Parabellum Posted January 28, 2005 Author Share Posted January 28, 2005 Anyway, back to the original issue, before my thread gets closed. I think I've found the cause of the problems: EZ Drive. It's some sort of drive-management software that's made by Western-Digital. When I received an error message yesterday while trying to run PM in DOS, I remembered that EZ Bios kept me from running PM on that drive quite some time ago. This drive has gone through two FDISK/Reformats since I installed EZ Drive, and yet the detestable software is still on and fouling up the drive. I'm going to attempt to uninstall EZ Drive as per WDC's instructions, and then see if PM can fix the drive. ← Do you see a non-dos partition through fdisk that is small, probably less than 20MB? If so, wipe it out. If you don't get with me this evening, and we will get rid of it. I'm pulling heads on a 97 Taurus right now, because the joker at the garage wanted 1200 dollars to do it. What a joke when I've been a mechanic for 15 years, eh? ← If I run FDisk, find, and delete said partition, will it corrupt or destroy any of my data? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 (edited) Anyway, back to the original issue, before my thread gets closed. I think I've found the cause of the problems: EZ Drive. It's some sort of drive-management software that's made by Western-Digital. When I received an error message yesterday while trying to run PM in DOS, I remembered that EZ Bios kept me from running PM on that drive quite some time ago. This drive has gone through two FDISK/Reformats since I installed EZ Drive, and yet the detestable software is still on and fouling up the drive. I'm going to attempt to uninstall EZ Drive as per WDC's instructions, and then see if PM can fix the drive. ← Do you see a non-dos partition through fdisk that is small, probably less than 20MB? If so, wipe it out. If you don't get with me this evening, and we will get rid of it. I'm pulling heads on a 97 Taurus right now, because the joker at the garage wanted 1200 dollars to do it. What a joke when I've been a mechanic for 15 years, eh? ← If I run FDisk, find, and delete said partition, will it corrupt or destroy any of my data? ← I won't lie to ya. It may, because you are altering the partition table, and I'm not sure how EZ Drive stores that information. If you didn't have EZ Drive on there, I'd tell ya to go ahead and wipe out that little partition, because it wouldn't affect your data. But with EZ Drive setting up and recording the geometry of the drive, it's anybody's guess. Do you have enough room to create a partition big enough to move that data to? Or, do you have enough hard drive space, or can you borrow a hard drive for the time being to move it to, so that you can wipe out said partition, and before redesigning your partitions, after deleting the small one, just reboot and see if the data is there? If the data is there, use Partition Magic to either absorb the empty space, or do whatever you want with the space. Just be sure of your decision though, bro, as I don't know how EZ Drive sets up the MBR. This is why I hate those damn drive utilities like that. I understand why you had to use it; I got stuck with MaxBlast for the 250GB drive I have, because at the time, XP would support nothing over 130GB, even though the BIOS saw it fine. And since I flat out refuse to use SP2, I still don't know if it will or not. But let me stress this: IF THE DATA IS IMPORTANT TO YOU, BACK IT UP OR MOVE IT BEFORE DOING ANYTHING WITH YOUR PARTITIONS, I DON'T CARE WHAT PROGRAM YOU USE TO DO IT WITH, OR HOW GOOD THE EXPERT CLAIMS TO BE WHO IS ADVISING YOU ! ! COVER YOUR ASS ! ! IF THE DATA IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO YOU, YOU WILL FIND A WAY ! ! OTHERWISE ANYTHING YOU DO IS A HUGE GAMBLE. Edited January 28, 2005 by PhantmSniper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabellum Posted January 28, 2005 Author Share Posted January 28, 2005 Anyway, back to the original issue, before my thread gets closed. I think I've found the cause of the problems: EZ Drive. It's some sort of drive-management software that's made by Western-Digital. When I received an error message yesterday while trying to run PM in DOS, I remembered that EZ Bios kept me from running PM on that drive quite some time ago. This drive has gone through two FDISK/Reformats since I installed EZ Drive, and yet the detestable software is still on and fouling up the drive. I'm going to attempt to uninstall EZ Drive as per WDC's instructions, and then see if PM can fix the drive. ← Do you see a non-dos partition through fdisk that is small, probably less than 20MB? If so, wipe it out. If you