Hello all,

Not one to swear, I'll resist the massive temptation to do so!

I am trying to retrieve data from a Hard Drive that I think is inundated with viruses. I have attached it to to Momobay External Hard Drive and am trying to gain access to it through the USB port. I know the data is on there, I will explain how shortly.

When accessing the drive in My Computer the computer falters for some time before eventually saying that it could not access the drive due to an "Error Performing Inpage Operation". I've no clue why this is, any suggestions? After many attempts at this I tried to find a third-party data retrieval program online, eventually I found 'Stellar Phoenix FAT & NTFS Version 2.1'. I allowed it to read the drive (which took the best part of two hours) and now, finally, after it has displayed all the files and folders on the disk I am asked to purchase the full version in order to retrieve the data. Can anyone sugegst any other software that may be useful that I don't have to pay for? Or is there a way of virus scanning the drive?

I know the data is on there (I suppose that's one thing I gained from the two hours of scanning) so I'm confident it can be retrieved.

There may be a much quicker and easier fix for this so I'll try to list what I can:

The jumper on the drive I am trying to retrieve from is set to 'Master' (is this right?)
I am transferring data to a 40 gig drive from a 120 gig drive, but only the bare essentials

Could I set the drive up as a slave inside the computer? :S I really don't know.

I'm at a loss at the moment, so any advice would be massively appreciated.

If anyone wants any more information I'll be happy to provide it where I can!

Many thanks for reading - Ciaran x

Hi bushy_criggers,

You can attach your old HD as slave, on the same cable (second connector) from your 120 gB HD. Just remove any jumper at back panel and enter BIOS to set second HD to auto. This may work.

If both connectors are attached to devices, you can disconnect the slave optical disk and connect your HD.

Just be warned that you can infect your new HD when transferring files. Better run a good Antivirus software on it prior to access any file on it.

Post back if you have some problems on doing that.

Chris

btw, you may read this Microsoft article, which suggest you are trying to retrieve data from a bad media http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=141117

Thanks Ironbender!

I'm going to try it now! And I'll reply as soon as I can.

If I'm not back soon... Well, you can figure out the rest.

Many thanks, Ciaran

Hi Bushy...

If you still are interested in data retrieval, I can recommend a couple of free tools you can try.

Hey again,

The slave drive didn't work. I need to find the jumpers, couldn't get it working.

Ranchhand, any free tools would be massively appreciated! Please suggest them, it'd be great!

Thanks again - Ciaran

QUOTE

I need to find the jumpers

???
Normally, it should work... the jumper at the back (rear) of your HD have to be removed or set to SL (slave).

Was it recognized on BIOS or as new hardware ? (BIOS may normally be set to "auto", except for old HD, which requires to be manually set with the data written on a sticker on it (cylinders, heads, sectors, etc...)

If you can not connect it (I mean "be recognized by your system"), data recovery utilities will not work

Hey again Ironbender,

I thought I had it set to slave but guessed I needed to set the other to master too. :S I may well be talking rubbish here.

When I had it set to slave it tried to boot from the disk I think as I got a very bizarre error message. No blue screen, it looked like DOS and the other time I tried it just cocked up and froze.

Can you guide me through the BIOS? I've really no experience when it comes to this. Any advice would be much appreciated. All I seem able to do is change the boot order, I couldn't see an option for "auto".

If you need any more information on the BIOS please ask.

Thanks again, I'm becoming increasingly indebted to you for this advice.

Regards - Ciaran

(Edit) P.S. - I don't know if I made it clear enough, but the drive that is malfunctioning is the 120 gig drive, I'm trying to rescue what I can to the 40 gig drive that is working. Just thought I'd make this clear in case!

OK...
You have a system working with a 40 gig HD (this is the primary master drive, installed at IDE 0) do not touch it or its jumpers.

The flat cable attached on it have two connectors, one of them attached to this HD, the other may be attached to a second device on the same IDE channel (zero), this is the primary slave.

Normally, there is no jumper on a slave device, but in some cases, it may exist and set to SL. If there is no device there, connect your faulty HD to this end of the flat cable.

If there is some, you may try to attach it as secondary slave on the IDE 1, where you may have a secondary master optical device (CD/DVD), at the end of the second flat cable. On both cases, remove the jumper (if it is there) or move it to short SL pins.

Master drivers/devices must have a jumper on them, slave devices are connected to the same flat cable and may have no jumpers.

If you do have two devices on the first cable, and none on the second, you will need to set your faulty HD as secondary master, moving its jumper to MS pins.

Do not know what kind of BIOS you have, but normally, it will automatically recon it. Let the boot sequence as it was before.

If this is not clear, please post back and I will try to guide you step-by-step.

Thank you so much for the continued help!

I'm going to try plugging in the drive again as a slave.

I should (all things going to plan) be right back!

Again, many thanks - Ciaran

I'll be here for the next two hours

Hello again Ironbender,

Alas, I've had no joy. When plugging in the drive on the same cable as the slave with no jumpers my computer recognises only the slave and not the master. Although... Curiously (I'm becoming increasingly confused now) when I booted up again after removing the 120 gig drive as a slave it my computer described the only drive plugged in (the 40 gig one) as a slave without recognising any master.

