"Unable to load operating system"
 

My 4-5 y/o desktop decided to come up with the message "unable to load operating system" the other day.

It was running Windows XP from an 80GB hdd that was almost full.

Any idea's of a cure for it without losing the data that I obviously hadn't bothered to back up?

Currently using my netbook at the moment, and I've got a new 250gb hdd for the desktop that I'm installing.

Is there a way that I can run the 250gb as the master drive but still be able to access the old 80gb drive to copy all the data off?

I put both drives inside the PC, and connected the new one up as the master and the old one as the slave, but when I go in to the bios, it won't find the new master drive, and only shows me the old drive still as the master even though it was connected to the slave part of the cable.

Currently unplugged the old 80gb drive, and it then found the new drive so I'm installing XP again on the new drive, then what do I need to do to access the old one ?.

Is it as simple as just plugging it back in, and then it "should" appear on my computer as another drive, or is it more complicated ?.

Cheers for any help.

NH.

You can buy (inexpensively) a little box that lets you access the old drive as a USB external drive. You mount the drive in the box, then connect the box to your computer with a simple USB cable. That would allow you to get stuff off of it. It's probably dying, if the machine refused to boot from it, but it might last long enough for you to copy things over.

If you look on the label of the old drive there should be a diagram to show you how to change the jumpers to configure it as a slave, do that and plug it back in, if it is ok as a drive it should show up as a new drive.

Deal with putting the new HDD in and re-installing the OS first, then deal with adding the old HDD as a slave.

BTW both your HDDs are probably set up as masters at present.

yes, it should be that simple.
 

Presume these are PATA discs, so yes get the jumpers right. Sometimes I have come across bad connectors so if you have ongoing problems check the power molex is OK (touch disk housing and check for 'hum'). 'Icy Box' enclosures are cheap but why not just install the drive as you intend to. 250Gb as a new drive seems a bit small for these days !

Got the new hdd installed, with XP (that turned out to be only 120gb not 250 !!) oh well it was free and is still more than what I've had so it will do for now.

I've moved the jumpers on the old drive, so now when it boots up, it can be found and shows up on my computer.

However when I right click on it and go to properties, it shows as 0GB capacity, 0GB free and 0 GB in use and if I try and double click on it, it keeps telling me I need to format it - which really will lose all my data.

Is there something else I need to do, or is it simply a case of the drive is :mad: and I've lost all my stuff ?.

Thanks for the help so far.

NH

NH,

The original "unable to load operating system" message might well have been a clue!

If there is valuable data (e.g. your photos may not have "value" but they are priceless and irreplaceable for you) on the disk, I suggest you stop right now and contact a firm that specialises in recovering data from HDDs. There are some not too expensive places that should be able to help.

You are more likely to harm than good at this stage if you try to recover the disk contents, unless you really know what you are doing, and with respect, you haven't given that impression so far!

SD

that changes things
 

DO NOT FORMAT THAT DRIVE !

If you go to control panel> admistrative tools>computer management>disk management

what does it show for the drive ?

Currently all the data is still there, just can't be accessed, so don't do anything which might lose data.

Is it a Seagate drive ?

Hard Drive capacity shows as 0 GB in Bios - Tech Support Forum

- indeed - does it show a drive letter and partition detail?

Oh yes, I certainly won't be doing that !!.

It shows :-

Layout - Partition
Type - Basic
File System - nothing/blank
Status - Healthy (active)
Capacity - 76.68gb
Free Space - 76.68gb
% Free - 100%
Fault Tolerance - No
Overhead - 0%

Yeah it's mainly pictures and music, and a few documents too like cv's, license/logbook copies etc - nothing of a monetary value as such. Some of it I can just simply re-scan, it's the photo's, music and copies of job applications I had on there that I'm really after.

I helped to build the computer originally, and am fine with adding things to it, sound cards, graphics cards and the like and when it first broke, I stripped it down again and cleaned all the dust/dirt out of it and have got it back up and running to this stage - but this is the first time I've ever had a hdd recovery problem so it's a new one to me to resolve.

