I have a 2-HD system with XP Home, all updates applied. The main disk failed, and I replaced it with a new one, formatted, and installed XP again. However, now I can't access the files I had on the second (slave) HD, which I was using as a backup. The disk shows, I can write new files to it, but the old files seemto be gone. I have Avanquest System Suite 7,which I used to look for deleted files, but it doesn't show any. I have the same username and password as before. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Was the slave disk definitely used as a backup (i.e. a copy) of your data or had you redirected the "My Documents" folder to the slave drive? If it was a copy, then have you tried using the failed hard disk as a slave? - you might still be able to access the original copy of all of your data for long enough to get it copied to the new drive.

I did actually start to write you a response on the basis that it could be a permissions issue but, in fact, it can't be - a fresh install of Windows XP will give you administrator rights over any data on the slave drive. Unless you've been using some kind of third-party disk management, compression or encryption software.

Thanks for the quick response. As a matter of fact, I had a sync program (Update 2.3 from www.profiles.com.lb, a freebie) copying all my data files (plus selected items from my Windows profile like my Favorites) onto the second, slave disk at startup on the theory that I would always have two copies, neither of which was more than a day old, of everything that couldn't be easily replaced. Great theory, until I actually had to put it to the test when the master disk failed.

Anyway, I did try using the failed disk as a slave as well, but the partitition was not recognized. WD Data Lifeguard Tools said it was fine.

I did find a solution, however. I downloaded Knoppix and burned a self-booting Linux CD. Knoppix Linux recognized the partition and all the files on the slave, but Windows only saw a blank partition. I eventually just created a 32G partition with a FAT32 format (Knoppix reads but doesn't like writing to NTFS) on the original disk, then used Knoppix to transfer copy everything to the new FAT partition, then Windows to move the files to a NTFS partision. Took a while (many reboots), but worked fine.

I have no idea why my fresh install of Wind XP Home only saw a blank partition, while Knoppix Linus saw all my old files on the same partition, but it definitely was the case.

Meanwhile, I eventually got a response from Microsoft themselves (I was desperate enough to send them an email request for help), suggesting the following (which I did not do as I already had a solution, I am just posting for anyone who this may help):

To troubleshoot this issue, I suggest we first perform these steps as a test:

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1. Please download a tool named PC Inspector File Recovery from the following link:



http://download.pcinspector.de/pci_filerecovery.exe



2. Double click the downloaded file to Install the tool and you will see a PC Inspector File Recovery icon on the Desktop.



3. Double click on the icon to launch the tool.



4. Choose "English" and click OK.



5. From the next window, click "Close".



6. From the "Object" menu, click "Drives". After that, please choose the drive that you need to recover data from.



7. You will see a folder named "Deleted". Please expand it and find the files that you would like to recover.



8. Highlight the files from the right panel (You can also use the Shift/Ctrl key to choose multiple files)



9. Right click on the files and choose "Save to…"



10. You will be able to save the deleted files to a new location.


Please Note: The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a company that is independent of Microsoft. We make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.

I hope this post helps someone like myself find a solution. I wish I'd seen a post like this earlier suggesting the Linux solution.

By the way, in repsonse to your comments,

"I did actually start to write you a response on the basis that it could be a permissions issue but, in fact, it can't be - a fresh install of Windows XP will give you administrator rights over any data on the slave drive. Unless you've been using some kind of third-party disk management, compression or encryption software."

A permissions issue would explain a lot. I was using an Admin account on the new install of XP Home with the same login and password. I was NOT using any third-party disk management software, although I did have XP format the slave disk enabling compression when I first installed it.

Originally Posted by guerry_mcclellan@hotmail.

.......I did have XP format the slave disk enabling compression when I first installed it.

Ah, that's interesting. If your slave disk had compression on (set by the original Windows install) but the new Windows install wasn't expecting that, then that might be why it didn't read it properly. I don't know if such an issue does exist in Windows but it wouldn't be too surprising if it's true!

Thanks for letting us all know Microsoft's response. It's always good to know what tools the Microsoft guys like to use