Hey guys... some of you might remember me back from this thread:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/59840/#425757

And once again, I'm facing the same problem. A few days ago, I turned on my computer and i heard this loud noise from the CPU, like BANG! and the next thing i know the computer is dead. I figured it was probably the PSU. So i swapped it, but that wasnt the thing. I fried my motherboard. Yes the Gigabyte motherboard.

So basically I got a new motherboard... [Asrock P4i6SG] Got another 3GB HDD from a friend [pretty old and used up but what can i say]. I formatted that 3GB HDD and did a clean install of Windows XP SP2 on it. I booted from that, with my 120GB Maxtor as primary slave [Which has 4 drives: C: [NTFS][30GB], D: [NTFS][30GB], E: [NTFS][30GB], F: [26GB][NTFS]]. When i went into My Computer, it was only showing 2 drives. C of 3GB [from the 3GB HDD], and D of 31GB [from the old 120GB HDD]. Thats it. When i try to open the 31GB, it says that its not formatted, and if i want to format it?

I don't know what i did wrong there. So then i started the computer with only the 120GB, and it detected a Windows boot sequence on it, so i tried booting from that, but got a BSOD as the windows loading screen. I tried doing a Repair install of WinXP, but that also crashed half way throught the installing. Theres no problem with the installation disc, i asure you, i tested by other discs just to make sure as well. So i was looking at the fresh install option in the Windows XP installation disk and it showed me that all my 4 partitions on the 120GB HDD were still there and all the data is still on it... and it was basically asking me to format one of them to do a clean installation of WinXP.

Right now i have ALOT of data on my disk that i just cant imagine losing. I didnt make the mistake of formatting the drives like i did last time. The data is still there and I want to retreive it. I tried using MaxBlast 5, made a boot disc and booted from that, but that also is showing me 2 drives [The 3GB and 31GB].

This is the "EXACT" same problem i had before... I havent really tried any data recovery programs this time or the linux live CDs. But as i remember from my experience before, they were pretty much useless. Linux Live CDs showed the partitions correctly in console, but not in the UI most of the times, and NEVER let me access any of them. And the data recovery programs take ages and none of them were even close to recovering anything usefull.

I don't know what to do. But i know the data is there in my 120GB HDD and i want to transfer it to my external 80GB HDD... atleast all the extremely important stuff.

I was thinking maybe theres such a software like the thing in windows xp installation disc that shows you about ur paritions, this thing basically:

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/images/installing%20windows%2...ll%205.gif

[thats not from my computer BTW, i just googled it to show u guys which screen im talking bout.]

So yeah that is the place where i see that all my partitions are intact and the data is there. Atleast the only clear place. So i was wondering if maybe there is such software from which u can make a bootable disc and try to migrate all the stuff from the partitions onto some other HDD or something of that sort. Something similar to MaxBlast, but which actually SHOWS the partitions like they actually are.

I'm really stressed out and tense, so please any help will be appreciated.

xipher, from all the bad luck you have had with building a computer i suggest you just buy one or read some books about building your own machine, because it appears you have failed to take precautions.

Yeah but that way you don't learn a thing. Lol, plus its really expensive. And finally i have calmed down cuz i went on Freenode and someone over there recommended using GetDataBack and that software is kickass!! I'm recovering my data right now as i type lol. Hopefully 98% data can be recovered. Upto me how much i wanna back up. But yeah after backing up, I'm gonna try a partition recovery.

I'm gonna need some help on Partition Recovery, so i'm now looking for advice on how to do a successful partition recovery for windows NTFS partitions. I'm not really sure about the terms at the moment like LBA, and MTS. But yeah, it'd be really nice if someone who knows about this kinda stuff can help out. Thanks in advance!

~Decipher!

Ok so i realized something last night... The partitions that are messed up were not readable by ANY software i tried... GetDataBack was able to get back the data from the one visible, but inaccessible drive, but it couldnt read the rest of them. Thankfully that drive had the most Crucial data which i backed up.

So i was looking at the HDDs in BIOS, and realized that it was showing my 120GB Maxtor as only 33GB. O.o But then i certainly remember when i was trying the windows recovery, i saw all the partitions intact! So at that point i remember the difference at that time was that i had my 120GB as primary master! Right now while using all those softwares and stuff to recover the data, i was using it as Primary Slave, and using my other HDD as Primary Master to boot.
So i'm gonna try changing the 120GB back to primary master after i've burnt a couple of linux live CDs, im gettin the ubuntu drapper 6.01, and knoppix.

Does anyone have any idea why the BIOS won't detect the complete disk space of the HDD as primary slave? Is there a general rule for motherboards like that?

Ok, so i guess i was right. As soon as i connected my 120GB as primary master, it showed up in the motherboard as 120GB too! I booted up with MaxBlast5 and saw that all the partitions are still there and maxblast can back them up. But either it wants to copy the entire 120GB onto another drive, with the exact same partitions and everything, OR, it wants to create an "Image Backup" of selected partitions, which comes up as .tib files. I don't know what kinda file thats gonna be.

I was wondering if maybe anyone knew of any other bootable softwares/discs that will allow me to transfer data from my old HDD to an external one, partitioning anything. Thanks in advance!