Major Hard Drive Problem .. need help ..

[Wikaveli]

Hello...

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with with a hard drive problem.

In a nutshell...

#1 PC stopped loading
Ran XP repair .. "unrepairable problem"
"Problem Hard Drive" is partitioned (C: & D: )
Need files from C:

Installed Problem HD as a slave drive on #2 PC.
Bios picked up Problem HD immediately
Loaded #2 PC...
Explorer did not display "Problem HD's" partitions C: or D:
Ran Computer Management...
Assigned Drive Letters to Partition C: and D:

Restarted #2 PC
Opend Explorer ... both of "Problem HD's" partitions are displayed
C: = "J" D: = "I"

I can access "Problem HD's" partition D: ("I") .. everything seems fine

When I try to access "Problem HD's" partition C: ("J") ..
Nothing Happens for a moment or Two and then I get error message:
"The disck in Drive J is not formatted. Do you want to format now?"

I open Computer Management and find out that Drive "J" is 30GB and has 30GB free space ....
HOWEVER .. this is not the case as this drive has not been erased or formatted.

I really need some files from this drive ...
is there a utility program or some way of accessing this drive?

I'm really stuck here and would GREATLY appreciate any help whatsoever!

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post!

[KarmaKiller]

Hmm.. the only thing that comes to my mind is put it in the freezer for a little bit. Sometimes the cold will "help" the drive run for the last leg of it's life.
Other then that, I'm not really sure what to tell you.
Good luck!

[Steve R Jones]

The freezer trick won't help here...

Data Recovery like the following probably won't help either..You need to be able to access the partition...But, it won't hurt to try it.

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File Recovery - Home

[JPMiller]

I would slave the drive to a second computer, and use "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows" on it
If there are unrecoverable sectors, it will fix them or replace them.
It may even give you the option to repair the MBR if it sees the issue
WD Support > Downloads > Select Product