Calling all Geeks ... need computer help.

[CheezeFlixz]

Damn, well if you're going to make it hard for me, then I'm out of ideas.

Hey if it was easy I wouldn't be calling all geeks ... LOL.

I was a automation engineer for a long time and rule number one is when something is not working as designed; rule out all the stupid stuff first, like is it plugged in or is it turned on? So after the stupid stuff was ruled out I was left with a mountable drive but has 0 track corruption so Winders won't see it.

[Andrew]

I have to agree that the first thing that came to mind was that the partition's file table is corrupt or perhaps invalid.  That might explain being able to see it with your freeware program, but not Windows.  The first thing I would try is the drive in a USB enclosure.  That way you are just using the straight USB 2.0 standard.  Of course, the thing is that I would definitely have use of the USB enclosure after the troubleshooting - so that is a win/win for me.

When you check the two drives in BIOS, do they both show up and appear to be playing well together (not conflicting)?

A program I have had luck with in the past was Active Undelete.  http://www.active-undelete.com  If you have mechanical failure so that the drive cannot read that part of the platter, it will not help.  However, it can do a lot and the price has come down a lot from what I remember it being.  I'm not sure how much functionality is included in the trial version they have available.

[CheezeFlixz]

Ok this is just stupid ... I removed the old FAT drive and put a NTFS drive in as I had advice that it MIGHT be able to see the other drive. Ok sound logical, well that drive had a problem and I got the blue screen of death on startup ... ok fine I have yet another drive formatted in NTFS ... so put it in but it had no jumper and frankly I wasn't sure the drive was still alive or not. Well I start the computer and it boots of the original thought fried drive ... the SATA drive ... everything is there, less the drive I removed. Well I had a 200 gb external drive so first thing I did while it
s running, just in case this is a fluke or something is to copy the entire drive to the external usb drive. Now lets add stupid to stupid I just ordered two 500 gb SATA drives, figured screw it I'll just start over and run a RAID.

So some how some way this drive is alive, it's alive at the moment and I've saved the most important files not only to the usb external drive but also to a flash and transferred copies to other computers in the network, by god it's not getting lost this time. So will it stay alive it is it a fluke and a conflict with the other drive that is now got Winders on it? I guess I can set it to a slave instead of a CS and see if it works as it has info on it too I need. Not as important as financial files. But it does have over 20 gigs of mp3's and all my Canon D10 images which is about another 50 gigs.

What happened? Don't know, sometimes you don't ask questions you just be greatful it did what it did. Now I'll have to see if it last or not ... I have however learned more about NTFS data recovery than I ever wanted to know. Still want to figure out what the hell happened though ... 

[ulthar]

1.) I'm glad you got your data recovered.  Why or how on that is not important.   

2.) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is why I absolutely, unequivocably HATE Windows.  It just hides too much from the user - even when you NEED to know what is going on.

3.) Personally, I'd never trust that drive.  Sure, it might work without failure 'til the cows come home, but you'll always wonder "is today the day it acts goofy."  Better to move it off the front line, and RAID is not a bad approach for hardware redundancy.  Disk space is cheap compared to the cost of lost data, dig?

[CheezeFlixz]

1.) I'm glad you got your data recovered.  Why or how on that is not important. 

1. Thanks and true.

2.) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is why I absolutely, unequivocably HATE Windows.  It just hides too much from the user - even when you NEED to know what is going on.

2. I agree I don't like windows either, however I still do CNC automation consulting work on the side and some priority software that is used only runs on Winders. In the business world Windows is like English ... a language nearly everyone speaks.

3.) Personally, I'd never trust that drive.  Sure, it might work without failure 'til the cows come home, but you'll always wonder "is today the day it acts goofy."  Better to move it off the front line, and RAID is not a bad approach for hardware redundancy.  Disk space is cheap compared to the cost of lost data, dig?

3. Agreed again, I have 2 500gB I ordered tonight and this PC in question is already set up to run a RAID so that will be easy I likely use this iffy drive as a place the dump files I don't really care lose or not ... not sure why since I won't fill up 500 gigs anytime soon. Even if I had to get a data dig done it's a write off on the taxes, not that I go looking for every write off I can find.

I guess I'll try to set it up as a simple dupe drive as opposed to a real A,B,C RAID with 3 drives. Simple truth is I just need to be more diligent about backup crucial files to an external source. Getting lazy in my old age.

I thank to everyone that has offered advice and help karma all around. I did learn a couple of things regardless if I wanted too or not. I use to be right on top of the computing world but it's not required anymore so I operate now on if it ain't broke don't fix it. I got my first 'computer' in 1978 so I guess the honeymoon is over for me.

I still have some of my really old computers I must remember to post some pics some day like my Sharp Laptop the weighs about 40 lbs and runs on DOS 1.0 on one 5 1/4 drive and the program drive is another 5 1/4 drive. I think it's an 8088 ... smokin'