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General discussion

Erased hard drive

Aug 10, 2006 4:00PM PDT

Dell Dimension 4400; XPhome; P4; C: WD1200JB; D: CD-RW; E: ST340016A

I did something really stupid. I overwrote the ST or E: drive with 1's and 0's. This wiped out the drive including the MBR section. This was the original drive that came with the unit. My WD drive is my primary drive. Howvever, it has bad sectors.

Device Manager and BIOS boot recognize my ST drive. My Computer doesn't show the E: drive. But I haven't figured out how to write a MBR or anything else to the drive.

I tried using SeaTools. But the program stops when it tells you that it doesn't work in Windows, but DOS only. I have to turn off the computer and reboot to do anything.

So, what do I need to do to be able to use my ST drive?

Discussion is locked

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Test it with SeaTools
Aug 12, 2006 2:41AM PDT

Boot to the SeaTools disk to test for damage on the 40GB Seagate drive.

In the meantime, I'd use the Dell Windows XP Restoration disc to install Windows on the 120GB HD. The Windows XP installation CD will install all the necessary files to the MBR. Make sure you install all drivers after installing Windows (download the latest versions from Dell.com).

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Why not partition an d format it?
Aug 12, 2006 2:54AM PDT

It's entirely proper for it to not show up in explorer until you partition and format it with your OS.

In XP, you use the disk management tool.

Bob

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Disk Management
Aug 24, 2006 2:04AM PDT

Thank you for the suggestions. I hoped I followed the advice correctly.

I used Disk Management to initialize my secondary drive. This time My Computer recognized the E: drive. However, two days after I did this. I got the BSod message Unmountable_boot_volume.

I was able to access the Recovery Console. When I ran chkdsk, after 21%, a messaged appeared that I have one or more unrecoverable hard drive sections.

So, here is my question. Is it possible to bring up the system and access the data so that it can be put on my new computer?

My XP files are on my primary drive.

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Maybe, but when faced with this...
Aug 24, 2006 2:09AM PDT

I usually look to my backup disks. For me that's all of 4 DVDRW disks. That cost was all of 4 bucks and worth every penny.

I don't backup the OS or programs but reload those from CD or net.

-> Try this. Put it in some USB external case and see if some other machine sees the files.

Sorry to hear your troubles are continuing. Can you tell me if you connected it with the usual 80 conductor IDE cable with the jumpers on cable select? i.e. the normal setup for hard drives.

Bob