Hi all,

I'm new at this forum, but have a pretty big problem. I'm sorry if this is the wrong section to post this, but my problem relates a lot to Windows XP, so I thought this was the best place.

Anyways, on to my problem.

I just purchased a new PC and decided to use the copy of windows I already owned. I transplanted the hard drive from my old PC into my new one in a hope that Windows would just install the new hardware without difficulty. This, unfortunately did not work as planned, so I formatted the new harddrive I got with the new computer and installed Windows normally.

One thing I noticed was that the computer booted off of the old hard drive and not the new one. It would ask me what OS I wanted to boot (both Windows XP), and when I chose the first one, it would load correctly.

Today, I decided that I probably didn't need the old installation, and then formatted it. This is where my problem started.

When I tried to boot Windows, it gave me an error about a boot file missing. I got out my Windows Cd and ran the setup. I decided I would just go with a new installation of windows on the old drive, so I set out to format it. When I tried that, the format utility tried to format the new drive even though I selected the old one. This is one cause for concern, since all of my personal information was on the new drive. It got to around 12% formatted before I stopped it.

Secondly, I finally got to format the old drive, but setup can't continue since it gives me an error about the drive being corrupted. I formatted it twice, both times with the same error following.

As of now, the new drive (250 GB SATA) reads in the windows installer as having only 3 MB of free space (even though it should have around 200 GB) and in the FAT File system. The 80 GB drive reads as an NTFS partition, but Windows won't install on it.

My main question is: is the data on the SATA drive recoverable?

Thank you for your help.

Hi Yuiichi,

Welcome to The PCHF,
Ok then this may take a while.
As you have formatted the 250Gb drive what seems to be a couple of times, it is unlikely that you will be able to recover any data off it.
Please let us know the make/model of your 80Gb dive so I can direct you to a diagnostic test to check the drive.

Did your new pc come with any recovery cd's as this may be the best place to start from. Also some compays put a recovery partition on the hard drive and you may need to run the recovery from there.

If you still want to install the O/S from your own cd then when you get to the part in setup that asks where you want to install windows, make sure that you delete all the other partitions before formatting the hard drive ready for the windows install.

Please let us know how you get on and if you have any questions ask away.

I didn't format the 250GB drive fully - it only got to 12% complete on the format that accidentily happened. Thats why I'm still a little hopeful for getting back at least some of the data. As of right now, it's in the FAT32 files system with what seems like 3 MB of free space. You think that there is no chance of me getting anything back?

The 80GB drive is made by Seagate - thats all I can really tell you. It's around 5 years old, and it came with my old Compaq Presario. You think that if I deleted the current partition on it, and then formatted again, it would be fine?

Since I had the new PC custom built, they didn't include any recovery CDs. It was basically building my own, but with a company building it for me (if that makes any sense at all). I doubt if they put any recovery partition on the drive either.

I'm going to be taking this into the shop that I got it built at - I called them up and they said they would take a look at it. I really hope that I can get some of the data back... all of my work for 4 years, as well as countless other irreplacable stuff.

Thanks for your time, and I'll update you on how it goes!

Hi again,

Ok then, all the best with the shop.
If you want to test the 80Gb go to this page, http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/
Download the "Desktop" version. Download it to a pc and run it, you should be able to create a bootable flopp/cdrom. Run the test on the drice to check for any errors.
Any other questions, don't hesitate.

Hey again,

I was just browsing through some googled information, and came across this piece of software. It claims that it can recover files deleted in the recycle bin as well as stuff lost from a Format.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this or similar software, and if they could tell me how it worked and, more importantly, if it worked, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks again for your concern and help!

There are plenty of apps like that , free and paid , but after a format the succes rate is very low usually:

http://www.partition-recovery.com/
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...d,22917,00.asp
http://www.winplanet.com/file/28237.htm
http://www.r-tt.com/

Good news!

I just came back from the computer shop and explained the problem to one of their tech crew. He's going to try and repair the 80 GB drive as well as restore the data on the 250 GB drive. In fact, he assured me that he could get it all back according to the information I gave him.

What a relief! Thanks for all of your support guys, it was greatly appreciated. I'll definitely stick around here to see what support I can offer up myself.