don't get with me this evening, and we will get rid of it. I'm pulling heads on a 97 Taurus right now, because the joker at the garage wanted 1200 dollars to do it. What a joke when I've been a mechanic for 15 years, eh? ← If I run FDisk, find, and delete said partition, will it corrupt or destroy any of my data? ← I won't lie to ya. It may, because you are altering the partition table, and I'm not sure how EZ Drive stores that information. If you didn't have EZ Drive on there, I'd tell ya to go ahead and wipe out that little partition, because it wouldn't affect your data. But with EZ Drive setting up and recording the geometry of the drive, it's anybody's guess. Do you have enough room to create a partition big enough to move that data to? Or, do you have enough hard drive space, or can you borrow a hard drive for the time being to move it to, so that you can wipe out said partition, and before redesigning your partitions, after deleting the small one, just reboot and see if the data is there? If the data is there, use Partition Magic to either absorb the empty space, or do whatever you want with the space. Just be sure of your decision though, bro, as I don't know how EZ Drive sets up the MBR. This is why I hate those damn drive utilities like that. I understand why you had to use it; I got stuck with MaxBlast for the 250GB drive I have, because at the time, XP would support nothing over 130GB, even though the BIOS saw it fine. And since I flat out refuse to use SP2, I still don't know if it will or not. But let me stress this: IF THE DATA IS IMPORTANT TO YOU, BACK IT UP OR MOVE IT BEFORE DOING ANYTHING WITH YOUR PARTITIONS, I DON'T CARE WHAT PROGRAM YOU USE TO DO IT WITH, OR HOW GOOD THE EXPERT CLAIMS TO BE WHO IS ADVISING YOU ! ! COVER YOUR ASS ! ! IF THE DATA IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO YOU, YOU WILL FIND A WAY ! ! OTHERWISE ANYTHING YOU DO IS A HUGE GAMBLE. ← My new hard drive is plenty big enough to store all the data on the drive in question. The problem is, I can't use Partition Magic on the drive in question, as EZ Drive is preventing me from doing so. There is a utility made by WDC that will uninstall EZ Drive. I'll look into it more, and see what the pros/cons are. I have also thought about purchasing data recovery software, but I'm not even sure that something like Phoenix will work, seeing as EZ Drive is essentially holding the drive hostage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannik Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 You might consider using a Linux live distribution to rescue your drive. Boot into Linux (no install required with live CD's, as they use a RAMdrive), and copy the data from one drive to the other. It's slightly more complex if the destination drive is NTFS formatted, but a little careful research gets around that. It also should more than bypass the EZ Drive app, as you're not in Windows when working on the data transfer. It's a free alternative to commercial data recovery services, as long as you have the space to move all your data to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CR6 Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 I'll take the drive to the tech and have him do it. ← Make sure you do your research on where you bring your HD to, especially if it's to recover critical data. Ask trusted friends, or check with the Better Business Bureau etc. And remember, you get what you pay for. Hardware can always be replaced, but nothing is more valuable than your data. Obviously you've had a bad experience getting help online, but many of the knowledgable guys on this forum know way more than the average tech in a computer store. I don't know how many times I've overheard the wrong info given by a tech ... whether it's to make more money, or they just don't know. :no: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 Anyway, back to the original issue, before my thread gets closed. I think I've found the cause of the problems: EZ Drive. It's some sort of drive-management software that's made by Western-Digital. When I received an error message yesterday while trying to run PM in DOS, I remembered that EZ Bios kept me from running PM on that drive quite some time ago. This drive has gone through two FDISK/Reformats since I installed EZ Drive, and yet the detestable software is still on and fouling up the drive. I'm going to attempt to uninstall EZ Drive as per WDC's instructions, and then see if PM can fix the drive. ← Do you see a non-dos partition through fdisk that is small, probably less than 20MB? If so, wipe it out. If you don't get with me this evening, and we will get rid of it. I'm pulling heads on a 97 Taurus