Reading winXP extended partitioned HDD in Windows 7

[Johng1]

Hi,
I just joined this forum. I also just upgraded to Windows7 home premium 64bit from windows XP 32bit. Two of my back up drives are unreadable in Windows7. I formatted them in WinXP as Extended partition. Is there a way to read these drives in Windows7 or is there a way to convert them to work under Windows7? I first thought the drives got corrupted by the USB Windows7 bug. Now I am thinking Windows7 just can not read the extended partition information. If this is not the case is there a way to rebuild the partition table? One of the two drives I have not written any info to the drive so I believe all the files are still there. The other drive Win7 created a new partition info on the drive so this drive reads as being blank. I did create one folder with nothing in it to this drive. The first drive Windows7 sees the drive but thinks I need to format the drive before I can use it. I have been using recover my files and this is a long and tedious process. I am able to recover some of the files from the disks. Others I can recover but don't have all the correct header,etc info in the files so My computer can not read them.

Thanks,
John

 

[DocBrown]

Welcome John

Can you give us a screen snip of Disk Management ?

Start :ar: Computer Management :ar: Disk Management

 

[Johng1]

WinXP extended partition

Hi,
Thanks for the help. These are video and photo related files and I really love to get them back. I attached a jpg of Computer Management One of the two drives in question is drive 2. It shows an I and a H drive letter I believe but when I first connect this drive to Windows7 via eSATA Windows says I have to format the drive first. I always clink cancel.

Thanks,
John

 

[Johng1]

oh,I thought you might like to view a jpg pic of chen i open folder view to see all my drives this is what happens when I click on one of the partitions. I no Windows 2000/XP pretty well but I have not cought up on Windows7.

John

 

[Johng1]

i forgot to add the files you see are being displayed from my WD 640GB extenal drive not the problem drive.

John

 

[DocBrown]

I have not had any experience with connecting HD's via eSATA.

Does your MB have more than 2 reg SATA ports, that you could try connecting them that way.

 

[gregrocker]

Was this HD part of a RAID array?

Try to plug it into a normal SATA port.

Run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html on both partitions.

Then run the HD maker's diag/repair full CD scan: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Raw Partition solution – recover data from raw partitions.

 

[Johng1]

On my Dell 490 I have 5 internal SATA ports. On my Dell Zino HD I have only USB or eSATA. I will try when i can connecting the drive directly to the on board SATA port. I have an external case that works for eSATA or regular SATA connected to the on board SATA connector. I did not know these are two different specs. I usually connect my drive to th DELL 490 via an Adaptec 1225SA eSATA RAID card unconfigured for RAID. I only use RAID via the on board RAID controller. So this drive was never part of a RAID configuration.