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?
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?