help- reformatting master gives me corrupted data in slave

[gremlyn]

Can someone please help me. I need to reformat my pc. last time i reformatted it i got problems with my slave drive.

I have a master driver (c)and a 200GB slave drive thats split up into 2 partitions (f) and (g). When i last reformatted, i found that some of my files in my slave drive was corrupted, and some folders gave me the "access denied" error message. I didnt have a solution except copy all my files from dvd onto my pc again, the ones that were corrupted.

As i'm thinking of reformatting my pc, i want to make sure that my slave drive will be ok. i.e. no corrupted data.

So can anyone tell me or explain why i got corrupted files on my slave (not all were corrupted tho) and how to prevent it?

just a note if its helpful, I dont have windows XP, i only have a recovery cd which reformats my pc back to factory setting. As i cant select what drives to reformat, i unplugged my slave drive when reformatting.

Help appreciated here. I have too much stuff on my slave drive that i dont want to lose.

Thanks

[Jayhawk]

I have run across recovery disks (script driven) that assume a C: / D: partioned single drive (like the machine shipped) that has caused me some problems. Never run across one that's acting like yours.

I'm sure I didn't understand one of you comments (maybe I read it wrong). Did you say that your slave drive was unplugged when you did the format, and it still got corrupted ?. That would be pretty much impossible. Assuming it WAS plugged in, I can only assume that the script controlling the restore is looking for C:, and the next logical drive (F: in your case). That could cause some unpredictible results.

I would recommend that you completely unplug your slave when restoring (if you aren't already doing that). No way files could be corrupted on an unplugged drive.

[gremlyn]

yes. i did unplug my slave drive when reformatting. before reformat, the partitions were (g) and (h). now they're f and g.

the thing is, my f partition is ok. i dont recall any data being corrupted. but on my g partition, some files were corrupted. an example would be video clips. the size would be normal size but after reformat, wmp couldnt play it. and .exe files i got an error to say its corrupted. but some files were ok tho.

i also got "access denied" on some folders on my g drive. i did a quick google and found i could change the problem folder to allow administrator privileges (its as if it didnt recognised me as admin)

both my drives are ntfs

the thing is, this was the 2nd format i had to do. 1st time round was ok. 2nd time however is like above. the ony thing i can think of is that maybe i did not reformat cleanly. but my slave was not hooked up tho.

if i reformatted again, ensuring slave was totally unhooked, would it be ok?

thanks for reply

[Jayhawk]

Confusing to say the least. Obviously a disconnected drive can not have its files changed so whatever programs your recovery disks installed something in their configuration is expecting a certain drive layout (that doesn't exist now). Even stranger, the drives have bumped down from G/H to F/G which usually means a partition has been removed by installing the recovery. Usually the other way around. I'm truly lost.

What were the letters of you opticals. I assume D: and E: Are the hard drives on different channels (probably should be for best performance).

Regardless, I wouldn't worry too much about the actual assigned letters but the file corruption is another matter. I guess I would totally disconnect your slave and reformat / recover again. I would also make sure your jumpers are NOT set to cable select. Make sure the are Master and Slave on different channels (or Master and Master on different channels).

Sorry I can't be of more help. What appears to be happening just shouldn't.

[gremlyn]

ok. i have formatted my pc. I'm just giving feedback now.

Before format, i was trying to think, given what you said (that it couldnt be possible if slave was unhooked) how my data was corrupted. I do remember now, that all programs i used to open various types of files gave me the corrupted error message. But i actually recall that the files were proper size. i mean lets say i had ripped a 2GB dvd onto pc, the file actuially said 2GB! but i couldnt open it.

I still dont get it. Maybe my slave was corrupted before the reformat, the files i mean. But there was too many, i would have noticed.

Anyway, before reformatting, i did a check disk (i rarely do that) and then reformatted and unhooking slave. My slave is ok now. I've checked and its all good. not like the last reformat i had. I dont know if check disk helped, but i thought i'd post an update about it.

Oh, my partitions are now D and E. I'm assuming from what you said, thats normal (unlike last time where it was f and g .


Thanks for your help. It was appreciated. You dont know how scared i was in reformatting. I've too many home camcorder clips on there.

cheers 8)

[guns1inger]

You don't say it you are using XP and NTFS, but assuming for the moment that you are, when you reinstall, even if you give the accounst the same name as you had previously, the internal account IDs will most probably have changed. As far as windows is concerned, they are a different user. Any files that were owned under the same user name as now are not owned by the new account. This leads to access denied messages. The files aren't coruupt, just owned by someone else. You can take ownership of these files using the security settings in the file properties to take bake the rights.

[thevoelk]

The drive changing letters is not that odd. Windows probably detected two cd drives and assigned them letters before the second hard drive. If it bothers you that much, or just want it back the original way, right click on My Computer and choose Manage. In the new Window that opens, select Disk Management. Find your drives that you want to change the letter on, right click and select "Change Drive Letter and Path" . You'll be given a list of drive letters available, start moving around. Keep in mindthat this will throw off recent documents and things like that, ie. if you a .doc file on F:, your second hard drive, and now F: is a CD drive, Windows won't be able to open it if you go to the My Recent Documents list. It's still there, just moved.

[gremlyn]

actually, the drive chaning did do my head in and thanks thevoelk, its back to the letters i'm used to now 8)

and huns1linger, yes i am on windows xp (home) and both drives are ntfs. what you said makes a lot of sense. it answers the reason why the files had the correct file size, just inaccessible

having said that, why would some files have a different id and not all of them?

if i were to have this problem again, i know what to do. i've saved these posts for future reference as i love my slave drive.

thanks guys.