The plot thickens. Or perhaps it doesn't, it thickens to me but this is probably very simple!

Many thanks, any suggestions?

Regards - Ciaran

Don't have you moved the jumper on the master 40 gb HD ? Also, don't have you inverted the cable order?

If not, there is no reason for the drive had changed its status.

What exactly is connected to the computer you are trying to use ?

Only one HD ?
One HD and one CD on the same cable?
On HD and one CD on different cables ?

Does your system works normally with only the master 40 gb hard drive ? (and was it working before ?)

Please try to describe it and what is connected or not to your flat cables at the moment, and if possible, its jumpers position.

Hello again,

I haven't changed anything about the 40 gig drive, I imagine it was always like that but I only noticed this time because I was looking. Should I be at all concerned?

It's a bit of a mess inside but I'll have a look and try my best! On this computer I have connected (at present):

One 40 gig Hard Drive connected to an Ultra ATA Cable
A DVD Drive on one IDE cable
A CD-RW on what appears to be another (separate) IDE cable

All these go into the mobo.

The system does work normally with only the 40 gig drive, but the 40 gig drive is an old hard disk that has been recently reformatted (I came to SAF last time for help with a similar problem and that has more on the specifics of what was wrong last time). There are no jumpers in the back of it.

I'll try to include anything else that may or may not be relevant:

The motherboard is either an Epox EP-8K7A or an EP-8K7A+, I'm not sure.

I also have a Highpoint HPT 370(A) Host Adapter Device Driver floppy disk.

I hope this helps. Anything else do not hesitate to ask!

Thanks again - Ciaran

P.S. - Enjoyed your learn Chinese in five minutes!

Ok... becoming clear now

The 40 gb is an Ultra ATA one, so let it alone and do not worry on jumpers.

The two IDE channels are busy with two optical devices... just wondering if they are set to master/master or cable select...

If you can see the jumpers settings, disconnect the one (CD or DVD) which have none. Remove any jumper from your faulty HD and connect it to this cable.

If the two optical drives have jumpers, try to see which is jumped where and report back.


PS - Nice avatar... what does it represents ?

Hey Ironbender,

Thanks very much for this, I'm glad it's clear to you!

The avatar is an album cover by Radiohead. My favourite band I'm ashamed to say! They're excellent in my opinion, not to everyone's tastes, but No Surprises is a beautiful song. Not heavy rock kinda stuff just nice and relaxed. Just my thoughts! Anyway! I'll try what you suggest!

I can see jumpers on the CD-RW drive. Two attached horizonally one above the other furthest to the left as you look at the back. Not sure what this means. Can't see any jumpers or room for them on the DVD Drive. Should this be the case?

Should I now attach the 120 HDD to one of these IDE cables?

Regards - Ciaran

QUOTE

Radiohead. My favourite band I'm ashamed to say

Unknown to me, but I am in Brazil and people here have other preferences

About the jumpers, not sure yet, but I'll try to attach it on the DVD cable. Gently remove it and attach it to your HD. Plug a power cord (there may be some spares/not used from your PSU. If not, you can use the one from the DVD) and fire it

Hey again,

Better try that then!

Yes it's late, but my motor skills should still be refined enough to do this.

If they're not then... uh... I guess you won't hear from me for a while.

Thanks very much, Ciaran

P.S. - Brazil! Wow! Guess not knowing of Radiohead isn't so bad if you live in Brazil!

Be comfortable, Ciaran... I'll be here for an hour... maybe more.

it's 2 AM on your side, if I'm right (guess we have 4 hours lag)

...better continue tomorrow, if you wich.

Hey,

Back again! Yeah, gone two over here. I'm kind of a night owl! Your words of reassurance are invaluable Ironbender!

I tried attaching the IDE cable from the DVD Drive and got blue screened as it tried to load Win XP Pro, but so quickly there was no way of reading anything at all on the blue screen. Then I tried the IDE Cable from the CD-RW and it wouldn't even get past identifying my HD and CD drives.

Would starting the computer in Safe Mode be worth trying, attaching the drive again with the DVD IDE cable or is there perhaps anything else that you can think of?

Regards - Ciaran

Not at this moment...

Need to think a little bit more about...

Do not try rebooting in safe mode or changing software settings, as it's not a Windows issue, but a hardware config one.

Remove it and connect all back how it was. There is something I have missed somewhere, so I will carefully read all again, review my tech notes and scout around.

Will be back as soon as possible

Ironbender,

Anything I can do to assist you in this do not hesitate to ask! Anything you need to know I'll try to find out!

Ciaran

Yo Bushy..

I am going to wait until you and IronBender get things sorted. If you can possibly access the problem harddrive, it is far easier than using data retrieval. I am monitoring this thread, so we will get you sorted out one way or the other.

By the way... Radiohead is an interesting group. I personally would not classify them as pure rock, they have taken it to the next level. My (college age) daughter was listening to some interesting music one day and I asked her who they were, and .... Then I heard an analysis of Radiohead on our local classical radio station, and many of the chording structures and approaches are based in the Romance period of Classical! Interesting.

