[mikeinstlouis]

then..what should I do?
It was recommended that I get another hard drive....just leave that blank or what do you recommend so this will work?
Thanks

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I would ask your IT guy if he has a PC you can hook your drive to as the slave to save what data you need to DVDRW discs, make a couple of copies of the important bits. Once you have those and have tested them on another PC to check the data is on them, you can write zeros to your drive, in most cases this will correct the MBR / partition table errors and you can install it as the master drive, install XP and then load your data on from the DVDRW discs

[Retired Tech]

I would ask your IT guy if he has a PC you can hook your drive to as the slave to save what data you need to DVDRW discs, make a couple of copies of the important bits. Once you have those and have tested them on another PC to check the data is on them, you can write zeros to your drive, in most cases this will correct the MBR / partition table errors and you can install it as the master drive, install XP and then load your data on from the DVDRW discs

[gerryf]

I have a second hard drive already installed in my machine... It is small, and pretty full, but if it can help I can hook it up as the master...

would this disk help? http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Mike

Mike, on that disk is the next tool I wanted to use, just in case your partition table is screwed up instead of your MBR, in fact the more I think about it, the more I lean toward that as the culprit.

On the Ultimate Boot Disk *or you can download it separately-- is a program called TESTDISK, which can recover disks with corrupt partition tables.

Indeed, I would use the UBD, run disktest, and see if it can find your partition.

Documentation is here:

http://www.cgsecurit...l?testdisk.html

It is not hard to work with, but it is not a program for the timid, either.

You can run it from UBD or a standalone and may still be able to save this stuff (course, I wouldn't pass up a free harddisk either )

[mikeinstlouis]

thanks Gerry

I was looking more closely at that boot disk this morning....and your posts.

Is there a checkdisk on there that is similar to the one that I would have been using? Should I still start with that one?

I plan on making the boot disk...seeing the tools that are on it..what do you recommend I start with ..the testdisk one you just mentioned?

Also there is a DOS version of this disk with thinks like fdisc on it..would that be better?
Thanks again SO MUCH....if you are ever in St. Louis...let me buy you a beer or a cup of cofffee, or a coke!!!

[gerryf]

I think I'd start with testdisk...hard to say...eiterh way, testdisk should not put you in any worse state

[mikeinstlouis]

I am going to be doing a 48 hour shift coming up so I won't be able to work on it, but when I do get the program...can you help walk me through it? I have been reading up on hard drive, OS etc to try to learn this but I may need some help with the program. The documentation is in Greek, I think..
Thanks!

Mike