Rescuing files from a "dead" drive

[jp]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

About a week ago my old hard drive crashed. It had been running XP home on
the c: drive. Don't think it was an OS issue, cause I got that
click-click-click sound instead of hearing a spinning disc.

I did a clean install of XP home, onto a brand new 160 GB drive, again
putting it on the c: drive. The OS and all my software is installed and
ready to go.

I had not made a backup not for a good 4 or 5 months. (I know, I know, bad
move.) I would really like to try rescuing the files from those months, so I
tried hooking up the old drive as a slave. Well, lo and behold, it spun! So
now the old HD is working, but who knows for how long.

Here's my big question: how do I get the files from the old one onto the
new one? I can see the old drive in device manager, and got an "adding new
hardware" bubble. But I CANNOT see the drive in Windows Explorer, nor in
disc management under My Computer. Western digital tools software sees the
drive and asks "do you want to set up this drive to work with your system",
but I want to make sure that won't re-format it and erase all data. I also
tried going through the BIOS setup program, booting from the Windows that was
installed on the old drive, but it wouldn't boot.

Any ideas what else to do? Shoudl I try one or more of these things again?
Push ahead with the WD setup or with formatting the drive? I really would
appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

You might try this app yourself or pay a data recovery Co. to recover your
data if all else fails and the data is worth the expence...
http://www.download.com/3000-2094-10225436.html
j;-j

"jp" wrote:

> About a week ago my old hard drive crashed. It had been running XP home on
> the c: drive. Don't think it was an OS issue, cause I got that
> click-click-click sound instead of hearing a spinning disc.
>
> I did a clean install of XP home, onto a brand new 160 GB drive, again
> putting it on the c: drive. The OS and all my software is installed and
> ready to go.
>
> I had not made a backup not for a good 4 or 5 months. (I know, I know, bad
> move.) I would really like to try rescuing the files from those months, so I
> tried hooking up the old drive as a slave. Well, lo and behold, it spun! So
> now the old HD is working, but who knows for how long.
>
> Here's my big question: how do I get the files from the old one onto the
> new one? I can see the old drive in device manager, and got an "adding new
> hardware" bubble. But I CANNOT see the drive in Windows Explorer, nor in
> disc management under My Computer. Western digital tools software sees the
> drive and asks "do you want to set up this drive to work with your system",
> but I want to make sure that won't re-format it and erase all data. I also
> tried going through the BIOS setup program, booting from the Windows that was
> installed on the old drive, but it wouldn't boot.
>
> Any ideas what else to do? Shoudl I try one or more of these things again?
> Push ahead with the WD setup or with formatting the drive? I really would
> appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

 

[TechMaster]

Did you check the jumper settings and slave the old hardrive and make the new harddrive the master?

Good luck!

 

[marshahu]

I had that same issue with my 160GB when my motherboard died although my OS refused to boot up probably becuase of the change in motherboard so I made it slave and shoved it alongside my Sister's lil 40GB :lol:

I was offered similar things by Add new Hardware - so I said yes I do want to set it up within Windows. I know how you feel - I was scared of that process meaning that all my data will be wiped clean and formatted - It doesn't offer to format the hard disk, at least I don't remember it offering me to do such a thing. My logic was the idea of swapping hard disks or storage between PCs should be common to Windows XP, after all we shove in USB sticks which are like small hard disks and we aren't told to format them are we? If the installation goes well, the add new hardware wizard will ask you to restart your computer - do so and when you boot back into windows the partitions of that drive should appear under the next available drive letter.

TBH if you do lose data through carless installation - just think, the hard disk sounds liek its on its way out so you woulda lost it someway or another j/kin. Just take care at each prompt - if there is nothing about formatting then it should go just fine. Otherwise just cancel leave it to the professionals

Good luck - by the sounds of things you may well need it!!