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Question

external HD now RAW after installing new Internal Booting HD

May 15, 2014 8:52PM PDT

I had to change my booting internal hard drive because it was not working. The new Internal HD has installed ok & is working (I have reinstalled Windows XP - eventually I may use a Linux distro) BUT the external HD (a Seagate 1TB) that I had saved ALL of my files & documents on as backup to use when I got the PC back up working is now showing as 'RAW - you need to format your drive'

I need help- is this a common occurrence when a new Internal HD is installed & the OS re-installed? Can I try it in a different PC? What can i do?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: external HD
May 15, 2014 9:07PM PDT

Of course, you disconnected that external while changing the internal drive and reinstalling XP? Not that it should make a difference, but it's kind of an extra precaution. In that case, it can't be related to anything you did on that PC.

But it seems you didn't realize that having your data only on one external drive means you didn't have a backup. And not having a backup (a second and preferrably a third copy) is risky, as you notice now, especially if it's on a device lke an external hard disk, which are notoriously unreliable for some reason.

That being said, things you can try are:
1. See if the disk can be read on another PC. Unlikely, but you never know.
2. If not, try the recovery tools discussed in the top 2 posts in http://forums.cnet.com/storage-forum. But it really is a good idea to buy a second (identical or bigger?) hard disk first and make a clone of this corrupted external disk first and try those recovery tools on the clone. After all, the original is all you have, and you don't want to mess it up even more. Although, using the demo mode or a read-only mode on the original to see what the tool can do won't harm. But don't let it do any update on the original!
3. If no luck, it's time to find a professional data recovery company. But it's not unlikely that one of those DIY tools (I'd start with Recuva) find a lot, if not all.

And just a note. You do know that you need XP SP2 at least to be able to read such a large hard disk? If the issue is that you didn't yet install SP3 and are working with the original XP or SP1, the disk might be readable in another PC with Vista or higher.

Kees

Kees

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EaseUS - ?trial - preview - gibberish
May 17, 2014 11:29AM PDT

Hi,

yes of course I had the external HD disconnected when I installed the new internal HD, there was nothing connected to the PC at all.

I downloaded & tried 'Recuva' last night - it failed from the start - it noted upon selecting the external HD that the format was unrecognisable. So I then tried EaseUS - in trial mode- & amazingly it appears to have located all (?) the files on the HD (which just makes it frustrating to have to use a recovery tool if they are all sitting there, but anyway....) but when I go to preview a 'recoverable' document - it is displayed as gibberish - just a whole series of indecipherable text- is this because it is in trial mode, & that when, if I chose to buy & use the full program they will be displayed correctly & therefore recoverable as a complete usable document as before? I don't want to spend $$$ on the full version only for the recovery not to be complete or not in a usable & viewable format.......

Many thanks for your responses so far.
Paul

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Re: undeciperable text
May 26, 2014 3:41AM PDT

That's OK for a picture, and that's OK for a Word .docx file. Just open one in Notepad or any hex editor (I like hxd) and check on a good file on your internal hard disk.

Anyway, you'll only know when you try. But maybe your documents are worth less than the price of the recovery tool?

Kees

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Remember that if you had only XP
May 26, 2014 3:50AM PDT

Then drives may show up RAW or in need of formatting. Your story is far from complete so as I read this I nod and think you have an incomplete OS install. XP is not easy to install and over the years I've found folk to panic and start data recovery efforts before the OS install and drivers are done.

I read you had a Linux boot CD. Does it see the external OK or not?
Bob

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Answer
Nod to Kees.
May 16, 2014 12:46AM PDT

I've lost track of how many folk run into this when XP is installed. They forgot that XP's drive support is quite limited until the patches and a few damage the files on the other drive BEFORE they install the needed updates. I can't explain it at length but they feel they must fix this issue before updating XP. Lots of lost data follows.
Bob

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intall updated drivers without internet connection? & ...
May 26, 2014 7:33AM PDT

"They forgot that XP's drive support is quite limited until the patches and a few damage the files on the other drive BEFORE they install the needed updates"

so if I have solely the original Windows XP install disc- so that is XP at it's most basic- it won't even recognise my Broadband Internet connection, so I can't even connect to the internet using Windows as the OS to download updated drivers.........

The drive is also similarly unrecognisable using Linux. So in the last week- I have cloned the HD, (dd command in linux), then ran PhotRec from SystemRescueCD in linux, & it appears to have recovered a lot of files- some are indecipherable but I plan to re-install OS Word Processor back onto the Windows XP (which is the word program they were created in, & open these documents trying that. Abiword (which is the word processor program thats on this linux distro is quite basic I think......)

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Sorry, but I have to ask
May 26, 2014 7:48AM PDT

Is it really worth all this trouble to keep from spending $100 or so for a Windows 8 install disc?

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XP out of the box does not support 1TB drives.
May 26, 2014 8:26AM PDT

It's all over the web about XP's 127GB limitation and what removes that. If one does connect up a drive to plain old XP you could corrupt the drive.

Until you get Windows all updated I suggest you set the 1TB drive aside. But I fear the damage is done and compounded by trying data recovery too soon.
Bob

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Answer
aha, I heard the word "Linux"
May 20, 2014 1:38PM PDT

why not boot to a LIVE DVD version of Linux, see if it can mount the external drive and look for what's on it? You can use the GParted program to check and ensure it's partitions are still in place too.