Quick Questions... Re-Installing OS

[Wikaveli]

Hello...

As it turns out, my HDD won't load and I fear it is my OS that is corrupted.

PC won't load ...
Booted from XP disk ...
Ran repair tools ..
Chkdsk found "unrepairable errors"...

I would like to re-install XP ... what's the best way of doing this?
The HD is partitioned... C: & D:
I do have documents/pictures/etc. on C: that I don't want to lose...
Therefore a complete 'FORMAT' is out of the question...

Can I re-install XP without losing files?
Can I re-install Vista instead without losing files?

I'm really stuck on what to do ... any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Steve R Jones]

Quote:

Chkdsk found "unrepairable errors"...

Might not want to use the same drive

I'd get a new drive and re-install the OS...Then with my fingers crossed I would hook up the old drive and hope n pray I could copy files...

Then I'd develope a BACKUP plan to avoid heart attack moments like this.

[Wikaveli]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve R Jones

Might not want to use the same drive

I'd get a new drive and re-install the OS...Then with my fingers crossed I would hook up the old drive and hope n pray I could copy files...

Then I'd develope a BACKUP plan to avoid heart attack moments like this.

LOL .. heart attack is right

I do have a secondary drive on which I back up files periodically .. so most of what I have will be saved .. but not all.

I'd rather not purchase another HD... Is there a way to check my current drive to see if the drive has issues or if it was just the software?

[Steve R Jones]

All hard drive makers have testing software on their web sites.

[Wikaveli]

ok ... so I decided to load my HDD as a slave drive on another PC.
The BIOS picked it up right away.
After XP loads ... New Hardware Found ... everything looks good.
Open Device Manager ... the HDD shows up and the "device is working properly"
Open Windows Explorer ... can't find the HDD!

Any suggestions?

_______

I've gone into Computer Management..
Disc shows up there, but there isn't a drive letter associated with the disc...
I tried to add a drive letter, but after many minutes ..
Drive letter appears next to the drive for a split second and then disappears.

In addition, it says that the drive/partition...
Type "Basic" /
File System "Blank" /
Status Healthy (active) /
Capacity "30 GB" /
Free Space "30 GB" /

When in actual fact .. free space should read 3 GB's or so.


As well, when I click on the drives properties...

Unlabeled Volume Properties /
Type: "Blank" /
File System: "RAW" /
Used Space: "0 Bytes" /
Free Space: "0 Bytes" /

Is there a utility that would allow me access this drive?

Thanks Again.

____________________

Ok ... update again ....

I refreshed and now my designated drives are appearing next to the 2 partitions on the slave drive. The old drive letters used to be c: & d:

For some reason I can access the old d: partition now
.. but I can't get on c: (where the files are that I need to save)

When I try to access the old c: drive error message says ...
"The Disc in Drive J is not formated. Would you like to format now?"

WTF is up with that? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated thank you.