Removable HDD question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lydokane
  • Start date Start date
L

Lydokane

I am running Windows XP Pro. My original setup was:

Primary Master: 200 GB Magnetic Data Technologies (C:)
Primary Slave: 120 GB Western Digital hard drive in a removeable caddy (E:)

Secondary Master: Memorex DVD Burner (D:)
Secondary Slave: Pioneer DVD Burner (F:)

The 200 GB Magnetic Data Technologies had my operating system and files on it. The 120 GB WD was a backup drive that has about 115 GB of MP3 files and some back up data on it.

The 200 Gig drive took a dump and I replaced it with a Seagate 80 GB drive and reinstalled Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all the necessary updates and hotfixes.

Before I did the format/install on the Seagate I removed the WD 120 GB and set it aside. I got Windows up and running then I put the 120 back in the caddy so that I could retrieve some of my backed up data.

The drive is a removable drive that goes into a caddy and the caddy slides into a bay that is plugged into the PC as though it were a Primary Slave. To put the drive in I have to power down then install the drive and reboot. When the system rebooted I opened the Windows Explorer and I could see my drive. The volume label was MP3 Jukebox (E:). I started to navigate to where my backup data was when the computer 'found new hardware' and the Explorer closed down. The system installed the 'new hardware' and told me so. I reopened the explorer and my MP3 Jukebox (E:) was no longer there. All I had was an Local Disk (F:) drive (as well as the two DVD burners). When I clicked on the F: drive in the tree in the left pane of the explorer, I was told that 'The disk in drive F is not formated. Do you want to format it now?' I clicked no. Now I can't get into the drive. I went to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management and changed the drive letter to E: but I still ca
Is there any way to get to my files. The drive has NOT been formated. All the files should be there... right? What can I do?

Thanks,

-Lydokane-
 
The drive is a removable drive that goes into a caddy and the caddy slides into a bay that is plugged into the PC as though it were a Primary Slave. To put the drive in I have to power down then install the drive and reboot. When the system rebooted I opened the Windows Explorer and I could see my drive. The volume label was MP3 Jukebox (E:). I started to navigate to where my backup data was when the computer 'found new hardware' and the Explorer closed down. The system installed the 'new hardware' and told me so. I reopened the explorer and my MP3 Jukebox (E:) was no longer there. All I had was an Local Disk (F:) drive (as well as the two DVD burners). When I clicked on the F: drive in the tree in the left pane of the explorer, I was told that 'The disk in drive F is not formated. Do you want to format it now?' I clicked no. Now I can't get into the drive. I went to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management and changed the drive letter to E: but I still ca
Is there any way to get to my files. The drive has NOT been formated. All the files should be there... right? What can I do?
Click to expand...

I have run into this a couple of times. It's caused by the fact that
Windows assigns a so-called "signature" to the device and keeps the
information in a Registry entry. When you changed the configuration,
Windows got confused and screw things up.

I have removable bays for both my boot disk and my backup disk, so I
am able to put the backup disk in the boot bay. Then I am able to use
Win98 fdisk /mbr to step on 4 digits of the signature.

This works because that version has a bug. You are going to have to
put your backup disk in the boot position because this procedure only
works reliably for the boot disk, so I am told.

Next you boot on your regular boot disk and do two things:

1) Go to Add/Remove Hardware and uninstall all the (hidden) driver(s)
associated with the backup disk.

2) Go into the Registry to

HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

and delete all the entries associated with hard disks. The others will
say "DosDevices" so leave them alone.

Now put the backup disk in the removable bay and reboot. Let Windows
have enough time to discover that it has no information about the
backup disk, in which case it will tell you to reboot. But wait until
Task Manager shows that the boot procedure is completed - don't reboot
while the machine is trying to complete the prior boot procedure.

You may have to do this reboot twice so Windows can first install the
driver and then register the drive.

If this does not work, let us know. Take careful notes of every detail
along the way.
 
Back
Top