Computer Woes

[doubleohfive]

So last week, I got a notification that it was time to update my Windows XP computer with Service Pack 3. I did the update.

Big fucking mistake, doubleoh.

The computer then proceeded to cycle in endless reboots, never allowing me to get even in to safe mode wherein I planned to do a system restore.

So, after some troubleshooting, I queried a professional and they suggested I extract the hard drive to save any data and then just do a fresh reinstall/reformat.

Not exactly my favorite option, but if there's a chance to recover my data, I'll go for it.

So I got an external case/enclosure for the hard drive. Its all hooked up and I'm able to open it on my laptop.

Except (and you knew there would be an "except" !) ...

The laptop shows the hard drive, but not really. The hard drive itself is 160GB and has at least 45GB of stuff on it that I am trying to rescue. But the laptop only shows a total of 2GB free out of 5GB.

What am I doing wrong here?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Rii]

What OS is your laptop running?

 

[doubleohfive]

Windows XP, but the laptop is a Windows Vista machine.

 

[Rii]

Does it have at least Service Pack 1 installed? XP needs that to work properly with >127GB drives IIRC.

 

[doubleohfive]

Hmmm... I don't know. I had to do a fresh re-install on the laptop a few weeks ago and am still trying to find everything I need to, uh, reinstall.

Though, after the hell that the Service Pack 3 created for me on the XP, I'm not sure I'm entirely crazy about risking the same to my laptop, which I have to have in working order for my job.

 

[Rii]

We got mixed up in edits. Vista should register your drive fine without SP1. You could try poking around in the Disk Management console to see what it has to say about your drive, type "diskmgmt.msc" at the Start menu.

 

[doubleohfive]

Thanks. The Disk management reads 143.04GB Raw, 6.00GB FAT32.

Still can't seem to access the files/data on the drive though. Every time I try to read it, the program says the file is corrupted or unreadable. Not exactly inspiring fireworks or birthday cakes, that.

What confuses me is that it says the 143.04GB is "Healthy, Active, Primary Partition" ... should I not be able to access the files therein?

I'm looking at about 42GB of music and less than a GB of pictures, word files, and other misc files.

 

[Rii]

Thanks. The Disk management reads 143.04GB Raw, 6.00GB FAT32.

Still can't seem to access the files/data on the drive though. Every time I try to read it, the program says the file is corrupted or unreadable. Not exactly inspiring fireworks or birthday cakes, that.

What confuses me is that it says the 143.04GB is "Healthy, Active, Primary Partition" ... should I not be able to access the files therein?

The partition also needs to be formatted with either the NTFS or FAT32 filing systems for Windows to recognise it. The "raw" label there means that the partition is unformatted and thus inaccessible to Windows. Given that this was undoubtedly the partition on which you had XP installed and your data stored - the 6GB FAT32 partition which remains accessible is likely a recovery partition - I suspect that whilst installing XP SP3 the partition was somehow corrupted.

Unfortunately, formatting the partition will delete any data currently stored upon it, i.e. the XP installation and all your data. I don't know if it's possible to repair or recover data from a corrupted partition, but I don't like your chances.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable in this area will drop by shortly...

 

[doubleohfive]

Damn.

I have one other option I think, but I need to wait till tomorrow to find out about it. But thanks for the insight / advice / help. Worst case scenario, I'll just reformat.... but I'd much rather not have to if I can rescue the data.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[firehawk12]

It might be a FAT or MBR problem? I'd say burn a Linux distro and try reading the drive from there?

 

[doubleohfive]

Do what to the who now?

 

[Plecostomus]

Attach this hard-drive to a computer running Linux and see if you can read your files.

Linux has amazing powers. It can't solve EVERY problem but I've used it to revive dead computers and hard-drives before. In that it excels.

 

[doubleohfive]

Ah.

That was my "other option" I mentioned up thread. A friend performed a similar data rescue for me a few months ago, so I'm hoping his Mac will be able to do similar here.

Thanks

 

[firehawk12]

Hah, yeah.
Alternatively, burn the Ultimate Boot CD and try some of the included utilities on the disc... it has software from all the major HDD manufacturers.

 

[TheSeeker]

Ah.

That was my "other option" I mentioned up thread. A friend performed a similar data rescue for me a few months ago, so I'm hoping his Mac will be able to do similar here.

Thanks

You mean this has happened before? Dude, you need to start backing your data up to an external drive!

 

[doubleohfive]

Well, I did. The data rescue he did for me was actually an ED I had several years ago that crashed. Three years of work on 200GB, all gone. Luckily, he was able to retrieve roughly half of it for me.

I was in the process of backing this last 45GB (mostly my music) when the update for Service Pack 3 came up. Everything else -- scripts, outlines, photos, software, and other miscellaneous stuff is safe.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Wow, I'm glad your own creative work is safe. Music can be replaced, but it would be heartbreaking if you lost your work.

 

[Tim]

I was in the process of backing this last 45GB (mostly my music) when the update for Service Pack 3 came up. Everything else -- scripts, outlines, photos, software, and other miscellaneous stuff is safe.

In the future, never apply an update until any in-progress is finished. I tried SP3 but it royally screwed up my wireless network settings (a known issue with some configurations), so I ended up wiping the drive and restoring to a recent disk image.

I also backup religiously. Currently it's become more fanatical; part of the about-to-defend-my-Ph.D. paranoia, I guess.

 

[DarkHelmet]

After learning the hard way....

Not only do I back up to an external HD (both home and work)... but I backup to a secure online backup service twice a day..

 

[TheSeeker]

^Which one do you use?