hulabear

Synapse: Thanks for the reply. When I mounted the drive from which I am trying to recover data, Windows XP created RECYCLE and SYSTEM INFORMATION (for system restore) folders; otherwise nothing has been written upon that drive. I am hoping that I'll be able to get my files back without laying out money for commercial software; I'm on disability and rather short of funds. Tried TESTDISK but it only displayed the RECYCLE and SYSTEM INFORMATION folders; maybe I did something wrong. Any ideas? 'Bye! ---HulaBear

Hello: I mistakenly formatted a 1 terabyte drive and wish to use Minitool Power Data Recovery to save the data onto another hard drive while preserving the original directory/folder/files structure. The support page for this freeware is fairly clear on how to run the program and get to the point where LOST and RAW folders are displayed. The LOST folder has many ROOT entries and the RAW folder has entries for many file types (BMP, GIF, JPEG, etc.). I have been able to save files and then access the data on the output drive; many of the images seem a bit corrupted, but many are OK. If any of you folks have much experience using the Minitool Power Data Recovery software, please help me out with this task. Again, I want to save the recovered data from the formatted drive onto the output drive so that there is the same directory tree (is that the correct term?)as on the source drive. Thanks! ----HulaBear PS: The files found by the Minitool total more than 2.8 terabytes from a 1 terabyte drive. What's up with that?

Dalo Harkin: Hmmm . . . As previously noted this 500gb drive was successfully used in a Dell Optiplex GX260; that PC was bought from a techie at work (has since moved away to unknown location) who installed the 500gb hard drive as a secondary. If he put in an ATA 133 controller and cable that later went bad, would that explain why that system no longer detects its primary & secondary hard drives at boot? I can access those drives in the GX260 if I boot from an Ubuntu Lucid Lynx CD (or other rescue disk). Have even been able to copy files from the primary drive, but the secondary 500gb hard drive is not detected (even though that drive is found when installed in the GC270). When I look in the Device Manager on the GX270 under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers I see the following entries: Intel® 8280 1EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers Intel® 8280 1EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers Primary IDE Channel Secondary IDE Channel How do I determine if the system is using an ATA 100 controller or an ATA 133 controller? Thanks! ------HulaBear

The drive is WD5000AAJB-00YRA0 Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200RPM ATA-100 IDE 8MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive Mfr P/N WD5000AAJB-00YRA0 .

Greetings! Thanks for the feedback. Dalo: I tried the regedit instructions you linked to earlier without luck. Jelly Bean: This 500gb drive was used as secondary storage on a Dell Optiplex GX260 and was completely available, so don't think that the age of the computer is the issue. However, that machine was running Windows XP with all service packs and updates. I don't have the system restore discs for the Optiplex GX270 that's using Windows 2000, so have been hesitant to upgrade to Windows XP. Does anyone know of some good freeware that will image the primary drive so that it can be restored if the upgrade to Windows XP goes wrong? I have an external drive which could be used as backup. I appreciate the assistance. 'Bye! ---HulaBear

Dalo Harkin: Hello. Already tried doing a reformat (twice) and disk management still shows that drive as 128gb. Please note that an external 500gb drive is correctly shown as being 465gb. I suppose that I could pop the internal 500gb drive into an external housing, but I'd rather not waste money on that if I can get it working properly in the tower; this drive showed the correct size in the Dell Optiplex GX260 when I booted using the Knoppix rescue CD and could be accessed. What now? Thanks! ---HulaBear

PS: Have restarted the GX270 a few times and have found that when regedit Value name: EnableBigLba Data type: REG_DWORD Value data: 0x1 then the 500gb drive shows on MY COMPUTER without attributes & can't be formatted or accessed. When regedit Value name: EnableBigLba Data type: REG_DWORD Value data: 0x0 the 500gb drive shows on MY COMPUTER as 127gb and can be formatted.

OK, I have downloaded and installed the latest BIOS (version A07 to replace A06) for the GX270. Clicked F2 and found that the secondary drive now shows 500gb capacity. MY COMPUTER still shows only 127gb. Read the microsoft support : To enable 48-bit LBA large-disk support in the registry: Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe). Locate and then click the following key in the registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value: Value name: EnableBigLba Data type: REG_DWORD Value data: 0x1 Quit Registry Editor. Have followed those directions and reformatted the 500gb drive; still only shows 127gb. Now what?

Hello: I should add that this 500gb Western Digital drive was once used as secondary storage in a Dell Optiplex GX260 without any problems (NTFS format); had some problems with that system (would not recognize that it had any hard drives, though booting with Knoppix rescue CD allowed me to use both drives), so decided to use the 500gb drive in the Dell Optiplex GX270. I will try the suggestions in the last 2 posts and see if that helps. Thanks! ---HulaBear

Howdy! I tried that link earlier, but no joy. How can I check the make/model of my motherboard? Where do I go for a BIOS update and how is that done? Thanks! ---HulaBear

Hello: I have installed a Western Digital 500gb internal hard drive as a secondary in my Dell Optiplex GX270 tower. It shows up on MY COMPUTER as only 127gb total space. I am running Windows 2000 with all updates. How can I get the operating system to use and display the entire 500gb on this drive? Thanks! ----HulaBear