New Hard Drive Worked, Then Disappeared

I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc. Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

"W-Bob" wrote in message ...
I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc.

Does it show in device manager? It's possible only the partition information
is missing or corrupted. (hope springs eternal)


Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

If the drive is visible in DM, but doesn't have any drive letters assigned to it,
then there are no visible FAT-type partitions defined.

To obtain more information-
Download partinfo.zip
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/partinfo.zip
Unzip to a bootable DOS floppy.
Boot to DOS and run
partinfo a:\partinfo.txt
Copy/paste the file output to a reply to this message.

On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 13:04:01 -0800, W-Bob
wrote:

I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc. Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

As Bill Blanton asked, is it listed in Device Manager? If so and you
are using TweakUI then under the My Computer tab make sure EVERY
drive is checked.

Also try booting to Dos or use your startup diskette then change to
the D: drive by entering
D:
Any error message?

Then enter DIR, do you see the files and folders?

You've probably tried these but it's worth mentioning.

I always use copy/paste then if all is well I delete the old folder.

Hope you resolve it quickly.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Win98 Computer Help & Other Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

Booting to the startup disk doesn't help. If I have both C and D drives, the
only one seen is C. If I use just the D drive, it creates a new virtual drive
that only contains the startup files.

The Device Manager sees 3 things: an Intel dual controller, a primary
controller and a secondary controller. All are said to be working OK with no
conflicts. However, C is the only drive showing in My Computer.

QUESTION: If I add a FAT32 partition, do I lose the data already on the
drive? And if it was NOT partitioned, how did it let me store data there
after I "formatted" it???

I'm thinking now I'll have to send the drive to a shop to try recovering the
data, reformatting and reloading the data -- if that's possible!

"W-Bob" wrote:

I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc. Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

"W-Bob" wrote in message
...
Booting to the startup disk doesn't help. If I have both C and D drives,
the
only one seen is C. If I use just the D drive, it creates a new virtual
drive
that only contains the startup files.

The Device Manager sees 3 things: an Intel dual controller, a primary
controller and a secondary controller. All are said to be working OK with
no
conflicts. However, C is the only drive showing in My Computer.

QUESTION: If I add a FAT32 partition, do I lose the data already on the
drive? And if it was NOT partitioned, how did it let me store data there
after I "formatted" it???

I'm thinking now I'll have to send the drive to a shop to try recovering
the
data, reformatting and reloading the data -- if that's possible!

"W-Bob" wrote:

I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive
as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D,
but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked
Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the
drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided
to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in
it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared
and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to
C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2,
20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers,
moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc. Is there any way to recover my data or
get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

if you used a boot disk ..the virtual drive is D: ...CDROM would be E: so
your "other "drive would probably be F:

I don't know if you saw my suggestion to run partinfo or not, but
partinfo doesn't care about OS drive letter assignments.

Yes, if you "add a FAT32 partition" you will probably lose your data for
good. Don't do anything that writes to the disk until you figure out what's
wrong.

If you do end up sending it somewhere, choose a reputable data recovery
service, and not one of those big-box computer retailers.



"W-Bob" wrote in message ...
Booting to the startup disk doesn't help. If I have both C and D drives, the
only one seen is C. If I use just the D drive, it creates a new virtual drive
that only contains the startup files.

The Device Manager sees 3 things: an Intel dual controller, a primary
controller and a secondary controller. All are said to be working OK with no
conflicts. However, C is the only drive showing in My Computer.

QUESTION: If I add a FAT32 partition, do I lose the data already on the
drive? And if it was NOT partitioned, how did it let me store data there
after I "formatted" it???

I'm thinking now I'll have to send the drive to a shop to try recovering the
data, reformatting and reloading the data -- if that's possible!

"W-Bob" wrote:

I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc. Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

I've never had to use a data recovery service knock on wood, but Drive Savers
comes highly recommended by a few other MVPs:
http://www.data-recovery-tools.net/dr/drivesavers.html

http://www.drivesavers.com/

I'm still hoping the OP posts back with the partinfo report.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Bill Blanton" wrote in message
...
I don't know if you saw my suggestion to run partinfo or not, but
partinfo doesn't care about OS drive letter assignments.

