Hal.dll error when installing XP on a new drive.

[delluser07]

About my newer different problem, last week when everything was fine, my old drive contained windows XP, and the newer drive had about 40gb of data (out of 160gb).  As the old one is now damaged, I created a new partition of 2gb on this newer drive so I can install windows on it.  This partition is now the C: drive, the question is where has all my 40gb of data gone that was there when it was a slave to the old drive.  Yesterday I went into Disk Management, and saw the drive.  It displayed C: Healthy (system)..2gb ....and next to it displayed, Unallocated space 140gb.  Has my data suddenly disappeared, because I am sure I didn't format the whole drive?

How do I add the rest of the drive?

[contrex]

Well, at least you got the disk recognised. You used the map arc command in recovery console, and it read the erroneous boot.ini file, and showed you the hard drive accordingly.

Let's take the new problem step by step.

About my newer different problem, last week when everything was fine, my old drive contained windows XP, and the newer drive had about 40gb of data (out of 160gb).  As the old one is now damaged,

I created a new partition of 2gb on this newer drive so I can install windows on it.

(1) 2 GB is a bit small unless you aren't going to be installing much in the way of applications...

(2) How did you do this? What method/software did you use to create the partition?

This partition is now the C: drive, the question is where has all my 40gb of data gone that was there when it was a slave to the old drive.

I fear the answer to question (2) above may tell us that...

[delluser07]

I used the XP Installation screen to create the partition.

Let me start from when I had the old hard drive problem.

While that one was installed I had the invalid boot diskette error (my first thread contains more info).  I was able to boot using the XP CD to the installation screen.  My first thought was to  do a Repair Installation.  When I got to that screen though, it had mentioned "Setup cannot access this disk".  Underneath that, it displayed the 2nd hard drive with the information,

Partition 1 158gb (110gb free) (with more specific numbers)

Now I am 100% sure  (I hope), that I did not delete the partition from this screen (i.e by pressing D).  I then took out my old drive, and set this new drive as the master.  I got to the install screen again, only this time it mentioned something like Unallocated space 158gb.  On that screen I pressed C to create a new partition, and I entered 2000MB.  It then copied files and restarted to finished with the installation.

2gb is small but I was planning to use the unpartitioned space of the drive to install applications.

[contrex]

Now I am 100% sure  (I hope)

Sounds like the girl who said "I'm 100% sure I'm a virgin... I hope!"...

that I did not delete the partition from this screen (i.e by pressing D).  I then took out my old drive, and set this new drive as the master.  I got to the install screen again, only this time it mentioned something like Unallocated space 158gb.  On that screen I pressed C to create a new partition, and I entered 2000MB.

Did you hear any faint musical sounds as you pressed C? That was your data setting off up the Swanee...

It then copied files and restarted to finished with the installation.

Right up the Swanee!

2gb is small but I was planning to use the unpartitioned space of the drive to install applications.

have you ever used XP before? This can be done, but it is tricky to get working right, I hear.

[delluser07]

So creating a 2gb partition on the new drive deleted 40gb of data?  That is madness

Also, when I set the new drive as a master, why did it not specify the data that was there when this drive was a slave.

I would have thought it doesn't affect it.  How wrong!  Now what, Is there anything I can do? 

Data recovery software??  Is this any good?

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

[contrex]

So creating a 2gb partition on the new drive deleted 40gb of data?  That is madness

Creating a new primary partition involves creating a new partition table which destroys the old one, hosing the data it contains. Normal, not madness. Monkeying with partitions is a number 1 way to lose data. (Sorry to be so blunt, but I have to add "if you don't know what you are doing". And even if you do, sometimes!)

Also, when I set the new drive as a master, why did it not specify the data that was there when this drive was a slave.

Maybe it got lost already... maybe the data loss predates all this.

I would have thought it doesn't affect it.  How wrong!  Now what, Is there anything I can do? Data recovery software??

A possibility, I guess, but you'll want to consult a specialist.

[delluser07]

Should I stop using this hard drive then?  I guess continuing to add data or install programs might  make recovering the lost partition more difficult.

Is there some recovery software that can be run from a floppy on startup, so it could read the hard drive and then find and add the lost partition or something?

[contrex]

You could try something like Partition Table Doctor, the trial version (supposedly) will tell you if there is data to be recovered, the full paid for version allows you to recover it.

http://www.easeus.com/download.htm

[delluser07]

OK, I'll give it a go.

Unfortunately, it requires you to have a good drive to install the software and the recoverable drive attached as a slave.  I'll have to ask a friend to check it then, unless there is software that can check if you only have one drive on master?

[delluser07]

Well, I tried out a couple of recovery programs, and they have done half the job.  The programs have been able to find files from previous partitions, but when I try to recover some of them, they seem to be corrupt.  Even a simple .jpg file does not open, and .htm and .txt files have lots of random characters on them.

Are these files corrupt, and if not is it possible to fix them so that they are readable?

[GX1_Man]

Should I stop using this hard drive then?  I guess continuing to add data or install programs might  make recovering the lost partition more difficult.

Is there some recovery software that can be run from a floppy on startup, so it could read the hard drive and then find and add the lost partition or something?

Yes, stop using it until you are ready to get the data off. Spinrite will do this, but it is not free. www.grc.com

[delluser07]

I have attached a new master drive, but as mentioned, after running the recovery program, I have been able to view a list of files from  the lost partitions, but when recovering them to the new drive they are unreadable or corrupt.  Is there a fix for this?  I'll try spinrite too just in case.

[delluser07]

The hard drive problems are getting worse and worse.

Over the weekend, a friend attached the drive I'm trying to recover data from to his computer as a  slave drive.  He ran 2 recovery programs and was able to see some files that had been lost to a previous partition.  He did not recover any files to his hard drive and did not overwrite data on the damaged one.  The hard drive has a capacity of 160gb (147gb unallocated space).

I took it back and installed a new hard drive as a master to my own computer and attached the damaged one as a slave drive.  Now all of a sudden when I start my computer, my damaged drive has ONLY 30gb capacity, even on Admin Tools->Disk Management.

Where the heck has my disk space gone?  Have some sectors been permanently deleted?  If so, is going to a specialist the final solution?  What a nightmare!

[GX1_Man]

I think by repartitioning the drive you have complicated things so much that the data is gone unless you want to pay a LOT of money with no guarantees. Partitioning a drive (correctly) requires some thought and a little experience.

[delluser07]

I think there are data recovery services that only charge if they CAN recover data, I guess that's my only choice now, unless someone else knows any other possible solutions. 

I did a quick check on the Microsoft website and there is one article that describes my problem, and the solution would be to update the BIOS because that might be faulty, but it never has been in th past, so it probably won't work.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316505/