right now, because the joker at the garage wanted 1200 dollars to do it. What a joke when I've been a mechanic for 15 years, eh? ← If I run FDisk, find, and delete said partition, will it corrupt or destroy any of my data? ← I won't lie to ya. It may, because you are altering the partition table, and I'm not sure how EZ Drive stores that information. If you didn't have EZ Drive on there, I'd tell ya to go ahead and wipe out that little partition, because it wouldn't affect your data. But with EZ Drive setting up and recording the geometry of the drive, it's anybody's guess. Do you have enough room to create a partition big enough to move that data to? Or, do you have enough hard drive space, or can you borrow a hard drive for the time being to move it to, so that you can wipe out said partition, and before redesigning your partitions, after deleting the small one, just reboot and see if the data is there? If the data is there, use Partition Magic to either absorb the empty space, or do whatever you want with the space. Just be sure of your decision though, bro, as I don't know how EZ Drive sets up the MBR. This is why I hate those damn drive utilities like that. I understand why you had to use it; I got stuck with MaxBlast for the 250GB drive I have, because at the time, XP would support nothing over 130GB, even though the BIOS saw it fine. And since I flat out refuse to use SP2, I still don't know if it will or not. But let me stress this: IF THE DATA IS IMPORTANT TO YOU, BACK IT UP OR MOVE IT BEFORE DOING ANYTHING WITH YOUR PARTITIONS, I DON'T CARE WHAT PROGRAM YOU USE TO DO IT WITH, OR HOW GOOD THE EXPERT CLAIMS TO BE WHO IS ADVISING YOU ! ! COVER YOUR ASS ! ! IF THE DATA IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO YOU, YOU WILL FIND A WAY ! ! OTHERWISE ANYTHING YOU DO IS A HUGE GAMBLE. ← My new hard drive is plenty big enough to store all the data on the drive in question. The problem is, I can't use Partition Magic on the drive in question, as EZ Drive is preventing me from doing so. There is a utility made by WDC that will uninstall EZ Drive. I'll look into it more, and see what the pros/cons are. I have also thought about purchasing data recovery software, but I'm not even sure that something like Phoenix will work, seeing as EZ Drive is essentially holding the drive hostage. ← The easy answer then, is to hook that new drive up, partition it the way you want it, and copy the data you want over to it. Then take the old drive, run fdisk, and delete the partition. Once done with that, reboot and see if your data is still there. If not, proceed to partition the old drive the way you want it. If the data is there, use Partition Magic to fix up your partitions. It will work once EZ Drive is gone. If you need any help with this, PM me if you'd like to, and we can set a time to hook up and I can walk you through the maze, step by step, and explain EVERYTHING as we go, and answer your questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabellum Posted January 28, 2005 Author Share Posted January 28, 2005 How do I copy the data from the WDC drive to the new drive, if Windows doesn't see the WDC drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannik Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 You might consider using a Linux live distribution to rescue your drive. Boot into Linux (no install required with live CD's, as they use a RAMdrive), and copy the data from one drive to the other.← Complete instructions. I have used this method personally, as have others I know. It's a touch complex sounding, but in practice, it's reasonably intuitive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chems Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 Like Dannik says has been used by others, myself, but Linux just didnt really work great for me, terrible transfere rates between drives and I couldnt get the CD writer program to work. Like I said before I used NTFS/Fat32 Phoneix to recover my data through windows installed on the other HD. I strongly recommend it, Dannik will tell you how many hours I put into the whole thing. And I finally rescued it after about 5 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 I think I know a solution. Give me until tomorrow nite to check it out fully, and I'll get with you. Say, what do I get if I rescue your data for you? I will have VBS1 soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specter Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 Go here and read this thread. It is about the saame problem and the solution for it that you are having. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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