I had a problem with XP booting I was getting the black screen, so I ended up reinstalling XP. Now I can't view my data that was on my external hard drive wo formatting it. It contained all my photos and stuff I was saving. What can I do to retrieve it

This post has been edited by Gorgar: Jun 20 2005, 06:47 AM

Hi Gorgar,

You might want to try this program HERE
if that doesnt want to work, search around for a program called "Get Data Back". It is top of the line product which can get 90% of lost files back, even after a format. If written over by DOD standards, then it might be impossible to retrieve.

Is your External over 127GiBs? If so, then, this happend because you loaded XP without SP1 intergrated. Meaning, your master boot record has been overwritten. Try locating your old boot record, and copying it over the new one for that drive befor attemting to use "Get Data Back". "Get Data Back" should be the last resort.

In any case, to prevent this from happening again, I suggest you unhook the external before formatting C:, load XP, then SP1, then hook your External back up, se if it retains its record.

Jedi.

I just had a very similiar issue. GetDataBack has always been the best program for me, although like all recovery software, it is very time taking to run. However, one of the moderators suggested a program called test disk off of the ultimate boot cd. This restored the format of the drive by copying the backup boot sector (good) over the boot sector (bad). (Note, I had to do an intial analysis and then a deep analysis) Look at my topic for more info. Hope this helps