Can't recover data. SATA drive missing letter.

Question

I have an Optiplex GX620 that I need to recover data from.  It will not boot to Windows. The recovery program is not working properly, so I may have to send my PC in for repair or wipe the drive and reinstall everything.  However, I need to grab the data off the drive.   I've used an external and even connected it to the PC internally via SATA.  The drive appears and is healthy in Disk Management.  It shows 2 partitions.  However, No drive letters.  I try to assign a drive letter, but the first partition only allows me to click 'HELP' and the other only allows me to click 'Delete Partition' and 'HELP'.  I don't want to lose my data from deleting the partition.  how do I recover my data?

Hydralisk00222 · Answer

Are you doing it to the big partition? Don't bother with the small 30MB-60MB partition...

Doramius · Answer

Yes, I believe it's the larger partition that has the valuable data.  It's the larger partition that gives me the 2 options of 'Help' or 'Delete Partition'.

Zboy4218 · Answer

Do you know why the drive is missing its 'Letter'? If the drive is going bad, I would first try making a clone of it by using Ghost or some other cloning software.  Do not delete, FDISK, create partitions or do anything else that may change the contains, setup of the drive. If you can image it to another hard drive or create an image of it you can then get a program to recovery your files from that image you created. Work on the image/clone of your drive incase something goes wrong. There are plenty of programs out there that will help recover data from software, virus type data loss. Do a google on data recovery.  If you can't create an image of the hard drive, it is probably time to send it in to a professional data recovery service, if the data is that valuable.   Hope this helps!

Zboy4218 · Answer

So now it is a password issue? If so, check out this link. You can recover or change/blank the administrator password out. I have done this many times and as long as you follow the docs, it works great. I saved us quite a few times.....     http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Doramius · Answer

The drive isn't going bad.  power was shut down accidentally on a update, that keeps it from booting to XP.  We first attempted a recovery, and now it still requires a recovery, only it asks for an administrative password when there never was one in the first place.    It'll give me a drive letter if I delete that partition ad format the drive.  Something I cannot do.  It sees the partitions and says they are healthy.  The small partition is FAT and the large partition is NTFS.  I don't know why it won't let me see drive letters when I connect it internally or externall, because the disk manager recognizes it.

Doramius · Answer

Those ways of getting an administrative password are familiar to me.  It's not really a password issue, partially because there isn't supposed to be one, and also because it will not boot to XP.  If you're at the XP login screen, you've still booted to XP.    When you run the recovery console, there's a command prompt at which it asks which drive you want to enter, I choose option 1 for drive E: and then it asks for an administrative password.  I'm not familiar with the recovery console asking for a password in the past, and this system does not have an administrative password.    I'll retry the program that uses the CD to recover a password because I think it's all run from the disk like a command console operating system, if I remember correctly.  I'll try that and repost.    I still think there is a way to connect the drive in another PC and be able to recover the data that way.  Working to get the password is going to take quite a bit more effort and time.

Doramius · Answer

Tried it and it says there's 'No Windows Install On This Disk'. The system has to be able to boot to XP in order for that password recovery program to work. My system will not boot to XP. I need to be able to access the partition directly from another computer, but it needs to allow me to see it as a path to a drive with an assigned letter. I need to know how to do this.

Doramius · Answer

I got a copy of Partition Magic because I wanted to see more details of how the drive was showing up as. It showed up as a "44" partition. This is a Symantec <
Following the instructions from the website, I booted from the CD and chose option '1' to remove GoBack completely. Once GoBack was gone it still wouldn't boot to Windows, but an annoying GoBack screen didn't come up. I took the drive out and placed it in another PC ---->I was so ecstatic that it was recognized and had a drive letter. I then used Partition Magic to copy the partition, and I imaged it to another drive. All my data was recovered, and the other drive boots to WinXP fine. Go figure.

Message Edited by Doramius on 02-01-2008 01:53 AM

Storage, Drives & Media

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