the drive? Any advice greatly
appreciated.
Click to expand...

You should be able to better access the disk drive by removing it from
the external enclosure and connecting it directly to the motherboard
IDE connector. Then run chkdsk on the drive, or if you want to reduce
risk, use a file recovery program first.
 
If I just plug it into the ide cable will I not still have the problem with
the partition? As I've said, windows recognises it but wants to create a
partition to use it. Will plugging it into the ide slot not still have the
same problem? Also can you suggest a file recovery program that is easy to
obtain and easy to use? I really don't want to have to format the drive until
I have exhausted every option, I don't want o have to start collecting all
the stuff I have on the drive again.
 
ad said:
If I just plug it into the ide cable will I not still have the problem
with the partition? As I've said, windows recognises it but wants to
create a partition to use it. Will plugging it into the ide slot not
still have the same problem? Also can you suggest a file recovery
program that is easy to obtain and easy to use? I really don't want to
have to format the drive until I have exhausted every option, I don't
want o have to start collecting all the stuff I have on the drive
again.
Click to expand...

Do not run Chkdsk on a drive that has data you want! If Chkdsk finds
file system errors, it will fix them whether or not this destroys the
data!

I would connect the drive either externally or internally and boot with
a rescue system such as Knoppix or a Bart's PE (both free but require
some skill to use). If Knoppix (for instance) sees the data, you will
be able to copy it off and then boot into Windows and format the drive.
Here is some information about using Knoppix for data retrieval:

An easy way to retrieve Windows files is to boot with Knoppix, a Linux
distro on a live cd. You will need a computer with two cd drives, one
of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to
hold your data. To get Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast
Internet connection and third-party burning software. Download the
Knoppix .iso from www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then
boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are
using the usb thumb drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to
get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then
click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the
window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead
of the traditional MS Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b
burning program to burn the files to cd/dvd-r's.

Malke
 
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