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.
 
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,
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.
Click to expand...

The error was on your end.
A win9x boot floppy would NOT see an NTFS partition...
it would only see the fat32 partition...
so when you thought you were formatting your XP drive
you really formatted the data drive...

if this even comes up again do NOT use a boot floppy...
it can all be done by booting with your XP cd.

Luckily you had a backup!
 
philo said:
The error was on your end.
A win9x boot floppy would NOT see an NTFS partition...
it would only see the fat32 partition...
so when you thought you were formatting your XP drive
you really formatted the data drive...

if this even comes up again do NOT use a boot floppy...
it can all be done by booting with your XP cd.

Luckily you had a backup!
Click to expand...

Hang on a minute. If I type FORMAT C:, why would it format any other drive?
It confirms at least once, maybe twice that I want to format the C: drive.
 
Hang on a minute. If I type FORMAT C:, why would it format any other drive?
It confirms at least once, maybe twice that I want to format the C: drive.
Click to expand...


The reason is that the win9x boot floppy CANNOT "see" the NTFS drive.
As far is it "knows" your fat32 drive is your C: drive


The letter D: is assigned to your 2nd drive by XP...
and without XP running...using the win9x boot floppy...your second drive
(which is fat32) is now the C: drive

next time:
If you boot from your XP cd...all your drives (be they fat32 or NTFS will be
detected properly)

Again...it was a good thing you had a backup..!!!!!!
 
philo said:
The reason is that the win9x boot floppy CANNOT "see" the NTFS drive.
As far is it "knows" your fat32 drive is your C: drive


The letter D: is assigned to your 2nd drive by XP...
and without XP running...using the win9x boot floppy...your second drive
(which is fat32) is now the C: drive

next time:
If you boot from your XP cd...all your drives (be they fat32 or NTFS will
be
detected properly)

Again...it was a good thing you had a backup..!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Interesting, but during the one (and only one time) I ran the format
command, it also erase the actual C: drive. How?
 
Interesting, but during the one (and only one time) I ran the format
command, it also erase the actual C: drive. How?
Click to expand...


The win98 boot floppy (unless you ran fdisk and deleted something) could
only format a fat32 (or fat) partition.

You must have formatted your original NTFS drive when you reinstalled XP.

If you did not opt to format your drive during the installation...
XP would have been installed in a new folder...and your original XP
installation would still be on the drive.
 
Windows can be viewed as the bookkeeper that keeps track of ALL the programs
on all the harddrives on the computer that were loaded using Windows, which
is usually all of them. When you reformat the OS drive, C:, that has
Windows on it, your computer has no idea what programs are installed on the
other harddrives since Windows is now gone.

DaveW
 
That makes sense. But, the affected drive is FAT32. I've moved those from
one machine to the other in the past (as the slave drive), and had no
problem.
 
Yes, but did you try to install Windows XP? Did you have an NTFS partition? Do
you understand the difference between NTFS and FAT32? Re-Read the previous posts
from 'philo' and be sure you understand them.
John
 
I understand. Just grasping at straws for the moment. As I said earlier, I
have backups on tape, but won't have access to the external tape drive until
the weekend.
 
The error was on your end.
A win9x boot floppy would NOT see an NTFS partition...
it would only see the fat32 partition...
Click to expand...

Yes it will. FDISK sees partitions, and whether the
partition is NTFS or FAT32 formatted does not change whether
FDISK can see it. Since DOS can't understand NTFS, the
filesystem itself on that partition can't be accesed, but
the partition is as a whole, accessible and visible.
so when you thought you were formatting your XP drive
you really formatted the data drive...

if this even comes up again do NOT use a boot floppy...
it can all be done by booting with your XP cd.
Click to expand...

I suspect WinXP had logically called "C", "E", the opposite
of DOS conventions and so when he formatted, he was
formatting "E".
 
kony said:
Yes it will. FDISK sees partitions, and whether the
partition is NTFS or FAT32 formatted does not change whether
FDISK can see it. Since DOS can't understand NTFS, the
filesystem itself on that partition can't be accesed, but
the partition is as a whole, accessible and visible.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the format procedure which would only "see" fat/32

Fdisk of course could delete the NTFS (non-dos partition) but I don't think
the OP
did that
 
philo said:
I was referring to the format procedure which would only "see" fat/32

Fdisk of course could delete the NTFS (non-dos partition) but I don't
think
the OP
did that
Click to expand...

Right. I did not run FDISK.
 
JoeSpareBedroom said:
I understand. Just grasping at straws for the moment. As I said earlier, I
have backups on tape, but won't have access to the external tape drive until
the weekend.
Click to expand...

<snip>

hope your tape backup is good.

BTW: if you did not write to the drive that was formatted...
there are 3rd party utilites that should be able to get your data back...

So you might want to restore your backup to a different drive entirely
as a precaution.
 
philo said:
<snip>

hope your tape backup is good.
Click to expand...

I made two. These were my son's mp3 files - very important to him. For my
work files, the routine is nuts. Smaller tape drive, because it's sufficient
for my data. (We borrowed the larger drive for the enormous number of music
files). I use one tape for each weekday. On Monday, the first four tapes go
to a bank safe deposit box, and the stored set comes out for action.

BTW: if you did not write to the drive that was formatted...
there are 3rd party utilites that should be able to get your data back...
Click to expand...

Right. I've left that drive alone completely. And, I'm waiting for a
response from the maker of an undelete utility. The trial version doesn't
list mp3 in its file type list (for searching). I want to be sure the full
version handles those files.

So you might want to restore your backup to a different drive entirely
as a precaution.
Click to expand...

Yep. It'll all go to drive C: until the process is complete.
 
Right. I've left that drive alone completely. And, I'm waiting for a
response from the maker of an undelete utility. The trial version doesn't
list mp3 in its file type list (for searching). I want to be sure the full
version handles those files.



Yep. It'll all go to drive C: until the process is complete.
Click to expand...

Well good luck to you...
BTW: I never have used a tape drive...I just burn DVD's whenever I need to
backup data.
I've got most everything backed up two or three times...just not terribly
organized though!
 
philo said:
Well good luck to you...
BTW: I never have used a tape drive...I just burn DVD's whenever I need to
backup data.
I've got most everything backed up two or three times...just not terribly
organized though!
Click to expand...

Here, it has to be organized. One hour = $10,000.00.
 
philo said:
If that's true, I've lost millions of dollars !!!! <G>
Click to expand...


On good days, it's true, in my business. And, in order to make that revenue
happen, the computer HAS to work. So, I've got a mirror-image laptop that's
tested once a week.
 
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