Yes, if you "add a FAT32 partition" you will probably lose your data for
good. Don't do anything that writes to the disk until you figure out what's
wrong.

If you do end up sending it somewhere, choose a reputable data recovery
service, and not one of those big-box computer retailers.



"W-Bob" wrote in message
...
Booting to the startup disk doesn't help. If I have both C and D drives, the
only one seen is C. If I use just the D drive, it creates a new virtual drive
that only contains the startup files.

The Device Manager sees 3 things: an Intel dual controller, a primary
controller and a secondary controller. All are said to be working OK with no
conflicts. However, C is the only drive showing in My Computer.

QUESTION: If I add a FAT32 partition, do I lose the data already on the
drive? And if it was NOT partitioned, how did it let me store data there
after I "formatted" it???

I'm thinking now I'll have to send the drive to a shop to try recovering the
data, reformatting and reloading the data -- if that's possible!

"W-Bob" wrote:

I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc. Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

I'll do partinfo on Saturday -- we've got 4 people sharing the home computer
and you can imagine the pressure to keep the old clunker running. I really
appreciate all your comments -- the Seagate people were pretty useless since
it wasn't a mechanical problem. They couldn't fathom that it worked and then
quit. Please check back this weekend and help me analize the report I get.
Tnx, Bob

"Bill Blanton" wrote:

"W-Bob" wrote in message ...
I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc.

Does it show in device manager? It's possible only the partition information
is missing or corrupted. (hope springs eternal)


Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

If the drive is visible in DM, but doesn't have any drive letters assigned to it,
then there are no visible FAT-type partitions defined.

To obtain more information-
Download partinfo.zip
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/partinfo.zip
Unzip to a bootable DOS floppy.
Boot to DOS and run
partinfo a:\partinfo.txt
Copy/paste the file output to a reply to this message.

Ok. Reply in this thread.


"W-Bob" wrote in message ...
I'll do partinfo on Saturday -- we've got 4 people sharing the home computer
and you can imagine the pressure to keep the old clunker running. I really
appreciate all your comments -- the Seagate people were pretty useless since
it wasn't a mechanical problem. They couldn't fathom that it worked and then
quit. Please check back this weekend and help me analize the report I get.
Tnx, Bob

"Bill Blanton" wrote:

"W-Bob" wrote in message ...
I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc.

Does it show in device manager? It's possible only the partition information
is missing or corrupted. (hope springs eternal)


Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

If the drive is visible in DM, but doesn't have any drive letters assigned to it,
then there are no visible FAT-type partitions defined.

To obtain more information-
Download partinfo.zip
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/partinfo.zip
Unzip to a bootable DOS floppy.
Boot to DOS and run
partinfo a:\partinfo.txt
Copy/paste the file output to a reply to this message.

Here is the partinfo report. I don't understand it, but looks like a lot of
errors on Drive 0:


Partition Information Program
Sep 16 2002 - DOS32 Version
Copyright (c) 1994-2002, PowerQuest Corporation
Permission is granted for this utility to be freely copied so long
as it is not modified in any way. All other rights are reserved.

PowerQuest, makers of PartitionMagic(r), Drive Image(tm) and DriveCopy(tm),
can be reached at
Voice: 801-226-6834 Web site: http://www.powerquest.com/support/
Fax: 801-226-8941 Email:
BiosExtensions: 0x2100 Subsets (0x00000005): Access EDD
EGeo 0x0002 19650 16 63 19807200 0 512


================================================== ==========================

Disk 0: 1232 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track.

BiosExtensions: 0x2100 Subsets (0x00000005): Access EDD
The BIOS supports INT 13h extensions for this drive.

