Need help guys! Hard drive problem!

[AdvancedSetup]

I'm sorry Siobhan but you actually now have a couple of issues.

 

1. You do not want to activate the drive but it's too late for that now.

2. I'm guessing that this drive is bigger than 19GB ??

 

I would suspect that you can't run CHKDSK against the S: drive can you? or have you tried?

 

START - RUN -- type in CMD then press the Enter key.

 

Then in the DOS prompt type in CHKDSK S: /F and press the enter key.

 

What errors do you get back from that?

 

It looks like something has altered the PARTITION information which will now take some advanced software in order to attempt a restore of the drive layout information.

 

Let me know what CHKDSK says.

[Siobhan21uk]

I'm sorry Siobhan but you actually now have a couple of issues.

 

1. You do not want to activate the drive but it's too late for that now.

2. I'm guessing that this drive is bigger than 19GB ??

 

I would suspect that you can't run CHKDSK against the S: drive can you? or have you tried?

 

START - RUN -- type in CMD then press the Enter key.

 

Then in the DOS prompt type in CHKDSK S: /F and press the enter key.

 

What errors do you get back from that?

 

It looks like something has altered the PARTITION information which will now take some advanced software in order to attempt a restore of the drive layout information.

 

Let me know what CHKDSK says.

 

I think the HHD is 20GB.

 

I've done the above and I get the following message...

 

"Access denied as you do not have sufficient privileges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode."

[Dalo Harkin]

are you an administrator on your account?

change to one if not and try the CHKDSK again please.

[AdvancedSetup]

There are a couple of ways around that.

 

The issue is that you're attempting to do something that will affect the entire system so the Vista UAC (User Account Control) prevents this type of activity.

 

Do this. Click on START - then in the search box there on the bottom type in CMD (do not click ok) then press and hold the CTRL+SHIFT key and while they are held down press the ENTER key.

This should bring up the UAC (User Account Control) dialog box asking if it's okay to run with Admin rights. Just click on CONTINUE and the DOS prompt will now be launched with Admin rights and you can run a check disk.

 

CHKDSK S: /F type Y and the Enter key to allow it to run the next time the computer restarts.

 

By default the Administrator account on Vista is disabled to help protect the system. I would not recommend enabling it, or disabling the UAC - it's there to protect your system.

[AdvancedSetup]

At this point about the only option is to use a utility to attempt either a partition recovery or raw file recovery.

 

Please try this software and see if it can do the job for you.

 

PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x

 

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[Siobhan21uk]

There are a couple of ways around that.

 

The issue is that you're attempting to do something that will affect the entire system so the Vista UAC (User Account Control) prevents this type of activity.

 

Do this. Click on START - then in the search box there on the bottom type in CMD (do not click ok) then press and hold the CTRL+SHIFT key and while they are held down press the ENTER key.

This should bring up the UAC (User Account Control) dialog box asking if it's okay to run with Admin rights. Just click on CONTINUE and the DOS prompt will now be launched with Admin rights and you can run a check disk.

 

CHKDSK S: /F type Y and the Enter key to allow it to run the next time the computer restarts.

 

By default the Administrator account on Vista is disabled to help protect the system. I would not recommend enabling it, or disabling the UAC - it's there to protect your system.

 

I've checked and I am the administrator on my PC. I've also disabled UAC just to see if it would help while I do the CHKDSK.

 

I tried it and it said...

 

"The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives."

 

I also tried that program, it didn't help. It didn't show any files when I searched with it. When the program was scanning for drives, it shows the drive i'm having problems with and an error pops up saying "Bad parameter in boot sector: Bytes per second (0) = 0!", it then continues and searches for other drives. The bad drive then shows up in the list, but when I click it, it shows no files.

Edited May 30, 2008 by Siobhan21uk

[Guest Wolfeymole]

It is my personal opinion that all files on that drive are gone Siobahn and to get it operational again you will need to format it.

It also sounds like the drive is shot but try one more thing as detailed below

 

Right click on the drive in Disk Management and click Format, use NTFS for the file structure.

[Siobhan21uk]

Is there absolutely nothing else I can try before I format it? I'm not pushed for space, so formating it right now isn't really needed.

[AdvancedSetup]

Yes there is other software but it's not FREE and if it doesn't find anything then you're out the money as you can not use it and return it.

 

Let me know and I'll get you the information if you want.

[Siobhan21uk]

Yes, whats the other software called?

[AdvancedSetup]

I have used both of these products and they work very well. Active Partition Recovery is much cheaper than Ontrack. The Corporation I worked for bought Ontrack as it is too expensive for most home users.

 

The Website Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help does not endorse this product and has no connection to either of these companies. You asked for information regarding other potential software to use and I've provided the information based on my own personal experience.

 

As a reminder - THEY WILL NOT RETURN YOUR MONEY if the product does not work for you. Ontrack has a demo you can download and try and if it can recover data it will show you, but won't allow you to recover it until you purchase the product. So does Active Partition Recovery.

 

Active@ Partition Recovery v.5.0

Active@ Partition Recovery for Windows download

* Recover deleted partitions (FAT, FAT32 and NTFS)

* Restore deleted FAT and NTFS Logical Drives

* Create Drive Image - for backup purposes

* Scan hard drives and detect deleted FAT and NTFS partitions and/or Logical Drives

* Preview files and folders on deleted partition or drive, to recover proper data

* Backup MBR (Master Boot Record), Partition Table, Boot Sectors

* Restore MBR, Partition Table and Boot Sectors from backup if damaged

* Undelete partitions (Primary and Extended)

* Keep this program on a bootable floppy disk due to its small size

* Display complete Physical and Logical Drive information

* Use it with ease: controlled by only arrows, ENTER, ESC keys

 

 

OnTrack EasyRecovery™ Professional

The Trial edition of EasyRecovery v6.x does not include any data extraction or copy out capabilities for recovering files. The Trial edition will only show you the files that could be recovered with the full edition, and allows you to view a portion of those files that can be recovered with a full edition of EasyRecovery.

 

Good luck and let us know how things go for you.

 

Cheers.

 

 

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