ERROR LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM (Important data lost forever?)

[Arin 0]

I was using my computer today and while trying to load a webpage the computer froze and gave me a BSOD. I restarted and got the message ERROR LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM. I set my bios to all the defaults and only connected my hardrive with operating system to the computer. It still gave me the error. I then booted off my windows XP cd and tried to see if I would have the option to recover an install of windows XP. It didnt give me the option and just showed the drive as a blank drive. So I put it in my other computer and checked it out in Disk Management and it says:

 

Disk 1

Unknown

189.92 GB

Not Initialized

 

189.92 GB

Unallocated.

 

 

Does this mean the drive is dead?

This drive had my windows partition and my files partition. I stored all my documents and important files on the second half of this drive.

 

I was using another hardrive to run the windows backup program but I havent run it for a while. I tried to run it the other night since I just got a brand new 300 gb sata dirve 16mb c, but for some reason it didnt work.

 

 

What should I do here? If I initalize the drive, I'll lose everything. I do own a copy of GetDataBack which I've used in the past when hardrives are failing, but I fear if I try to initalize the drive, it will destroy much of the data.

 

Do I have any options or should I just hate my life?

 

[Arin 0]

R-Studio 2.0 shareware Demo was able to figure out that the drive existed, and has two partitions. I'm running a scan on it and it is finding a bunch of the following:

 

still scanning......

 

NTFS MFT file entries ---- 300+

NTFS directory entries --- 2500+

NTFS boot sectors -------- 2

Fat file entries --------- 3000+

fat directories entries -- 6

fat boot sectors --------- 6

 

 

Has anyone used this software? Is it able to repair the partition so I can just plug it back into my comptuer and have it boot up as normal? I only have the demo, and I am not sure what it is able to do. I may have to get the full version if It can fix the partitions and leave all my data intact.

 

 

[Arin 0]

Strange.... why is it detecting so many FAT entries... this was a 2 partition NTFS drive converted to dynamic for shits and giggles.

[jmmijo 1]

I recommend using R-Studio, it's found and saved data on even a failed RAID Zero array for me

 

As for why it's finding so many FAT entries, I can only surmise that the MFT has been corrupted and this is R-Studio's way of place holding the orphaned files and folders.

[Arin 0]

The fat entries seem to have recovered little bits of files that are not important. However it did create 3 partitions that had my data. The first was my main drive, the second was my other files drive, and the third was the little bit left over that I didnt partition (a few megs) that must have been when I set it up before and messed up or something.

 

Anyways, R-studio saved my life.

 

Now I am just curious if there are any programs out there that can simply correct the partitions so I can plug the hardrive back into the computer and have everything up and running since I didnt lose any data. I'm getting another 300 gig 16m c 7200rpm sata maxtor (because the one I just bought is now being filled up with the contents of crashed drive), but in the meantime I would love to just plug this drive back in and use my computer.

 

Is there any way to do that? Also, should I trash this drive or try to get warranty work on it? Warrany usually sends a referb drive, which I dont really want. I think the only reason this drive got screwed up was from a power surge the night before and a BSOD in the morning.