============================ Partition Tables ==============================

Partition -----Begin---- ------End----- Start Num

Sector # Boot Cyl Head Sect FS Cyl Head Sect Sect Sects

---------- - ---- ---- ---- ---- -- ---- ---- ---- ---------- ----------

0 0 80 [ 0 1 1] 0C [ 207 254 63] 63 19792017
[Large Drive Placeholders]

0 1 1 1231 254 63
Actual Values

BiosExtensions: 0x2100 Subsets (0x00000005): Access EDD
EGeo 0x0002 38792 16 63 39102336 0 512


================================================== ==========================

Disk 1: 2434 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track.

BiosExtensions: 0x2100 Subsets (0x00000005): Access EDD
The BIOS supports INT 13h extensions for this drive.

============================ Partition Tables ==============================

Partition -----Begin---- ------End----- Start Num

Sector # Boot Cyl Head Sect FS Cyl Head Sect Sect Sects

---------- - ---- ---- ---- ---- -- ---- ---- ---- ---------- ----------

0 0 20 [ 356 97 46] 20 [ 357 116 40] 1919950958 544437093
[Large Drive Placeholders]

53975 107 3 22329 15 41
Actual ValuesWarning: Partition boot flag expected to be 0x00 or 0x80,

not 0x20. This should not be a problem.


Error #107: Partition begins after end of disk.

ucBeginCylinder (53975) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginHead expected to be 0 or 1, not 107.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginSector expected to be 1, not 3.

Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.

ucEndCylinder (22329) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndHead expected to be 254, not 15.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndSector expected to be 63, not 41.

Error #116: Starting sector of partition is inconsistent.

ulStartSect = 1919950958

Begin C,H,S = 867115118

Error #110: Number of sectors in partition is inconsistent.

ucSectors = 544437093
end - begin = 3786568549
0 1 61 [ 288 110 57] 6B [ 269 101 57] 1330184202 538976288
[Large Drive Placeholders]

17264 34 61 50813 219 8
Actual ValuesWarning: Partition boot flag expected to be 0x00 or 0x80,

not 0x61. This should not be a problem.


Error #107: Partition begins after end of disk.

ucBeginCylinder (17264) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginHead expected to be 0 or 1, not 34.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginSector expected to be 1, not 61.

Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.

ucEndCylinder (50813) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndHead expected to be 254, not 219.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndSector expected to be 63, not 8.

Error #116: Starting sector of partition is inconsistent.

ulStartSect = 1330184202

Begin C,H,S = 277348362

0 2 20 [ 345 32 19] 53 [ 324 77 19] 538989391 1398362912
[Large Drive Placeholders]

33550 137 11 55058 153 54
Actual ValuesWarning: Partition boot flag expected to be 0x00 or 0x80,

not 0x20. This should not be a problem.


Error #107: Partition begins after end of disk.

ucBeginCylinder (33550) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginHead expected to be 0 or 1, not 137.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginSector expected to be 1, not 11.

Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.

ucEndCylinder (55058) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndHead expected to be 254, not 153.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndSector expected to be 63, not 54.

Error #110: Number of sectors in partition is inconsistent.

ucSectors = 1398362912
end - begin = 345527072
0 3 80 [ 87 1 0] 49 [ 335 78 2] 1394627663 21337
[Large Drive Placeholders]

21275 142 3 21276 225 45
Actual Values

Error #107: Partition begins after end of disk.

ucBeginCylinder (21275) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginHead expected to be 0 or 1, not 142.

Info: Partition didn't begin on head boundary.

ucBeginSector expected to be 1, not 3.

Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.

ucEndCylinder (21276) must be less than 2434.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndHead expected to be 254, not 225.

Info: Partition didn't end on cylinder boundary.

ucEndSector expected to be 63, not 45.

Error #116: Starting sector of partition is inconsistent.

ulStartSect = 1394627663

Begin C,H,S = 341791823


Disk[1], Part[1330184202]: Error #113: Primary partition starting at
1330184202 overlaps previous partition.


Disk[1], Part[1394627663]: Error #113: Primary partition starting at
1394627663 overlaps previous partition.


