hard drive glitch...

[Swi]

Hi everyone, I really need your help for this one... I have an hdd with Win98se that I wanted to upgrade to winXP without formating. So I started the installation but the XP installer did not recognised the partition and the only choice I had was to format my drive. Before doing that i wanted to backup the data in it to another hdd. So I plugged the hdd on my computer (with XP already on) and tried to access to the old hdd but it sayed that "The drive is not formated, would you like to format it?" So basically, I cannot acces to the data in it...
Is there a way to access to this data before formating it? any software that can read data without readint the FAT table or something like that?

Thanks!!

PS: If i loose the diablo character of my gf, i'm doomed!

edit: If possible, something free would be appreciated

 

[Bretenn]

wat? plug hdd with xp on?? what do u mean?
just plugged the hdd to slave and then access it...
btw did u enable the hdd in bios??

 

[Swi]

basically, I have plugged a slave hdd which I cannot access any data in it (because XP says it must be formated). also, in win explorer i can see the drive(there's a drive letter assigned)
BIOS stuff is OK

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by Swi

PS: If i loose the diablo character of my gf, i'm doomed!

so, your xp machine doesn't recognize the fat32 partition on the win98 harddrive? you sure the xp installation didn't already format it or delete the partition? is the win98 comp still able to boot from it?

 

[Swi]

Re: Re: hard drive glitch...

Originally posted by taurus


so, your xp machine doesn't recognize the fat32 partition on the win98 harddrive?

Exactly, but I'm pretty sure it is not a fat/ntsf incompatibility. I think the partition has been scrwed up during the installation

you sure the xp installation didn't already format it or delete the partition?

During the XP installation (which crashed), I didn't choose to format the drive nor deleting the partition?

is the win98 comp still able to boot from it?

Nop, I can't boot from win98 cause the XP installation crashed in the middle so there's no OS properly installed

 

[Taurus]

Re: Re: Re: hard drive glitch...

Originally posted by Swi
Nop, I can't boot from win98 cause the XP installation crashed in the middle so there's no OS properly installed

hmm.. well, with a win98 bootdisk, can you get to dos and access your original "C:\"? if so, type "dir" and make sure the right files and folders are there.

if you can see everything, lemme know. we'll take it from there. if you can't, then the partition is screwed. you might be able to recover it with partition magic or somethiung, but i never use it, so i'm not sure.

 

[Bretenn]

now i get what u mean...
do u say that u try to upgrade to xp but during installation it failed?

if so, i heard from other site that it will really causing problem and the only way they all do is reinstall again...

there are many software out there like lost&found symantec, norton utilities+++ (never tried b4...)

and btw did u try to convert from fat32 to ntfs during the upgrade (installation)? if so, i think it had screw the file system.

 

[Swi]

Good news, I can see my stuff using a win 98 boot disk...
Can I use Partition magic to recover the data?

BTW taurus, where is elk grove?

 

[Taurus]

if you can see your stuff via the bootdisk, that means your fat or fat32 partition is intact. in which case, you won't need a program like partition magic. i honestly can't explain why xp can't see the contents of the drive. :huh:

anyone else want a crack at it?

 

[Swi]

Originally posted by taurus
if you can see your stuff via the bootdisk, that means your fat or fat32 partition is intact. in which case, you won't need a program like partition magic. i honestly can't explain why xp can't see the contents of the drive. :huh:

Hum, what a pleasure it will be to transfer 12gig with floppy disks!

 

[Swi]

Latest news... Partition Magic 7 cannot open the partition...

 

[Bretenn]

how bout reinstall win98 again on that hd? it may works tho...
hmm... weird xp!

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by Bretenn
how bout reinstall win98 again on that hd?

yeah, that was my next suggestion.

 

[Swi]

in partition magic, I can convert the partition to "logical drive" (see enclosed pic). Is there any chance to loose my data using that?

 

[kitct]

Originally posted by Swi
in partition magic, I can convert the partition to "logical drive" (see enclosed pic). Is there any chance to loose my data using that?

I use PM7 all of the time.I don't thik that is the answer. I would suggest you try installin 98 again first. At the start of the install it will ask if you want to use new files or "existing files".Choose that.It will fix you boot and default files while leavin your exitin progs and data intact.Has worked for me several times anways.

 

[Swi]

Originally posted by Bretenn
how bout reinstall win98 again on that hd? it may works tho...

Will try that this morning.
I'll let you know if it worked

Thx!

 

[Swi]

latest news...
Win98 installation did not work... Scandisk found crossed files (boot.ini and a temp XP folder $drvltrs$ or something like that) and made the repair.
Then, after the Install shield loaded up, an error message said that there was partition problem...
so i'm back at the beginning... any other suggestions?

In the mean time, I'll try to find a FAT32 hd to transfer my data with the win98 bootdisk.

 

[Bretenn]

how about delete the xp temp folder... and try reinstall windows 98 again? or install in different partition on ur harddisk (if more than 1 partition)?

 

[ntentz]

I had a similiar problem i used a bootdisk and xcopy to copy the files from one hd to another.took some time and ever changed soem file names to the 8.3 format but least i still have them.hope this helps.
don

 

[Swi]

Originally posted by ntentz
I had a similiar problem i used a bootdisk and xcopy to copy the files from one hd to another.took some time and ever changed soem file names to the 8.3 format but least i still have them.hope this helps.
don

that's what I've started to do this morning... i think i'll use a compression command (like pkzip) to keep long filename

Thanx for helping me out anyway!