XP Pro setup destroys 2nd hard disk data?!?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JoeSpareBedroom
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J

JoeSpareBedroom

Luckily, I had a backup of my 2nd hard disk. Here's the situation:

Did a clean XP Pro install on a machine which previously had XP Pro, and two
hard disks, C: & E:. Did this by reformatting drive C: using a boot floppy,
then restarting machine with XP CD in place and continuing as normal. I
absolutely, positively did NOT reformat 2nd HD, nor did I allow SETUP do
fiddle with it. Now, when I go into My Computer, the 2nd HD exists, but
appears to contain no data except for a folder called "System Volume
Information".

If it's at all relevant, C: drive is set up with NTFS file system. I do
*not* know if this was previously the case with the 2nd HD. Does XP expect
to see both disks set up with the same file system?

Although I can restore all files from my backup, I'd still like to know
what's going on here. No other steps have been taken so far. Is it possible
the files are still there, but Windows simply isn't seeing them for some
reason? I've used Explorer's options thing to show all files & folders, even
hidden ones.
 
Start over again.
Disconnect any external hardware.
Set your bios to boot the CD drive before the hard drive.
Boot with the XP CD in place and delete partitions on the 1st hard drive.
create new partitions and install XP using the NTFS file format.
All the tools necessary are there on the CD.
Your second hard drive can be used after installing XP.

--
Jerry

One thing money can't buy,
The wagging tail of a dog


JoeSpareBedroom said:
Luckily, I had a backup of my 2nd hard disk. Here's the situation:

Did a clean XP Pro install on a machine which previously had XP Pro, and
two hard disks, C: & E:. Did this by reformatting drive C: using a boot
floppy,
Click to expand...
<Snip>
 
Jerry, are you suggesting that the data is actually on drive #2, but Windows
simply isn't seeing it? And, disconnect that drive before starting over?
 
If this works, I'm going to find a way to e-mail you 3 cases of your
favorite beer. Put glass in CD drawer. Press
CTRL-LeftShift-ALT-SpaceBar-PgUp-Q-F11 to dispense beer....

But, one last question: After the new install, with one hard drive, when
everything is happiness and there's a rainbow over the computer and birds
flitting about, I'll shut down, plug the 2nd HD in, and then....(I hate
surprises), should I see the "new hardware found" routine, or something more
Adams Family-ish?
 
Joe, do not boot with the 98 boot disk,
Watch the screen closely and it will tell you to press any key to boot from
the CD drive.
 
Right. I'm done with the floppy. That was used only to wipe the HD, and I
didn't realize that the XP install routine included that function.
 
There is probably an file ownership issue going on here. With the format of the C you have created
a new instance of Windows with different id numbers for the user. The files on the other belong to
the original users id so you don't have permission to see them. Do a Google search for taking
ownership of files and see if that helps you.
 
David, how do you take ownership of folders that are invisible? I've tried
to access folders I didn't have access to, and gotten a "get outta here"
message, but these...I can't even see them!
 
To tell if there is really stuff on the drive I think you have to start in safe mode to change
ownership properties. That's why I said to do the Google search, I don't have the exact steps here
and it is only a guess since you said you were sure you didn't format drive.
 
Jerry:
The steps you suggested did not work. Any other thoughts? The only other
thing I've done is view the 2nd drive using an undelete utility. It *saw*
the files in question, but I haven't actually tried restoring them.
 
Hmmmm,
Is the drive recognized in your BIOS ?
If you right click My Computer and select Manage,
then select disk management and expand to full screen,
can you see the drive? What letter is the drive ?
Is it described as healthy ?
 
If you can see the drive and the assigned letter,
back out to the desktop, then on the Start-Run line type CMD,
then type the letter of the drive, D: (example) and hit enter,
Then type DIR to see what is listed on the drive.
 
I have also seen this kind of issue when there are 2 XP drives in the
computer at the same time as each other. Occasionally I have had to
restore my system from a backup that is a few days old. Once restored,
I want to bring over from the abandoned disk any files that are
new/updated since the backup. Booting with 2 XP disks in there seems
to screw up the main boot disk (the one that the BIOS is set to boot
first from). I am guessing that Windows is confused as to which files
to use from which disk during boot. This does not happen with Windows
2000.
So I have 2 solutions:
1. Boot W2K on a different computer with my old XP system (the one
whose new files I want to pull over to the restored system) as a 2nd
drive and restore those files over the network to my new XP system.
2. Boot W2K with both XP drives present as 2nd and 3rd drives. The
files can then be restored locally which is a bit quicker.
I never managed to get to the bottom of this, but as I have a
methodology that works, I use it.
 
JohnG said:
I have also seen this kind of issue when there are 2 XP drives in the
computer at the same time as each other. Occasionally I have had to
restore my system from a backup that is a few days old. Once restored,
I want to bring over from the abandoned disk any files that are
new/updated since the backup. Booting with 2 XP disks in there seems
to screw up the main boot disk (the one that the BIOS is set to boot
first from). I am guessing that Windows is confused as to which files
to use from which disk during boot. This does not happen with Windows
2000.
So I have 2 solutions:
1. Boot W2K on a different computer with my old XP system (the one
whose new files I want to pull over to the restored system) as a 2nd
drive and restore those files over the network to my new XP system.
2. Boot W2K with both XP drives present as 2nd and 3rd drives. The
files can then be restored locally which is a bit quicker.
I never managed to get to the bottom of this, but as I have a
methodology that works, I use it.
Click to expand...

Interesting theory, and it might apply here. Disk #2 was originally #1, and
had the entire XP OS on it. The slob who worked on this machine left litter
all over the place, which is one of the reasons the machine's being washed
and waxed now.
 
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