can't see data copied from one drive to another?!

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jd - 13 May 2005 17:57 GMT

Have I gone stark raving mad?!
took a 1.7gig drive freshly formatted and set it up as a master on
secondary(single drive)
copied "xyz" from C: on computer A
took the drive to computer B and could not see any data. drive properties
did say 266mb was used but could not see it anywhere. only some dumb file
called "rt at:"
fdisked/formatted/scandisk(thourough) and copied a single folder "abc" as
proof.
brought drive back to computer A and the folder was not there!
decided to copy "xyz" folder again for what it was worth.
Brought drive home and put it on a w2k computer. Now I can see "abc" but
not "xyz" !
No virus detected on drive.

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Don Phillipson - 13 May 2005 19:47 GMT

> Have I gone stark raving mad?!
> took a 1.7gig drive freshly formatted and set it up as a master on
> secondary(single drive)

Just curious: if it is your new C:\, why not connect it via the
primary IDE line ?

> copied "xyz" from C: on computer A
> took the drive to computer B and could not see any data. drive properties
> did say 266mb was used but could not see it anywhere. only some dumb file
> called "rt at:"

We need details:
1 -- whether PC B recognized the transferred drive in BIOS
2 -- whether PC B recognized the transferred drive in Win98 (presumably
not.)

> fdisked/formatted/scandisk(thourough) and copied a single folder "abc" as
> proof.
> brought drive back to computer A and the folder was not there!

We need details as in ## 1-2 above.
You may have forgotten to rejumper the transferred drive
appropriately.

Signature

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

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jd - 13 May 2005 20:38 GMT

> > Have I gone stark raving mad?!
> > took a 1.7gig drive freshly formatted and set it up as a master on
> > secondary(single drive)
>
> Just curious: if it is your new C:\, why not connect it via the
> primary IDE line ?

because the o/s (win98) is on the primary ide
this d: is just a hard drive for storage.

> > copied "xyz" from C: on computer A
> > took the drive to computer B and could not see any data. drive properties
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> 2 -- whether PC B recognized the transferred drive in Win98 (presumably
> not.)

drive was seen in the bios
win98 saw the drive... how else can I copy from c: to d: ?

> > fdisked/formatted/scandisk(thourough) and copied a single folder "abc" as
> > proof.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> You may have forgotten to rejumper the transferred drive
> appropriately.

On both computers, the drive is a master drive(only) on the secondary
channel.
no need to rejumper anything.
Thanks

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Ron Badour - 17 May 2005 18:59 GMT

Some drives have a different jumper pin setting if it is the only drive on
the cable rather than a second drive. You might want to check that out.

Signature

Regards

Ron Badour, MS MVP Windows 98
Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour
Knowledge Base Info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo

> ..
>> > Have I gone stark raving mad?!
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
> no need to rejumper anything.
> Thanks

Reply to this Message

Jeff Richards - 13 May 2005 23:54 GMT

You can't necessarily assume that a drive can be safely transferred from one
system to another. The ATA/IDE standard does not dictate that the drive
geometry is identical between different systems. Use Scandisk in each system
to confirm that the drive prepared in one system is properly configured for
the other system.

Signature

Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)

> Have I gone stark raving mad?!
> took a 1.7gig drive freshly formatted and set it up as a master on
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> not "xyz" !
> No virus detected on drive.

Reply to this Message

jd - 14 May 2005 04:25 GMT

Ended up putting the drive as a master(single) on secondary controller on an
xp pro system.
naturally xp wanted to do a disk check.
got about a million LOST CHAIN CROSS-LINKED AT CLUSTER xxxxxxx ORPHAN
TRUNCATED.
scrolling down the screen.
Used a 15gig WD drive and the rest as they say is history.

> You can't necessarily assume that a drive can be safely transferred from one
> system to another. The ATA/IDE standard does not dictate that the drive
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> > not "xyz" !
> > No virus detected on drive.

Reply to this Message

Jeff Richards - 14 May 2005 05:31 GMT

The problem is that the type of difference between devices means that the
disk will look completely OK as long as the system can read a valid
partition table and root directory. Since both these can fit on the first
side of the first track, it will not detect that the geometry is wrong and
will happily write file data to whatever physical location the translation
table specifies, regardless of whether or not it makes sense for the current
formatting.

Signature

Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)

> Ended up putting the drive as a master(single) on secondary controller on
> an
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> scrolling down the screen.
> Used a 15gig WD drive and the rest as they say is history.

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Lil' Dave - 14 May 2005 10:26 GMT

In both cases, you manually enter the HD's parameters in the bios setup.
And, of course, they have to be identical. These parameters are usually
archived at the HD manufacturer's website.

Dos/windows uses the bios HD parameters when partitioning the hard disk, and
when examining the partition. If these are different, you will see the
results.

In most cases, nowadays, with recent hard drives and PCs, this is not much
of a problem.

> Have I gone stark raving mad?!
> took a 1.7gig drive freshly formatted and set it up as a master on
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> not "xyz" !
> No virus detected on drive.

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