SATA disk turned "Dynamic" and "Unreadable"

[LeftEyeNine]

Urgent help needed !

I had posted this problem in my other recent thread, but you know, I need attention. I'm a cry baby, yes.

After setting up my computer back up running again, my Samsung SATA HDD which was being used (storing my whole music, images archive. simply indispensible) is now seen as dynamic and "unreadable" in Disk Management by my Windows XP Pro SP2. And it says it will erase the date to make it basic after right-clicking it (the only executive option in that menu besides "help" and "properties"). I can't think of doing that, no way. I'd better bury the HDD rather than doing it, hoping that some tech could save my data one day.

Around the internet it says that Windows XP Professional is capable of reading dynamic disks, however my OS does not, as indicated by saying "unreadable" noted under its name in Disk Management.

What can I do ?

[sapi]

Maybe try loading it via a linux livecd and getting the data off, then formatting?

That wont' work if it's your only hdd, of course

[LeftEyeNine]

Hmm, I've been recommended that. Seems some kind of last resort. :/

I'm still concerned with why it turns dynamic and unreadable. Is my luck that far good with me ?

[LeftEyeNine]

I'm downloading SLAX live cd iso right now. It was top voted among others in a website indexing those distros.

Guaranteed that it can see that Dynamic and Unreadable SATA HDD (under normal circumstances) ?

[LeftEyeNine]

No luck with SLAX.

Being an all-time fan of DOS, I was never able to reach my HDDs. Anyone has an idea how to ? Through some file explorer, all I could do was reaching the root of the CD, nowhere out of it.

God. This humble creature of you asks: Why do you test me on electronical gadgets ?

[Lemur]

Just an idea, LEN, but is this the sort of issue that SpinRite could address? I've heard of it raising disks from the undead ....

[DukeofSerbia]

Around the internet it says that Windows XP Professional is capable of reading dynamic disks, however my OS does not, as indicated by saying "unreadable" noted under its name in Disk Management.

My hard disks are dinamic as I have stripped partition (software RAID 0).



Not some help but I used it for creating: http://www.techimo.com/articles/index.pl?photo=149

What can I do ?

To go in service with hard disk and pay them to save data from your disk.

[LeftEyeNine]

Spinrite 6.0 made a thorough data recovery operation, which it says to be succesfully completed.

The problem is, the BIOS and the Device manager manages to "see" the HDD but the OS fails to recognize it.

It seems the data can be recovered, don't you think ?

[Lemur]

Spinrite 6.0 made a thorough data recovery operation, which it says to be succesfully completed.

The problem is, the BIOS and the Device manager manages to "see" the HDD but the OS fails to recognize it.

It seems the data can be recovered, don't you think ?

There should be an option to transfer the data to another disk. That would be a real good idea right about now.

-edit-

Since the problem seems to be in Windows, the thing to do would be to find a nice DOS cloning tool ...

[DukeofSerbia]

Spinrite 6.0 made a thorough data recovery operation, which it says to be succesfully completed.

The problem is, the BIOS and the Device manager manages to "see" the HDD but the OS fails to recognize it.

It seems the data can be recovered, don't you think ?

Yes. Even is disk physical damaged can be saved, but that cost a lot of money and can only do specialized services.

Last June my WD 1200JS was dieing. Every five minutes I have blue screen, and I didn't backup anything (how desparate I was don't ask)! I brought computer in service (I had warranty) where I bought it (from friend) and they managed to save all data from disk, but it took whole week as disk worked maximum 5 minutes before crash.

So yes, there should be no problem in saving data, it is just matter how much money you'll have to pay.

As Lemur wrote...

There should be an option to transfer the data to another disk. That would be a real good idea right about now.

-edit-

Since the problem seems to be in Windows, the thing to do would be to find a nice DOS cloning tool ...

Yes, that can be done through DOS. But how, I really don't know.

[Lemur]

Here's a DOS-based disk cloning tool. Haven't used it, so I can't vouch for it, but it might do the trick. Hang in there, LEN.

[DukeofSerbia]

Better to pay professional service to do it.