Hey Ranchhand,

Cheers man! It's nice to know! I really appreciate this, if there's anything I can do in return please ask!

Ciaran

Well, you can loan me $1000,000 U.S. if you like. If not, You Are Welcome!

I think we both know that's not very likely!

(Edit) And yeah, Radiohead are interesting. I wouldn't call them "rock" either so much, it's certainly where they started. But they're great, I really like them! They're all classically trained musicians, and their lead guitarist is now Composer in Residence at BBC Radio 3 (Classical station)! Gotta love them!

Hi again,

Can you post the make and model of your 120 gB disk ?

Chris

I certainly can!

The HD is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120 Gbytes Model - ST3120022A

Ciaran

Well, this confused me...
your Epox EP-8K7A mobo have 2 EIDE Ultra ATA channels, so, you must have only 2 flat cables coming from it. (blue connectors on picture below)

One, is connected to your 40 GB hard disk, as primary master, probably on the first cable connector.
The second connector may be free.
The other cable is connected to your two optical devices, the jumpered one as secondary master, the other as secondary slave (no jumpers needed).
Your Barracuda 120 gB must be connected to the second connector of the 40 gB HD cable with no problems.
Jumper settings for the Barracuda for "slave" is no jumpers (the jumper comes from Seagate as spare, connected to pins 5-7).
To set it as master, jumper may connect pins 7-8.
I do not know the make and model of your 40 gB drive (please post it back), but, if it is similar to your Barracuda, it may require an additional jumper on pins 5-6 to detect properly that there is a slave present on the same cable (as it seems to be the case on your optical drives, one of them have two jumpers - don't know if one of them is just a spare one or not).

At this moment, I will wait for your reply about the 40 gB drive make and model to be sure of that.

It will be helpful if you can tell me who is who as it appears on the first boot screen (primary master, primary slave, secondary master, secondary slave)

It's certain that your Barracuda 120 (if it is not completely trashed) MUST work as slave of your 40 gB.

Hey again,

Sorry, had college this morning!

Anyway! The 40 gig drive is an IBM Deskstar, Model IC35L040AVER07-0

Hi again,

I need to "view" your 40 gB disk jumper settings... please take a looka at http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/d60gxp/d60gxpjum.htm and post back what of the figures looks to your setting.

It's possible than you will need to move or add a jumper in order to the controller recognizes your 120 gB barracuda...

Chris

PS - pics are for a 60 gB Deskstar, but it's the same settings.

There are no jumpers attached to the 40 gig drive, but I bought five spares earlier so if they need attaching I can do so.

I owe you a virtual pint for this Ironbender!

Regards - Ciaran

No jumpers ?????

As you can see, there is no options for "no jumpers" on this drive

Now, I am really stuck.
What does your boot screen reports about this ?

I'll just go off to get a few photos of the boot screen and others!

No jumpers are attached, I'm sure of this.

I should be right back!!

Ciaran

Hello again Ironbender!

I have the photos, would it be possible to e-mail them to you?

Ciaran

Sure you can, Ciaran. It may be useful.

Okay, I've just sent the photos!

Just for those who are tracking this thread, here are the pics of Ciaran's boot sequence:


Note that he is using a RAID controller
Quite unusual, isn't it ?

Hello again all,

After spending quite a while prodding around, trying different things, boot orders, jumper settings, etc. I have achieved very little! I'm really not sure what's going on. I tried everything you suggested, then tried variations. Perhaps I'm struggling with the BIOS, but I can see no specific option to boot from the RAID controller. I don't want to tamper too much for fear of screwing it up royally.

Often I got a brief blue screen, but my photography skills were not refined enough to capture it. Sometimes Windows would just keep loading and get nowhere and very occasionally it would get past the loading screen but then stop at a black screen, the only sign on life being the hard disk light flickering occasionally.

Uh... Um... Any suggestions? It seems my computer is a bit of a quirk!

Perhaps the data retrieval might be worth trying now Ranchhand? Unless you can think of anything else Ironbender?

Thank you all for the continued input, really, if I hadn't received this I'd be completely flummoxed.

Thanks again - Ciaran

Nothing worked, Ciaran ?

As I warned you before by mail, I am not sure the drive will be recognized when you are using a RAID controller.

Your system setup is unusual, and I do not see anything we can do after that.

I will ask to other members post here with some more clues.

I am very sorry we can't not fix your problem.

Chris

Hey it's not your fault! Me and my weird computer!

Thank you so much for all the input, it was really appreciated! I'll stick around and check back for news regularly and post back if anything happens.

Thank you so much, SAF continues to be an excellent and friendly place for sorting out problems. It's very different and far superior to the impersonal approach you receive with shops or phonelines!

For the meantime, the drive is sitting back in the Momobay! Ranchhand, if you can think fo those data retrieval tools that'd be grand!

Thanks to all!

Cheers - Ciaran

Just a thought, Ciaran,

Are you sure that your Momobay is not able to read and retrieve your files ?

If you load some of ranchhand's utilities, does it not work at all on Momobay ?

Please post back if you manage to solve this problem, as we like to learn things here.

I really hope you can solve this !

Chris