Harddrive file recovery

[fjs36]

I have a problem with system crashes on my main computer asus A8V-delux m/b, xp home installed on ide hdd. have 2nd computer also with xp home installed, soltek m/b. have tried to swap hdd into old computer wothout success, is there a way of accessing/transferring files,folders, etc to hdd on 2nd computer?

 

[Paperdoc]

When you moved the IDE hard drive to the old computer, did you make sure the jumpers were set up properly? Any IDE port and cable can handle up to two devices (well, assuming the ribbon data cable you have has a middle connector for the second device). Any IDE port MUST have one device (usually the one on the END of the ribbon cable) set as Master. IF there is a second device, it MUST be set to Slave. This is done with jumpers on pins on the back edge of the drive, between the 4-pin power connector and the 40-pin data connector. If there was a Master there before and it is the ONLY device on the cable, check for a subtle difference on some drives. Some make a distinction in the way to set jumpers between Master with No Slave, and Master with Slave Present.

Now, if instead you connected the second HDD in the old machine to a SEPARATE IDE port and cable so it becomes the only device on that second port, then it MUST be set as the Master of that IDE port. And the settings of devices on the other port (which you are not changing) must be left as they were.

If you got all those right and the older computer still cannot read the HDD you moved, it's a strong indication that the HDD itself may be faulty. Maybe that's why it was misbehaving in the original machine.

 

[fjs36]

Thanks Paperdoc, I installed it as only drive on ide and as master, might try it as slave but wondered if problem might be 2 operating systems being installed. Will test hdd but is relativley new (less than 12mnths old)

 

[howardp6]

Thanks Paperdoc, I installed it as only drive on ide and as master, might try it as slave but wondered if problem might be 2 operating systems being installed. Will test hdd but is relativley new (less than 12mnths old)

If the chipset is the same, you would be able to istall your failed drive as the primary drive, otherwise the drive will not boot. That is why it was suggested by Paperdoc as the secondary drive and as a slave. If yo only have one IDE ribbon cable you may have to replace the CD/DVD drive on the cable.

 

[Paperdoc]

So I guess the existing drive in the older computer is a SATA unit, since the new machine's IDE unit went into the old machine as the ONLY device on an IDE port, properly set to Master. Or maybe, your old machine has two IDE ports and you're using IDE drives as Masters on each port separately - also OK.

There should not be trouble with two drives both containing Xp installations in the same machine as long as the Boot Drive is set up clearly. But just to be sure, try disconnecting the known-good drive that "belongs" in the old machine so that only the questionable drive from the new machine is available. It's quite likely it will NOT boot properly this way because the version of XP on the new drive's HDD will contain all the drivers for the new machine's mobo, and not the stuff needed to use the old drive's hardware. But at least it should start to boot Windows, then fail part way through the sequence. If it can't even do that there is a disk problem.

One other possibility occurs to me: is the "old computer" old enough that its hard disk controllers do NOT have "48-bit LBA Support"? This COULD be the case if it was made before about year 2000. But if it's more recent than that, OR if you already are using larger hard disks in it, OR if it has SATA ports on the mobo, forget this idea.

 

[fjs36]

So I guess the existing drive in the older computer is a SATA unit, since the new machine's IDE unit went into the old machine as the ONLY device on an IDE port, properly set to Master. Or maybe, your old machine has two IDE ports and you're using IDE drives as Masters on each port separately - also OK.

There should not be trouble with two drives both containing Xp installations in the same machine as long as the Boot Drive is set up clearly. But just to be sure, try disconnecting the known-good drive that "belongs" in the old machine so that only the questionable drive from the new machine is available. It's quite likely it will NOT boot properly this way because the version of XP on the new drive's HDD will contain all the drivers for the new machine's mobo, and not the stuff needed to use the old drive's hardware. But at least it should start to boot Windows, then fail part way through the sequence. If it can't even do that there is a disk problem.

One other possibility occurs to me: is the "old computer" old enough that its hard disk controllers do NOT have "48-bit LBA Support"? This COULD be the case if it was made before about year 2000. But if it's more recent than that, OR if you already are using larger hard disks in it, OR if it has SATA ports on the mobo, forget this idea.

Thanks for all your help. Installed 2nd drive on slave connection and set jumper to cable select, booted system and heypresto I have access to the drive again. I'm about to try to get early asus A8v Delux to boot and recognise sata drive by slipstreaming XP SP3 using nLite and Driverpacks software so I will probably be back for more assistance. Thanks to the community from a newcomer.