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URGENT PLEASE HELP!

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by michael34

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Hello,
Here is my situation. I have 2 hard drives, both being 160 GB in my PC (C Drive as Primary F as Secondary). I had some problems with my Primary formatted at FAT 32 Running Windows 2000 Pro (The second hard drive was setup under the NTFS File system and was for additional space). I had to format the C which was done however now I cannot see the F one. Its just not registering, however I do have Paragon Partition Manager which is showing it but in My Computer I show A, C, D, E (D and E are CD-Roms). What I did was copy all my data to the F one before the format and now all that stuff is on there but I have NO access to it. Is all my data on that hard drive gone or is there anything I can do to get it, as I had 90 GB of importiant Data on it which I would not like to loose.

8 replies

by ashokb23

Check which file system you choosed(depends on OS)
NTFS or FAT32 or FAT16
then check for jumper
There is some option to hide drives..check whether you have done this or not.

Finally if all fails -Remove you hard disk from you Pc.Change jumper to "MASTER DRIVR" (as said in label on H.D) put in some other machine.It will recoganise,Make BACK UPS

by dmiles

The file properties have been converted to NTFS,which cannot be seen through the FAT32 partition,at this point you will need to use a data recovery software to recover the files from NTFS partition.
You could try setting the F:drive as master,the problem with backing up on the FAT32 partition is that the NTFS cannot be converted back.

by gralfus

Regardless of the file system, the drive should be showing up on the list of drives. Here are the things I would check:
*Are the cables and power firmly hooked up to the drive? (I've accidently bumped cables loose)
*Does the drive appear in BIOS when you boot up? (This is the most critical point. If it isn't here, it won't show up in the OS.)
*Are both hard drives on the same cable? Check jumpers to verify they are set correctly (Master and Slave, or Cable Select on both).
*Do you have W2K running again? Does the drive show up at all in Disk Management?

by thechas

When you originally installed the first 160GB drive, did you use the drive manufactures setup disk?

If so, you may have had drive overlay software.

Drive overlay software needs to be installed on the boot drive.
Further, when booting from a floppy or CD to install Windows, you need to follow a specific procedure to retain the drive overlay software functionality.

Next, I am assuming that you re-installed Windows 2000.
If you installed Windows 98 or Me, yes you cannot see the NTFS drive.

To read a NTFS drive from Windows 9X, or DOS, you need a NTFS reader.
One source is www.systeminternals.com

Chas

by joseph moore

Did you go into Disk Management and see if the F: drive is there but listed without a drive letter?
Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management.
Go down to Disk Management, click it, and look in the right-pane. All physical drives (non RAID drives, that is) will be listed.
Do you see one drive that is listed, but does not have a drive letter or an Online status? That's probably your old F: drive.
You will need to Assign Drive Letter to it, but DON'T FORMAT IT!!!!
Try that.

by bagmaster50

The reason the fat32 "C" drive can't see the ntfs "D" drive is the fact that Fat32 can't see or access drives formatted in ntfs. Windows XP has a drive conversion tool that allows converting a drive to ntfs from fat32. I don't know if Win 2000 has it or not. The data is still there, you just can't see it from an OS installed in fat32.

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