Re: Hard Drive in BIOS, but not My Computer

Brian

I strongly suggest that you leave data recovery on this drive to a
professional.. the more you mess with it, the less chance there is of
getting anything meaningful from it..

One presumes that the owner of the computer is beginning to realise the
importance of back ups..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Brian Lynn" <BrianLynn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BC83A80A-6E52-4518-BE34-11D9E2944EF3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Its ok in the bios, its listed differently in Disk Management evertime I
> look
> at it... and it won't show up at all in My Computer.
>
> It worked great the first time, but now I can't get in...
>
> (the long story to follow)
> Had a crashed computer from a friend. Kept getting "NTBTLDR.EXE is
> missing"
> or something like that... I took out the HDD and I connected it to my PC
> using my CD drive cables since I have a very small system with very
> limited
> hardware resources... I can't run 3HDD and CD ROM at same time.
>
> HDD worked fine... I pulled some files off it that she needed for school,
> all in .wps format.
>
> In order to check that they were the correct files I had to download a
> .wps
> viewer for WordXP. Do I downloaded it, and tried to install it. At this
> point, despite my Custom Install request of Run All From HDD, I am told to
> insert the OfficeXP CD to install the feature I am trying to run... WTF is
> that?????
>
> My CD drive is out. I have to shutdown and reconnect the CD drive, get the
> plugin installed, and we check little girl's files... Wrong ones... So
> great
> I just plug the HDD back in and grab the rest of the files for her report
> on
> Baroque Art...
>
> I do a "Run all from HDD" type install and I am so frustrated and pissed
> off
> that I am constantly being asked for the CD to install whatever feature it
> might be that I need... So of couse this is what happened this time... I
> tried to install the download and I was told I had to put in the CD...
> well
> of course I had disconnected the CD drive... so I shut down, reconnected
> the
> CD and ran the disk like asked. Checked the files, and they were the wrong
> one.
>
> So with new converter installed I went back to plugging in this little
> girl's HDD to retrieve the remainder of her school files...
>
> Wrong. Now Windows won't recognize the HDD... well it does, sort of... My
> BIOS sees the HDD just fine. Strange part is, Windows Admin Tools Disk
> Management can see the drive too, which used to be a "Basic, FAT32"
>
> Now Disk Management tells me one of two things... Most often it tells me
> that the disk is now Dynamic and Unreadable... Sometimes it tells me the
> Disk
> is Active, Dynamic FAT32 and I get a colored line on the graphics (of the
> disk management window) like the disk is active and ready, and I STILL
> can't
> access the drive from My Computer...
>
> What is going on here? I call Microsoft and they tell me "if you don't
> want
> to have to use the CD for updates then you should make a flash of the CD
> to
> your HDD"... that is crap... that is the WORST work-around I have ever
> seen.
> And supposedly they have put a "Local Install" option into Office2k3 that
> does this for you... still a BAD solution, IMHO... anyone who "Run all
> from
> HDD" is screwed if they are on the road and have to update or install a
> new
> feature.
>
> And is there a way to force a look into this broke tower HDD? some
> software
> out there that can force open the disk, let me look inside and grab
> something
> since Windows can't seem to recognize its own file allocation structures
> twice in a row ?
>


.

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