Take ownership of unformatted HD?

SparrowHawk

Hi,

I'm desperate, so I've crossed posted - I'll risk a ban

I recently bought a Maxtor TouchII external hard drive for backup.

Backuped my HD fine, & then reformatted my boot disk & reinstalled Windows XP.
I left the maxtor connected while doing this.

Apparently during install XP removed (or changed?) the SID of the maxtor.

Now I can view the maxtor via computer management, but it appears unformatted.

I've checked the Maxtor web site & the suggestion is to take ownership of the files/ folders, except i can't do that unless I create a new partition, which could erase/ damage any data (my backup file ).

My question...is there a way to change ownership without reformatting?

I have simple file sharing disabled.

ANY suggestions really appreciated

TimTim

I'm gonna go out on a limb here but if you can't even see a drive appear when its connected and only see it in disk manager you might have a bigger problem then incorrect SID. But lets assume it is the SID thats *kinda* fixable (and you're using NTFS on your external drive).

The SID is a uniqe ID assigned to your computer when you install XP. Everytime you install XP a new SID is generated and is linked to NTFS file permissions so for an example a file on my HDD would be S-ID-128383098239082\TimTim but as soon as I format and reinstall it has become S-ID-12838309999999\TimTim

I remember from my Win2k/NT days you could select a file properties->security->ownership->take ownership. And then modify the security permissions to add your current user (or everyone if you're so inclined) and then you have access.

Although I can't remember how its done in XP so I'm gonna be really nerdy about it and get you to change your SID of your current pc. Assuming you can get the old one.

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NewSid.html That should allow you to change your PC SID.

Although since you can't see the actual partition this could be completly useless advice since you can't see the files...

Of course, this is my *advice* and don't hold me to anything if you break stuff doing this.

SparrowHawk

Thanks TimTim,

I'm currently running Disk Commander, so if I've no luck with that, I'll give your suggestion a try.

many thanks

SparrowHawk

Back again TimTim

I've had a look at the link you've provided - by the looks of things NewSID will replace the current SID, but how will that help access the Maxtor, which presumably has an older SID? And won't be replaced?

Or am I missing something?

Thanks again

blorg

How does the Maxtor come up in Disk Manager? Is there a partition? In my experience with these external Maxtors it can happen that if they are suddenly disconnected Windows sometimes doesn't write the MFT back correctly so that changes made are not registered (e.g. the new files have been physically copied onto the drive but the MFT not updated.)

Doesn't sound to me like a SID/permissions problem right now TBH.

blorg

Also, may seem obvious, but have you tried unplugging it an replugging it? Rebooting with it out and then plugging it in?

Another issue that can occur is that the drive is unable to register a drive letter for some reason (network drive mounted immediately after the CDROM is a typical case.) This problem is easily fixable within Disk Management (Change Drive Letter and Paths.)

It is also possible that the driver was not installed correctly. It doesn't need any special driver in XP, the one that ships with the OS is fine and you can ignore the front panel thing.

SparrowHawk

Hey Blog,

yep, I've tried uninstall/ reinstall/ unplugging/ replugging - no luck there.

In disk manager, the drive shows as unallocated space - before I can do anything with it, I have to partition it, which I will only do as a last, LAST resort. So, I can't change drive letters etc.

Soundman

Have you tried plugging it in to someone else's computer and seeing if it will work and if so accessing the files from there to find out the SID information. It will at least help you to try and narrow down the problem if the files are all accessible on another computer or not.

SparrowHawk

Hi Soundman,

I tried plugging into my laptop - same result - blank HD

Thanks for the help

duridian

Try this software. It is called PC Inspector and is freeware. There may be something there that can help you.
It helped somebody with similar hardware and a similar problem here to recover their data.

SparrowHawk

Thanks duridian,

I'll give that a try.

maxheadroom

Could you dismantle the maxtor and plug the HDD directly into an IDE port on your motherboard?

You may need to run some kind of data recovery software on it - I've previously used getDataBack, and its very good, but it isn't free.

SparrowHawk

Hi maxheadroom,

I've had to take the plunge & repartition the HD. Unforutunately, I couldn't recover the backup file - so I'm no in the process of recovering files, off the HD that I deliberately formatted - I haven't got everything, but better than nothing.

One question, I'd like to throw out to the masses. Why did this happen? The drive appears to be functioning correctly. I ran fdisk - no problems, I ran Maxtor diagnostics - came back clean too.

Is this a "Windoze" thing - should I disconnect the HD everytime I reboot my comp? Or am I safe?

Any suggestions appreciated.
Thanks againg for all the assistance.

vibe666

it would have happened due to specific permissions being set on the drive, either intentionally or unintentionally.

best bet when using an ntfs usb drive in more than one pc (one that's going to be re-formatted) is to set unrestricted access on it for everyone in the security tab of the drives properties.