[JLmusic99]

Okay, computer died , but here's my latest problem :

I wanted to get some files from the Windows XP drive from the dead computer. Checked internet forums such as this one...should be no problem...

so I put the drive in an older computer, and the computer started booting and then nothing happened...so I took it out and set it to slave (from cable select)...turned it on, and the computer went into chkdsk mode...

uh oh...first it said deleting orphan files, then :inserting an index entry into index $0 of file 25., then recovering files...on and on it went !!

Finally Windows came up, and said something about rebooting for the new hardware, but I didn't do that yet. The drive seems to be intact!! But not entirely, there are definitely files and folders missing. Apparently this all happened because the drive is over the 137 gb limit.

So what should I do now??? I'm backing up what I want that's there...seems to be working.

Can I get what's missing? Should I restart? What shouldn't I do?

Thanks for any help!!!

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The drive is 228 GB NTFS.

Right clicking on it says 179 GB is used, and 48.9 GB is free, but I think only around 127 GB is there, not sure if it is all working correctly.

But that means around 52 GB is missing.

Any help as to what I should and shouldn't do greatly appreciated.

Or if this isn't the correct forum, any info on where to get help with this greatly appreciated.

[JLmusic99]

The drive is 228 GB NTFS.

Right clicking on it says 179 GB is used, and 48.9 GB is free, but I think only around 127 GB is there, not sure if it is all working correctly.

But that means around 52 GB is missing.

Any help as to what I should and shouldn't do greatly appreciated.

Or if this isn't the correct forum, any info on where to get help with this greatly appreciated.

[sarahw]

Hi JLmusic99 ,
Older Operating Systems wont recognize the whole hard drive if it's over a certain size.

If you pull a hard drive out of a machine and put it into another machine it won't boot as there are different hardware and drivers that the hard drive cannot understand.

If you want to get the files from the hard drive, you will need to slave it from a computer running a newer Operating System. Or perhaps upgrading that operating system to a newer service pack.

[JLmusic99]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, maybe XP service pack 2 would help? The old computer is service pack 1.

Unfortunately though, I don't have an internet connection for that computer. I found the service pack 2 for download at soft32.com.

http://www.soft32.co..._2/4-992-1.html

Is this legit?

Thanks very much.

[sarahw]

The service pack should be downloaded from Microsoft. That latest service pack for Windows XP is SP3. I did think Service pack 1 should be enough to recognise that hard drive but that is quite a while ago now. Service pack 2 should be enough.

[JLmusic99]

I found Service Pack 2 on the microsoft website, but it said for IT professionals or something...but it looks to be the same file . Man what a complete and total drag all this is!!!

Anyway, with service pack 1, it did recognize the drive, and as I say above, it shows the drive as being 228GB, which is well over the 137 GB limit thing, but as I also say above, 50GB of used files seem to be missing.

Maybe service pack 2 will fix this?

I also have yet to restart the computer, which it said to do for the "new hardware" after it went through the whole chkdsk thing.

I'm scared to restart (and I'm trying to back up what's there first) for fear that something will go screwy and make things worse.

Thanks for your help!!

[sarahw]

A thought,
Perhaps that 50gig is another partition.

[JLmusic99]

There is another partition, which shows up, but that is a 4GB recovery partition put there by the wonderful people at Gateway.

But I hadn't partitioned the drive at all, should otherwise be the full thing.

Edited by JLmusic99, 20 October 2009 - 08:48 PM.

[sarahw]

When you put the hard drive into another computer as a primary slave, it should not matter if there is missing Operating System files on it as you are not booting from it.
Does this older computer load OK when you take this new slave drive out?

[JLmusic99]

I'm not sure what you mean by the first part about missing Operating System files, but yes the old computer worked fine before I put this drive in as slave. And other then the missing files on this drive it seems to be working fine now. (Haven't taken this drive out, or restarted, so don't know what that all would bring.)

I had another data drive from the "dead" computer that I put into the old computer to retrieve files, and that worked without a hitch. That drive, though, was only 120GB, so I guess the old computer was fine with that.

[sarahw]

Ok, Try the installing the service pack.

[123Runner]

It must be early because I seem to be confused.
JLmusic99, when you 1st put the drive in the older computer, was it hooked up as a master (boot drive) or as a slave?

If you put it as a boot drive, then it won't work as already stated because of the hardware differences on the board.
Depending on the age of the older computer, you would have to put the drive in as a slave and change the jumpers on the boot drive to be master and the 2nd drive to be slave.
Also you may have 40 core data cable vs the newer 80 core cable. This will interfere as to how the drives are set and seen. That is why you change to master and slave.

To my knowledge XP sp1 should see the entire drive.

Windows 2000/XP - Existing Installation
Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later add 48-bit addressing support to the operating system (OS). This support will allow access to drives larger than 137 GB (128 GB).

Go to start....run...and type in compmgmt.msc and hit enter. On the left..click on disk management. It will show you the drives and how they are recognized/formatted, etc.

123runner