URGENT HELP: NTFS external hd problem

[thebeen]

Ok guys, I'm kinda freaking out here, being my newbieness to the linux world, I tried to do something:

 

I have another pc with winXP and an external Maxtor HD. It connects via firewire and works perfectly with the WinXP box. It has over 175 gB of info formatted NTFS.

Today, I simply tried connecting this hardrive onto my linux box. After connecting the harddrive, I opened up MCC and went to hardware. I saw sda under the devices, and it recognized the harddrive. It said it was mounted to /mnt/hd. I went to that folder, and I saw no contents. Thus, I ran the "config tool" under the mcc and looked under the CREATE button. I am not sure if I created anything, but I did see something like "make backup". I pressed OK, not really knowing what I was doing, just thinking everything was alright.

 

I still didn't see anything on the /mnt/hd/ so i simply took out the firewire connection.

I connected it back to the WINXP computer, which caused it to crash.

Then I connected it back to the linux computer, went to the mcc > config tool. So I saw something I didn't see before, i think it was unmount or something. I did that, reconnected to back to the winXP box, and saw nothing. The winXP computer did not do anything when the computer was connected (before it would recognize a HD was connected and would search the contents). Now it sits there and does nothing.

 

I uninstalled the driver for the MAXTOR HD on the XP box, and restarting the computer. Reconnecting the device did not do anything -- no response -- no plug and play worked.

 

 

Whats happening?

 

What's weird is that I have another laptop with winXP and I tried connecting this harddrive to that computer. It did detect a maxtor storage device. We installed the drivers, but no harddrive appeared (even after reboot)

 

 

Can anyone help me whats going on herE?

 

I am find with getting these files somehow ...

either getting it running using linux or getting it running winXP.

 

PLEASE HELP. over 175 gB of important STUFF!

[thebeen]

-----------------SOLUTION------------------

 

Ok guys, I spent a lot of time tonight, and recovered this harddrive. Here is a solution to anyone with a damaged NTFS drive because of LINUX.

 

Under Windows XP. I first used DISK MANAGEMENT. I found an unallocated drive that was my external hd. Created a NEW partition.

 

Then

 

1. Using Disk Probe choose DRIVES, Physical Drive. Select the PhysicalDriveX where X = the ordinal of the disk. For example, Use Disk Administrator to find what the ordinal is of the disk in question.

2. Double click on the PhysicalDriveX you wish to view. In the box below, uncheck Read Only and select the button Set Active. You will then notice that the Active Handle has been set to PhysicalDriveX, then select OK.

3. From the SECTORS Menu, select Read and insert 0 for STARTING SECTORS and 1 for Number of Sectors, Click Read.

4 You are now at the MBR of your Physical disk. You can verify this by the ASCII text on the right hand side beginning at Offset 8b which should read "Invalid Partition Table....". From the VIEW menu, select view Partition Table. Select the correct partition number which is in question.

5 We will need two values; Total Sectors, Relative sectors. Please note the Relative sectors value since this is where the bootsector should be located. To find the backup copy of the bootsector, perform the following calcualtion:

 

Record Total Sectors: _________

Record Relative Sectors: _________

 

Total Sectors --> 1062880

+ relative Sectors --> 32 +

---------

1062912

- Minus one sector --> 1 -

---------

Backup bootsector --> 1062911

 

 

 

6 Select SECTORS, Read and input Starting sector as the value calculated in Step #5, Number of sectors to 1. Select Read and you should be at the location of your backup bootsector.

7 From the VIEW menu, select Bytes and verify that this is the NTFS bootsector. Once verified, from the SECTORS menu, select Write, make sure the dialog box shows the correct Handle and PhysicalDrive. In box Starting Sector to write Data, type in the number of Relative sectors you noted in step #5 and select the Buttion Write it.

8 Go to the SECTORS menu and type in the Relative sector from step #5 while keeping Number of sectors to 1, select Read. Here, please verify that the data was written.

9 Close Disk Probe and reboot your system.

 

 

 

HOPE IT HELPS SOMEONE

[pmpatrick]

I had problems with my maxtor external hard drive which came formatted FAT32 from the factory. I can't find the post because the search by author function doesn't seem to be working. Bottom line was don't use diskdrake to do anything to that drive; it was a real mess. I used Acronis Partition expert to fix the mess created by diskdrake by repartitoning and reformatting and then manually created a mount point and an entry in fstab for the drive and it worked fine. I created two extended/ogical partitions with Acronis, one FAT32 and another reiserfs. Note, Im using usb, not firewire on my drive and it is functioning at usb2.0 speeds just fine after I fixed everything with Acronis. I think the initial partition set up by by maxtor is incompatible with linux. My drive also works fine on my laptop but it's limited to usb1.1 speed since my old laptop doesn't support usb2.0.

 

I believe your drive has the option to connect by either firwire or usb, i.e. you got the nice one. If that's the case, you could try connecting by usb on your laptop and see if that works.

You could also try creating logical/extended partitions and see if that helps.

Edited November 22, 2003 by pmpatrick

[TopDog]

I'm thinking about buying an Maxtor 200GB external HD that uses both FW and USB2... so my question to you guys is; have you gotten it to work both on WinXP and Linux?

[thebeen]

topdog, I am going to work with it during thanksgiving break. I"ll find out, but I am guessing its going to be a little difficult.