As per a previous thread;

In short – computer crashed with a OS fault,

Solutions tried so far –

Coputer would not start in safe mode or any other mode.

Ran internal system restore function which reported no faults with hardware. Other option was to format back to factory settings I did not carry out.

XP disc kindly sent by STW member tried to run reapir option but not available. Read into this and it would appear that if Windows is so badly damaged option to repair is not available.

Next removed harddrive from laptop and installed in a caddy/enclosure. Hooked up to another computer this at this point was looking good. I then had access to D drive within my hard drive and could access all info. But C drive (where the info I need is) cannot be accessed and also shows a full quota of free space as if it has been formatted.

I have at no point carried out any sort of format on the drive.

So has my disc drive suffered a catastophic failure ? if so why is D drive still there/availale ?

Or am I not doing something correctly with the caddy containing my hard drive.

If this is the case and the drive is dead can data still be professionaly recovered ?

Any help greatly appreciated

Thanks
Rich

If you suspect a hard drive problem, get a new one, install XP on it, then get a copy of 'active file recovery for windows' (small program that fis on a floppy & is freely available on the net) & use it to transfer info to your new drive.

So your original drive did have two partitions?
Try downloading GetDataBack for NTFS available from http://www.runtime.org. It will allow you to see if the data is recoverable before you buy the software.

Update, have now discovered that C drive has crashed and turned from NTFS to RAW, D drive is fine and I can access info. This would explain why I could see C but not access it. Just running a recovery prog which has found some of my images on C.

Next question can I format it back from RAW to NTFS ? or is it junked.

Thanks
Rich

I wouldn't risk it when new drives are so cheap.

Get a new drive, put xp etc on it and then recover your old data.