I really need some help here, I've been having this problem with my computer and today I was starting ot do a clean xp install to try fix it. Well I have an external hard drive (Maxtor Onetouch II 300GB) and it was connected at the time and for some reason windows installation defaults to it (even though it will then say it cant access the drive) Anyway I pressed to format or delete the partition (quick, not full) on it and it took me back to the page showing partitions to install on. I realised i formatted the wrong drive at this point because when i pressed enter to install on that partition it said it couldnt access it and then i noticed. Am I correct that it's only after you press that that it wipes the disk? Also as I only did a quick install can I maybe restore some of the files with some kind of program? I would be trying to do that now except windows won't find the drive, I tried reinstalling the drivers for it and swapping the firewire port and stuff but nothing. The light at the front should start to flash but it doesnt. Disk Management shows it in the bottom pane but not in the top. It says; Disk 1 Basic 279 GB 279 GB Online Unallocated I'd be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction, I have lots of irreplaceable stuff on there. If I clicked to create a new partition in Disk manager would it wipe the old one? I dont really understand how partitions work and what they are exactly. Thanks

Hi, Others may chime in with differing opinions on this, but it sounds like you deleted the existing partition which means that everything is gone. And, Windows won't recognize the drive until a new partition is created and then formatted. Also, unless your system allows for it, you may never be able to boot from the external which could also be why Windows won't let you install to it. Like I mentioned, wait for others to post as they may have a different take on all of this.

I dont want to be able to boot from it, that was a mistake trying to install windows on it. Surely it's not even physically possible to delete all that data in the split second it took to do a quick format of that partitian. As I remember it, it doesnt even do the format until you click to create a partition on the unpartitioned space you just made. Is there no way i can repair the partition without writing over the data?

ok i found all the files intact using a program called restorer200 but i cant restore anything because its only a demo. i saw somewhere that i could fix it with windows recovery console "This always happen with my external Maxtor. And the only way to fix it is to rebuilt the fat table and MBR. You can do this using disk utility programs like Partition Commander. Or the Recovery Console in the XP CD."

Hurrah!!!! WONKYNESS REVERSED I got hold of a program called Partition Table Doctor and it fixed it up good. Marvelous!

since i bought my Maxtor OneTouchII 300GB i have accumalated 91 GB of files both from college files and past irreplaceable files from my old computer. I bought the Maxtor external drive early on in this past summer and has just now decided to act up on me. Two days ago when i went to print off a paper i had typed and saved on my external it was not there...NOTHING WAS. all of my files were gone but when i clicked on properties of the drive it showed that 91 GB were used and the rest was free space so i get the feeling all my files are still there. When i went into Disk Management i saw that my drive was "healthy" and "working properly". CAN SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!