moving secondary HDD between computers

[wuduhel]

the primary drive (with OS) on my main computer failed and is being RMA'd. i had a secondary drive with all my media/other files that i had just used to backup the main drive. only documents/media files were on it, no OS files.

i plugged it into my HTPC and it's not being shown as an available drive. it is shown as being connected however.

how can i get the HTPC to recognize it without losing all the data on it?

TIA

 

[MercenaryForHire]

What OS did each computer use, and what format are the partitions on the drive?

- M4H

 

[wuduhel]

XP

drive was originally a secondary drive in a XP pro machine and now is a secondary drive in a XP home machine

NTFS

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: wuduhel
XP

drive was originally a secondary drive in a XP pro machine and now is a secondary drive in a XP home machine

NTFS

Uh oh. Did you enable EFS (Encrypted File System)? Home doesn't support it.

- M4H

 

[wuduhel]

not intentionally. is that a default setting? would i be able to read the drive on another Pro machine?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: wuduhel
not intentionally. is that a default setting? would i be able to read the drive on another Pro machine?

If you did use EFS, no.

In your case, I'd try switching cables and doublechecking jumpers first, then see if you can see the drive in Disk Manager first.

- M4H

 

[wuduhel]

disk manager sees it as

Disk1
Dynamic
Foreign

right click dialog:
convert to basic disk
properties
help

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Ouch.

Check this thread - you need to get a data recovery tool to pull stuff off a dynamic disk.

Try GetDataBack - you may need to shell out some dough though unless you can find a freeware solution (which I'm sure there is somewhere!)

- M4H

 

[wuduhel]

are you serious? that's messed up. what is wrong with the disk? it was working fine in the other computer and all i did was transfer it to this one.

 

[Torval]

hold on, try one other thing first

on the disk management screen, instead of right clicking on the disk,
right click where it says "foreign disk"

there should be an option to "import" the foreign disk. Click it

It should then walk you through importing the disk,
after which you should be able to use it.

This works for me in windows 2000, so I thought it might work for you.

Good luck!

 

[imported_Stormshadow]

There is nothing wrong with the disk, but it was set in dynamic mode when you were on the other computer. So it needs to be part of the same dynamic setup that it was installed in. It will be difficult to get it set back to basic but you can do some reading and I'm sure you can find some freeware that will do the trick. Good luck!

 

[Sideswipe001]

When you convert to dynamic, it even gives you a warning about how any other install or OS will be unable to read from the disk. Dynamic pretty much locks it into that specific install.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Stormshadow
There is nothing wrong with the disk, but it was set in dynamic mode when you were on the other computer. So it needs to be part of the same dynamic setup that it was installed in. It will be difficult to get it set back to basic but you can do some reading and I'm sure you can find some freeware that will do the trick. Good luck!

Impossible. As SideSwipe mentioned below your post, once you convert it to dynamic, the partition is stuck on whatever install you created it with. Dynamic->Basic requires a reformat.

If there is an "Import Disk" option as Torval suggested you can try that, but other than that you need a data recovery suite.

- M4H

 

[Torval]

Now I am not sure about XP, but I have done this before, several times, in 2k.
Same situation, secondary drive, dynamic.

I at least wanted him to try it before formatting and going through that hassle.

 

[wuduhel]

only option is to convert to basic

shitty deal. hopefully i'll be able to get stuff off with data recovery.

live and learn