NEED HELP - HD disappeared under Windows XP

no it wont.

 

I agree on trying GetDataBack and the other Runtime options (ie. DiskExplorer). I have used Runtime's recovery apps multiple times in the past to salvage drives which would no longer show up in windows / would freeze the system after a little time when they would. Some of them aren't exactly dummy-friendly, but will get the job done if you spend 5 minutes sorting them out

 

Was posting from my phone, so it was a little light on details.

But you shouldn't write to a disk you are trying to recover files from. There is no need to initialise the disk if you are trying to recover data. Once you have data, then initialise/format/etc

 

Well, all Windows-based data recovery software -professional & expensive or not- won't get you anywhere when the drive doesn't show up in the device manager.

In those cases you need an independent solution that queries the HDD via native drivers. Back in the days we used a program on a floppy disk, called Tiramisu, but today it is easier to aquire an Linux Live CD and look if there is anything left to rescue.

The last straw is to send the HDD to OnTrack or some other professional, but I guess the data is not worth it.
Simple rule: any data that isn't backed up regularly is not important.

 

Linux and Windows both use similar methods to access the drive.

If it wasn't showing up in device manager, its likely not going to show up in Linux either. It would require software that directly accesses the drive or sending to a professional who will likely swap the PCB with a working one or the platters if required.

 

my statement was on the off chance that the disk had somehow come unitialized, I've had it happen once before for some reason

 

Somewhat unrelated, but I recently had a power outage which caused one of my Linux machines to not see it's hard drive (Failed to boot. Can't mount).

I used a Linux Live CD and analysed the drive. Fixed the broken parts of the Journal and everything works just as it did before. I suggest you try a Live CD and check it out. If you can't even see the drive, then it's probably something serious. In Linux normally you'll see all your devices (regardless of the shape they are in). From there, you can attempt to mount them, configure, or work out what's wrong. But in most cases unless the device is dead, it will still show up on the list. Once you figure out what might be the problem, simply boot into a Windows tool like Partition Magic (or make a live Windows CD) and fix whatever the problem is. Of course, you could probably achieve the same thing using Gparted on your live Linux CD, but some people are used to Windows tools.

 

If you're just looking to see if the data is readable, downloading a Linux live CD seems a bit of a waste of time. Just boot into the recovery console with the XP CD that you already have (unless it's an OEM install) ;-)

 

He says in his first post he can get into his OS (this is a data drive by the look of things).

Booting into XP recovery mode has no benefit over being in the OS that already works.

 

Well, let me keep you guys updated.

With the latest Ubuntu Live CD i was able to acess the drive without problems. Still i checked it with ubuntu's Disk Utility and the SMART status shows "Disk has a few bad sectors".

Checking the SMART data it has a Warning on both "Reallocated Sector Count" and "Current Pending Sector Count". Everything else show up as Good.

I guess it's safe to back up everything, although ASAP right?

PS: The problem of not showing under windows is with a secondary slave drive. The main drive, with Windows OS, is fine. (checked it as well).

 

http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-recovery.html
Are you able to run chdsk / f on that slave drive whilst in dos prior to booting up windows?
http://ss64.com/nt/chkdsk.html

 

Yes, you should back up everything ASAP, the drive is going towards the end of it's life.

When you have everything saved you can do a full initialisation/format on the drive, to see if it shows up under Windows again and if the pending sectors are gone.
It is a temporary solution though, those sectors will be coming back sooner or later when you fill the drive with data.

When a HDD of mine shows such behaviour (the pending sectors are coming back fast) I either throw it away or use it as a temp/swap drive and for data that is not important and can be lost.

What I don't understand about your situation is why your BIOS didn't warn you about the state of the drive. Please have a look a the BIOS settings if there are S.M.A.R.T. settings and if they are turned on. Also I'd advise using a drive checking tool in Windows (e.g. Crystal Disk Info).

 

SMART isnt worth anything in my experience.

Its caught maybe 1 in 20 failed drives I have came across.

 

True.

 

Was able to backup everything with an external SATA port + a new disk. Used Mini-Windows with Teracopy and didn't got any issues. Was a bit surprised honestly, thought it would show tons of erros while making the backup. So i guess the bad sectors are on the mbr area. The drive is so old ( it's from 2004 ), plus it's IDE. A friend will make a full checkup on it. Still, i don't think there's no use for it other than go to the recycle bin.

Yes, the SMART is fully configured on the bios. It went kaput silently and without any warning. By the way, thanks for the suggestions, i'll check the Crystal Disk Info.

Also, i'm planning on get a full new pc, with the new intel sandybridge socket. This old computer is really asking for retirement.

Thanks everybody for all the help and suggestions. :thumbsup: ray:

 

Teracopy is a great app. Every Windows machine I used has it installed.

 

Err, yes it does! If it's a Windows-based issue (e.g. a corrupt driver or unmounted volume - something that's stopped Windows from showing the drive, as we know it's there in the BIOS), then booting into the recovery console will allow you to see the drive just as well as the Linux CD will. That's why, for many years, I've used various recovery CDs based on Windows XP (and, of course, Linux too) on clients' PCs.

If it's simply a case of some bad sectors, then I would run a sector repair tool such as HDD Regenerator... but I'd worry what area is damaged if the drive doesn't show at all!

 

:lol:

 

To be fair, I did say "in an OS that already works", drivers missing or what ever isn't an OS that "already works". Machines that have driver issues with the IDE controller (causing the drive to not even show up in device manager) still display and exclamation mark that something is wrong with the controller- which the OP didnt report.

Advice is tailored to the information give, advice will change or be different based on what I have been told.

An unmountable volume will still be unmountable in XP recovery mode - it uses the same methods to access the disk as the normal install of the OS. I assume this comment of yours was again based on a boot drive becoming corrupt and you get the blue screen saying "unmountable boot volume"? that is only an issue with boot drives and is some corruption of the file system - chkdsk fixes that and yes, will work from XP media (assuming, it doesnt fall into this next comment).

XP based recovery media sucks - they lack support for AHCI unless you integrate a bunch of drivers. It also only has extremely basic tools - not recommended for doing much of anything.

But, it kinda doesnt matter anymore as hes sorted his problem.

Anyway, after all that some advice:

You should be using WinPE 3.0, which is freely available for you to download as part of the Windows 7 AIK - go crazy and make your own recovery media with extra tools and supports AHCI out of the box. You can just put your bootable wim onto a USB stick and use that for recovery - its a million times better than XP based stuff. You will just need to learn how to mount and edit wim's to insert your tools.

KH2K4, shh.

 

Yeah, used to use BartPE and it was pretty handy - haven't really had a chance to play with WinPE but it certainly shows promise.