[tjmcs]

Greeting gents,

Once again, if this is the wrong forum, please point me in the right direction. Dumb question, can a computer with XP Pro as the OS read a HDD in XP Home?
Here is the situation...took a drive out of a computer with a dead mobo. It has XP Home as the OS. I am trying to read it with a computer with XP Pro as the OS via IDE/USB adapter. The computer with Pro ca detect the Home HDD in My Computer and in Disk Management under Admin Tools, can tell me how much used space it has. But, when I try to access it, I get a blank screen. Just curious.

Thanks
joe

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You are not going to be able to read that other hard-drive on your machine because it has all the drivers installed from the computer with the dead Mo-Board.One way that you could use that other hard-drive is if you had a xp cd doesnt matter which one long as it is a legal (non-pirated) Version of xp.Take the Hard-drive from the computer with the dead Mo-Board and place it in your machine and do a repair install on that hard-drive.Here is a link explaining how to do the repair install.But you will need the product key for the repair install in order for this to work. Hope this helps and is what you were asking for if you have any more questions feel free to ask.
http://www.geekstogo...air-windows-xp/

[rockmilk]

You are not going to be able to read that other hard-drive on your machine because it has all the drivers installed from the computer with the dead Mo-Board.One way that you could use that other hard-drive is if you had a xp cd doesnt matter which one long as it is a legal (non-pirated) Version of xp.Take the Hard-drive from the computer with the dead Mo-Board and place it in your machine and do a repair install on that hard-drive.Here is a link explaining how to do the repair install.But you will need the product key for the repair install in order for this to work. Hope this helps and is what you were asking for if you have any more questions feel free to ask.
http://www.geekstogo...air-windows-xp/

[wannabe1]

Hello tjmcs...

I'm afraid rockmilk may have misunderstood what you are trying to accomplish. You should be able to see the files on the XP Home drive with it connected to the XP Pro machine via a USB port. It should behave like an external hard drive. That said, there could be any number of reasons the files won't show up...corrupt file system, faulty read head, faulty platter motor, etc. Capacities, space usage, drive specs, etc, are stored at shutdown on the drive's controller board, so even when you can see that info, it doesn't necessarily mean you are seeing further than the controller.

Can you attach a screenshot of the Disk Management Console with the XP Home drive connected for us? That will, at least, give us a point of reference to start from.

wannabe1

[tjmcs]

Thank you, wannabe1.

I will post screen shot in next couple days. Have not been able to work on system.

[tjmcs]

Attached is a screenshot from my computer with OS XP Pro of the "Computer Management" screen showing the HDD (OS XP Home) I am trying to access via IDE/USB adapter. Disk 1 shows (F) as a healthy formatted drive of 74.53 GB. When I access the drive in "My Computer", I get a blank screen. The drive was taken out of a computer with a bad mobo. It was working before it was taken out.

The IDE/USB adapter works, I can access other drives, allthough these drives are formatted in XP Pro, not XP Home.

Any help to access the data on the drive is most appreciated.

[wannabe1]

Let's see if the file system is corrupt...

Close the Computer Management Console if it's still open.

Click on the Start button and click on Run. Type cmd in the input field...click OK. This will open a command session window.

In the command session window, type chkdsk /r f: (note the spaces in the command) and press Enter. This should run a thorough check of the file system on the "empty" drive. It will take a while...be patient. When the check is complete, type exit and press Enter to quit the command session.

Let us know if you see any improvement...

[tjmcs]

Sorry the screenshot from Disk Management did not make it to the last post. I thought it had.
Tried chkdsk. Attached is results from that scan. Still can not access data. I checked properties on the drive from My Computer. Properties state it is a 74.5 GB drive with 26.1 GB used, 48.4 GB free.

[wannabe1]

I removed the attached log as it contained some personal information. It showed no evidence of the problem.

Are the files on that drive hidden? Open Control Panel and then Folder Options. In the Folder Options window, click the View tab. Locate and select "Show Hidden Files and Folders"...then deselect "Hide Protected System Files". Apply the changes and take a look at the drive (F:)...does it populate after doing this?

Don't forget to change these settings back when we finish...

[tjmcs]

Wannabe1,

Thank you, thank you. The files were hidden. I never thought about that.

Just for kicks, any idea on why a SATA drive would show as unformatted access it the same way?

Joe

[tjmcs]

Wannabe1,

By the way, I tried to show a like for your help, got the message the action failed.

Joe

[wannabe1]

You may have to change the properties of the files you recover from the F: drive to unhide them permanently.

Does the SATA drive show as needing to be formatted or as unallocated? It may just have a corrupt file system that may straighten out by running a disk check on it like you did with this last one.

Your "Like" did register...thank you.

[tjmcs]

Wannabe1,

The drive shows to be Not Initialized and Unallocated. Ran chkdsk. Recieved message, "Can not open volume for direct access".

Joe

[wannabe1]

You may be able to initialize the volume by right clicking on the left side of the drive (label area) in the Computer Management Console and choosing "Initialize Disk".

If it still shows as unallocated after it's been initialized, it may have lost it's formatting and the data might not be easily recoverable.

[tjmcs]

Wannabe1,

I do not recieve an "initialize disk" option.