Thanks again for all the help.

If you google 'file recovery software' you'll find there are a lot of programs that might help you recover that data.

File Allocation Table corrupted ?
 

Yep, google it. Eg

DIY DataRecovery DiskPatch: partition recovery, partition repair and disk repair

Windows NTFS Data Recovery free download NTFS partition file recovery solution repair (restore) accidentally deleted text, songs, images, pictures, hidden or compressed files from laptop or desktop hard disk lost due to disk format, virus attack, acc

By coincidence, the following just plonked into my intray

Data Recovery Professional 2009 | File Recovery Software

Nuke - does it have a drive letter in Disk Management? If not, give it one.

So many pieces of 'file recovery' software do no such thing and make recovery after they have finished almost impossible.

I have used a paid for program found here. The guy who writes it has been in the business a long time. It can take a while to sort the problem (22hrs was my record) but it does work and is not expensive.

I have no connection with the company.

Beyond a certain point (which is rapidly reached), there is nothing that any software can do to get around a disk hardware failure. The only way to recover data in that case is to take the drive to a company that specializes in getting data off broken drives. Sometimes the drive can be repaired (at least in theory), sometimes the media themselves in the drive can be read by special equipment. It's an expensive process, much more so than regular backups would have cost.

Well, I'm not yet convinced that we have a disk failure! (yet)

me neither
 

reports its size Ok doesn't it ? Think its a corrupted FAT. Worth trying something like this I would have thought.

The simplest way to repair or re-create MBR is to run Microsoft's standard utility called FDISK with a parameter /MBR, like
A:\> FDISK.EXE /MBR

FDISK is a standard utility included in MS-DOS, Windows 95, 98, ME.

If you have Windows NT / 2000 / XP, you can boot from startup floppy disks or CD-ROM, choose repair option during setup, and run Recovery Console. When you are logged on, you can run FIXMBR command to fix MBR.

You would need to disconnect the newer good disk for this so that it was trying to boot from the problem disk.

Failing that:


Windows NTFS Data Recovery free download NTFS partition file recovery solution repair (restore) accidentally deleted text, songs, images, pictures, hidden or compressed files from laptop or desktop hard disk lost due to disk format, virus attack, acc

Free Download Advanced NTFS Recovery 3.3

Lots of advice and some recommending stuff I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

AnthonyGA has proven his lack of knowledge on the password thread so do not be put off by his dire warning.

Heed these words:

M.Mouse
 

Well all well and good but what do you advise ? The disk content is secure providing there is no over writing. Your warnings are acknowledged but what next ?

Thanks for all the help chaps.

Got it back up and running off the new hdd, with the old one as the slave and recovered all the files I needed from the old hdd and have now backed them up too !.

I ended up using the NTFS file recovery software as suggested by Mr Optimistic, cost me £68 for the software, but a lesson has also been learnt too !!.

It was pretty good, took about an hour to find everything on the old hdd and was really easy to use. Just selected the file I wanted, then saved it onto the new hdd then backed up to dvd.

Going to get an external hdd too to store files on from now on, and use the internal to just run programs from.

Thanks again
NH
:D

Problem solved, I know. But doesn't an OS needs a certain amount of space to boot. I think XP needs at least 1.5Gb of free space. If you have an unpartitioned HD and a shedload of files all on the same drive as the OS, Windows will stop working.

The OP gave a clue: The solution is to delete all those vids/pics/music files/.tmp/whatever files.

The OS will then load.

In future for photo recovery I can highly recommend this:

PhotoRec - CGSecurity (for photos)
and its companion
TestDisk - CGSecurity (general)

They're both free, work with many common filesystems and cross-platform so you're not instantly f'cked if you use a proper operating system as opposed to the usual legacy filth from Microsoft.

It pulled stuff off memory cards which had been repartitioned, formatted etc which commercial recovery software (proper gear; £10k+ paid by former employer) could not retrieve.