HDD is not accessible after defrag

[iky]

Hello guys, i have a problem with my slave disk
its Maxtor 250Gig 7400rpm. I had second partition (bout 100 gig) drive about 93% full when I decided to defragment it. After defragment I cant access the drive - everytime I click on it system message asks me to reformat it, something that i wouldnt like doing. Do u guys have any advise for me? Thanks.

 

[samir_nayanajaad]

well I think you might have run into the problem because there wasnt enugh free space on the hdd (or at least that partition) to do a de frag. to fix the problem you might be able to use a recovery tool like Recover my files to get them back or maybe norton ghost would work but I doubt that it would you might run into the same problem

 

[dokk]

Hello guys, i have a problem with my slave disk
its Maxtor 250Gig 7400rpm. I had second partition (bout 100 gig) drive about 93% full when I decided to defragment it. After defragment I cant access the drive - everytime I click on it system message asks me to reformat it, something that i wouldnt like doing. Do u guys have any advise for me? Thanks.

??? Can you run scandisk from dos,[ie an ME boot disk]you should never allow over 80% +/-,of hdd to be used,as you now know can cause problemz..
Also if you have access to another computer ?? try removing/deleting some stuff from hdd???

 

[womble]

Well if it turns out to be a case of having to move a little off it a linux livecd might help out, though it would depend on your config a bit as I can't think of any that have ntfs write support enabled (not officially supported yet). However if you have 2 optical drives ideally 1 dvd recorder you could shove a few gig onto that, an old hard drive kicking around formatted to fat/32 would be even handier.

Just throwing a few ideas into the pot.

Karl

 

[g-paw]

You could also try to resize the partition if you have space on the first partition, which is likely C. This would give you more space on the partition you're having the problem with. Partition Magic is a good program to do this. Don't know if there are any free programs for resizing partitions. This assumes that the data is still there but the partition isn't accessable because of you have too much data on it for the size currently available.

 

[iky]

thank you guys so much for your responses, i have tried every suggestion but unsuccessfull. My last step was using Partition Magic, i tried megring those 2 but error came up saying that 2nd partition is NTFS version 0.0 and it cant merge with 3.1. Resizing option does not come up for second partition. I'll mess around for one more day and then im formatting the damn thing.

 

[g-paw]

Have you tried converting the 1st Partition, the one I assume you have your operating system and programs are on to NTFS, you shoulod be able to do it with Partition Magic. Once they're both NTFS, you should be able to resize them. I would resize not merge them. If necessary, you should be able to reformat just your C drive, the one with the OS and programs on and re-install Windows. This should not affect your D drive (the 2nd partiiton), i.e., you should not lose any data on the 2nd partition. If your 1st partiton is not NTFS, I believe there is a size limitation, either 2 or 6 GB, and that may be the problem with resizing. In most cases, it is better to lose your OS and programs, which can be reinstalled rather than you data. This again assume your OS is Windows 2000 or XP, I'm not sure 98 or ME will run on an NFTS dirve. What is the size of the first partition? If you have a 250GB hard drive and your 2nd partiton is 100GB, then there is another 150GB or a little less somewhere. FIanally, if you're running 98 or ME and can't install it on an NTFS partition, format the C drive to what ever size the OS will take and create a 3rd partiton from the remaining space available. Keeping your Data Partiton. Not sure how you'd do this but sure someone can give you instructions.

 

[maury73]

The only chance you have is to try with a linux Gentoo LiveCD or other live distribution, mount the HD and copy the data to another device.
The rules say "alway do a backup before a defrag". It's stated also in the defrag window itself.

 

[g-paw]

Agree with backing up the data if possible before trying any of my above suggestions. While I've never had a problem doing anything with Partition Magic, e.g., losing data, better safe than sorry when ever possible. If you decide to get a 2nd drive to back up stuff, if you can handle the extra cost, might want to consider an external given the size of your drive. If you decide on an external, it's a lot cheaper to buy the drive and a case and screw it together yourself. Let us know how it all works out.

 

[n0_0n]

Just slave your drive to a copy of Win ME/98 and transfer your data to it.

 

[iky]

Have you tried converting the 1st Partition, the one I assume you have your operating system and programs are on to NTFS, you shoulod be able to do it with Partition Magic. Once they're both NTFS, you should be able to resize them. I would resize not merge them. If necessary, you should be able to reformat just your C drive, the one with the OS and programs on and re-install Windows. This should not affect your D drive (the 2nd partiiton), i.e., you should not lose any data on the 2nd partition. If your 1st partiton is not NTFS, I believe there is a size limitation, either 2 or 6 GB, and that may be the problem with resizing. In most cases, it is better to lose your OS and programs, which can be reinstalled rather than you data. This again assume your OS is Windows 2000 or XP, I'm not sure 98 or ME will run on an NFTS dirve. What is the size of the first partition? If you have a 250GB hard drive and your 2nd partiton is 100GB, then there is another 150GB or a little less somewhere. FIanally, if you're running 98 or ME and can't install it on an NTFS partition, format the C drive to what ever size the OS will take and create a 3rd partiton from the remaining space available. Keeping your Data Partiton. Not sure how you'd do this but sure someone can give you instructions.

Hard drive im having problems with is already my slave drive that I use just as back-up. It looks like this
1pt(F) 95,8 gb
2pt(G) 98,6 gb <-- damaged
First partiotion F doesnt have any OS's on em, therefore I wouldnt have any problems in formatting the first partition, as matter of fact this is my next step. F is already NTFS version 3.1 but G shows as NTFS 0.0 with 0bytes available and 0bytes size. Resizing for G is not available in Partition Magic its just grayed out and merging is not possible because of different NTFS versions. I hope this made my situation more clear, thanks alot for ur responses.

 

[womble]

My thoughts are going along the lines of if windows can't access the data and partition magic is having trouble try a bootable linux cd. I quite like pclinuxos, free and should provide a nice easy click on me jobbie to access all the drives (if the large download is a problem private message me).

I can't say if linux will be able to see the partition and it's contents, depends on how bad the damage is. If it can see it though it should provide a nice easy route to retrieval.

I'm no expert but It would be nice to see if something can actually access the partition and see the data before messing around with partition tables and stuff. Definitely worth exploring a bit more before zapping it.

Karl

 

[n0_0n]

I'm not sure about the linux thing, but what you are going through (IKY) has happened to me and Win ME was able to recognise the drive and I was able to retrieve all my data, I'm not sure if the XP drive I was trying to save was Fat32 or NTFS but it has happened a few times (I use HDD drawers and the constant swapping of drives is probably the cause) and WIN ME saved the day .Good Luck!.

 

[ZOldDude]

Hello guys, i have a problem with my slave disk
its Maxtor 250Gig 7400rpm. I had second partition (bout 100 gig) drive about 93% full when I decided to defragment it. After defragment I cant access the drive - everytime I click on it system message asks me to reformat it, something that i wouldnt like doing. Do u guys have any advise for me? Thanks.

Never....NEVER...defrag a HD befor you run CHKDSK first.

What probibly happened was you had a bad sector and unknowinly (as far as the drive knew) tryed to move info onto a "bad sector". Always check for bad sectors and/or lost clusters befor a defrag.

You can TRY running SpinRite ( www.grc.com ) but as you have already tryed to defrag you are probibly ...screwed.
Still give SpinRite a try as it MIGHT pick up enough of the bad spot to recover and even repair the bad sector even tho it may need to run for many hours.

Running SpinRite a few times each year befor a defrag will recover most bad secs on your drive first.