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Why does my old hard disc look empty?

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by fox_iacmnf 1 view

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I had trouble booting up Windows, so I bought a new hard disc and installed the OS (XP Home). I made the old hard disc the slave, and the computer reads it but says there is no data on it. The old disc has a partition on it that is readable.

What could be a reason for not finding any info on old hard disc?

Thank you.

11 replies

by older mycroft

[i]"The old disc has a partition on it that is readable."[/i]

Do you mean that the computer can see this partition or do you mean that you know there is a partition on the old drive?

by fox_iacmnf

When I plug in the old drive the computer reads that there are two partitions on it. First one where windows used to be looks completely empty , the other one seems fine.

by older mycroft

You originally posted that you replaced the old drive due to booting problems, so it is not beyond possibility that the structureof the partition where Windows used to live, is actually damaged. That would explain the booting problems.

Have you checked this disk?

Go to Start > Run > type [b]chkdsk D:[/b] (assuming your 'old drive is now your D: drive) and see what it comes up with.

If it reports any Cluster problems just answer YES to any questions it may ask. Then do it again, only this time type [b]chkdsk D: /r /f[/b] and, if the disk has any errors, the errors will be repaired as best they can.

Although, from what you originally posted, if you have encountered boot problems sufficient to warrant the purchase of a new drive, on which you now have a fresh installation of Windows XP, quite why you would be bothered that you cannot find any content in the old-Windows partition is puzzling to me.

If your other 'data' partition remains intact, why not just format the old partition and be done with it?

by oh smeg

If it's reasonably small you could be looking at a partition setup to carry the Partition Information or some other data that was never used.

What is in the other partition on this drive?

Col

by fox_iacmnf

I didn't have access to internet when the booting problem happened so I was not sure of the case and/or solution to it. That is why I thought easier route seemed new hard disc and installation.

Part of the reason of looking into my old drive, there was some data present that I would be thrilled to recover.

by oh smeg

Was the old drive connected as a Slave? If so it's possible that the Windows Install Process deleted the Windows Data on the Slave drive.

If you have data that you would like to recover you can try [b]Taking Ownership of your files[/b] by following the directions here

http://tinyurl.com/3aw7

Or you can try something like Spin Rite to see if you can recover any Data.

http://tinyurl.com/yvrsl

That's if your data is worth that much.

Col

by fox_iacmnf

because the old drive was not connected. I took out the old drive, put a new one in and put the old drive in a new case.

My plan was to do what you refer to with the first link, but when I click on properties there is no Security tab as described in the steps.

Thank you for the help

by fox_iacmnf

but as I said before the partition where Windows used to be appears completely empty, so when I follow the steps on how to bypass Windows on a secondary drive it stops because there is no security tab.

I moved files from a hard disc where windows was installed before and thought (hoped) this was a similar situation. So I wrote to see if someone had a similar experience + if and how they solved it. Mostly I am trying to understand what could cause the disc to read as empty and if there is some hope for the data...

by oh smeg

To see if you can pickup any of the Data but it's not cheap and it's time consuming so if your data is important enough and you are willing to spend the money you can try Spin Rite which is about the best for a reasonable price

http://www.grc.com/default.htm

Col

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