Disk[1], Part[1919950958]: Info: MBR Partition Table not in sequential order.




================================================== ================================

Disk 0: 9664.1 Megabytes

============================= Partition Information
==============================

Volume Partition Partition Start
Total

Letter:Label Type Status Size MB Sector # Sector
Sectors

------------- --------------- -------- -------- ---------- - ----------
----------

C:BOBBY'S C FAT32X Pri,Boot 9664.1 0 0 63
19792017





================================================== ================================

Disk 1: 19092.9 Megabytes

============================= Partition Information
==============================

Volume Partition Partition Start
Total

Letter:Label Type Status Size MB Sector # Sector
Sectors

------------- --------------- -------- -------- ---------- - ----------
----------

Unallocated Pri 19092.8 None - 63
39102147

Unallocated Pri 244085.5 None - 39102210
499887181

Type 53 Pri,Boot 682794.4 0 2 538989391
1398362912

Type 6B Pri,Boot 263172.0 0 1 1330184202
538976288

Type 49 Pri,Boot 10.4 0 3 1394627663
21337

Unallocated Pri 256490.9 None - 1394650845
525293370

Type 20 Pri,Boot 265838.4 0 0 1919950958
544437093






================================================== ======================

Boot Sector for drive C: Drive 1, Starting Sector: 63, Type: FAT32

================================================== ======================

1. Jump: EB 58 90

2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1

3. Bytes Per Sector: 512

4. Sectors Per Cluster: 16

5. Reserved Sectors: 32

6. Number of FAT's: 2

7. Reserved: 0x0000

8. Reserved: 0x0000

9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8

10. Sectors Per FAT: 0

11. Sectors Per Track: 63 (0x3F)

12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)

13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)

14. Big Total Sectors: 19792017 (0x12E0091)

15. Big Sectors Per FAT: 9655

16. Extended Flags: 0x0000

17. FS Version: 0

18. First Cluster of Root: 2 (0x2)

19. FS Info Sector: 1

20. Backup Boot Sector: 6

21. Reserved: 0x00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

22. Drive ID: 0x80

23. Reserved for NT: 0x00

24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29

25. Serial Number: 0x297A069D

26. Volume Name: BOBBY'S C

27. File System Type: FAT32

28. Boot Signatu 0xAA55








"Bill Blanton" wrote:

"W-Bob" wrote in message ...
I have a Pentium II 350 running Win 98 on a Western Digital 10gig drive as C.
I installed a 20gig Seagate drive, setting WD as master and Sea as slave,
changed the CMOS to auto/LBA and booted. The new drive came up as the D, but
showed as full. Win98 then asked if I wanted to format it, and I clicked Yes
for a full format. It then allocated 8 gigs and asked me to name the drive
("Backup"). I was then able to move files from C to D, but then decided to
move the whole My Documents folder, which had about 2 gigs of files in it. It
prompted me about moving an .ini file and I said Yes. I then re-set the
desktop icon to point to D/My Documents. Overnight, the D disappeared and
the My Documents (empty) reappeared on C. I really really really want to
recover the data on D, but have tried rebooting to floppy and booting to C
and to Safe Mode. No luck: the Seagate shows up in the CMOS and the grid
displayed just before Windows fully loads (Primary Slave: LBA, UDMA 2, 20014)
but it does not show up in My Computer. I've tried changing jumpers, moving
the Seagate to the 2nd IDE, etc.

Does it show in device manager? It's possible only the partition information
is missing or corrupted. (hope springs eternal)


Is there any way to recover my data or get
the D drive recognized without a complete reformat???? Thanks, Bob

If the drive is visible in DM, but doesn't have any drive letters assigned to it,
then there are no visible FAT-type partitions defined.

To obtain more information-
Download partinfo.zip
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/partinfo.zip
Unzip to a bootable DOS floppy.
Boot to DOS and run
partinfo a:\partinfo.txt
Copy/paste the file output to a reply to this message.