retrieve data from old slave after new install of OS

Hi everybody. I hope all is well. I had norton try and remove some of their programs screwing up my machine. When they took control they deleted a NTPROTECT.COM file in my C; drive, then restarted. This lead to a complete failure of the harddrive and I have now replaced it. They don't know what they did and my backup data was notgood up so I need to get the information from the old slave because it has all my files. Here's the deal. I've installed freah on a new harddrive XP Pro with SP2 now SP3. The user name and computer information has also changed because I had purchased this computer from a friend but now the info (name, etc. has changed) I have the harddrives in and the master running xp fine. I can see the slave in my device manager and computer management and now in my computer after trying the partition in computer management but not formating the drive. I have read other posts stating intitialize and you'll be fine but it's not there. I know formatting will delete my data and I need it prior to that. Any ideas on how to get the information off??? I've tried using PC Inspector File recovery and it says "bad parameter in boot sector: Bytes Per Sector (0) = 0!" I have named the drive F so even using a command prompt to copy all the files/data to the new harddrive is fine so that I can go thru it and delete what I don't need. I just need to get that data. Should I delete the partition because that's an option in the computer management but I don't know if I created another partition for it earlier or what. The only amount of space I don't see an initialize anywhere but the drive is now visible in my computer. How / What can I use to get this data back or at least view the harddrive? Please help this is killing me. Plus how do we make larger companies like Norton be responsible for deleting files and crashing computers then telling us they are not going to help us and it's there fault/responsibility? Thanks in advance. J

Greetings J,

I will start by seeking some clarification.

First off "initializing" is basically synonymous with "formatting". It usually is referred to in regards to new drives i.e. the "initial format".

From what you describe what should have happened is the following:

You installed XP on a new hard drive.

You installed your old hard drive as slave.

Your old hard drive should have shown up with a new letter. You would not have had to give it a letter.

You should have not had to do anything. It simply should have been there.


Now just to clarify what have you done? You mention giving a drive letter F. You also mention "trying the partition in computer management"

Is this hard drive partitioned? Was it partitioned prior to your problems?


Also under Disk Management how is the drive listed? What is the File System? Is it a single partition?

I did the reformat and fresh install on the new harddrive as you mentioned. The previous slave, remains a slave and was partitioned, apparently as Fat 16. After the reformat the slave, which has my backups, my docs and other files should have shown up but didn't. The key is most likely how all this started. A random file was deleted from the primary drive by Norton's people and then the whole thing crashed and would never boot up again only loop as it attempted to load windows. I have both drives but bought a new 500 gb western digital because I couldn't get the recovery console to load, stop the restarts, load safe mode, anything. This was jacked and I'm familiar with computers. The file they deleted was NTPROTECT.COM a norton file but all hell broke loose. The drive only had 1 partition and was formatted. When I tried to see it initally nothing was there. i went into computer management and you could see it without a letter assigned and it said it was unpartitioned. Plus it was grey unlike the other 2 (1 new 500gb harddrive and the disk drive). So I read up on it and it said to partition the drive but select not to format it so that I could give the drive a letter in an effort to use / find the drive in my computer. After I did this it can be seen but now windows says it needs to be formatted. I can't do that because I need the data. My understanding is that with XP any slave has part of the master boot record and if it's corrupted or deleted on the primary this can cause what I have. The new drive is NTFS. The old is FAT 16-Huge GetDataBack says and has identified files, it also says it's bootable (hence the master boot record comment i made earlier), in the computer management it has nothing for the system. The drive used to E: as it should have appeared. Further reading said initialize the drive or rename it again so that you can access it. I've done the rename to F: but other than that there's no initialize. Please advise. PS this computer is from 2004 and uses IDE cables. The drive doesn't work even with reconfiguring the placement of the IDE cables and the jumpers on the back for slave/master, etc. Under Computer Management the C: 500gb is Disc 0 healthy NFTS (system) online the problem one is F: Disc 1 online and healthy. It says the capacity is 74.53G and the free space is 74.53 G. Some programs I'm using to try and recover the data are at least saying there are files there. FYI - if I even connect the previous harddrive the system / OS will not load. It just keeps restarting so there is something major that happened, that's even if I don't allow it to boot in the bios. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Ok, i just figured this out. I had 2 harddrives in the system before and 1 disappeared. I didn't remember if my friend had formatted it prevously and partitioned it but here's what I found out. The harddrive that I've just referenced in the previous post doesn't have the back-up data that I need. However, I still would like to get the data off of but it's not the most important at the minute. in other words I need a good data recovery program Like GetDataBack, can you recommend a good free one that will do this? More importantly: The harddrive that was corrupted by removing the NTPROTECT.COM file by norton was a 2 partitioned drive that had a C: and E: The E: my dumbass thought was seperate and used for just my docs and other files but is the same drive with an NTFS partition. Is there a way to view this harddrive and get the data off the second partition E: since the masterboot record or something was removed causing the drive to continue to restart and never load the recovery console, safe mode or anything?

Hi jdurham05, Can you see and navigate through the saved file structure in this old drive using My Computer/ Window Explorer?

No on both harddrives. The old one that wasn't working no only via the data recovery software can you see anything. That's the one that shows up and says it's all free space but it's loaded with data. Plus the one that norton notgood up my old C: and E: is now in an older tower and I'm trying to access it that way but it still comes up and says that the drive needs to be formatted. Plus that was an older machine running 2000 pro but the same response. Now I'm going to reconnect that drive as the secondary in the original tower where it's had the issues the typical issue.

So here's the deal. The previous harddrive that has some errors and data can be recovered using a recovery console like GetBackData. Do you have a software or method to remove these files without paying $100 bucks or so? Now to the main issue of the day. The slave is properly configured via jumpers and position in the IDE cable. My computer doesn't recognize anything except for my standard C: new 500gb and cd/dvd drive. When I go into computer management and disk management here's what I see: Disc (0) primary partition and 465.7 gb healthy active system. with blue indicating primary partition and basic ntfs. Disc (1) has 2 partitions(layout =simple & Type = Dynamic) one is called (e:) 4.66gb free from 20 gb. ntfs healthy and active. Next "e storage (F:)" again (layout =simple & Type = Dynamic) 11.19gb free out of 37.26 gb. the status is healthy and active but they are in a different color than others and that is goldish meaning simple volume. CD-ROM (0) - healthy. Please advise what you think I should do. Again a file was removed from the main (c:) where it was located and this will not allow it to boot or load any program. Please advise. So I just realized that I can select the drive and open from computer management and it pulls up all the files. Another my bad because the main software backups that I needed the applications are not on here either. This leads me to another question of what software do you know, that's inexpensive, that will located previously deleted files because I need to use this on this harddrive and my laptops that definitely had the files. So I've been able to open the documents. Should I just reformat this harddrive when I'm done or trash it/reformat it due to it's age? Plus do you know of any software that includes data recovery for errors in the drives like my previous one plus something that can search for deleted old files because that seems to be my next thing to do.

Hi,
You can figure out the solution to your drive problem after trying the demo version of Kernel for Windows software.. it will surely recover data
trying demo is not a big deal at all..if you can mange to recover data then can go for buying the same.