Solved Data Recovery on D Drive

raysmith

Member
Ok, so what happened was I formated my D Drive and made that my OS, then I restarted my computer. Everytime I turn it on it gets to the boot manager and then restarts again over and over. It never gets passed that, not even to the logon page.

Is there a way I can undo what i did (make my C Drive my OS again)?
 

My Computer

When you say "made that my OS", how exactly did you do that? Clean install?

What did you do about the OS on C:?

Did you change any of the BIOS boot settings?

Ed
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B-E
    Memory
    3006 MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB
    Sound Card
    Motherboard - SoundMax
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VX2235wm / Dell 17" Generic PnP Anolog
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050 x 4294967296 colors / 1024 x 768
    Hard Drives
    3 x ST3250620AS 250GB SATA IDE
    1 x WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0 120 GB SATA IDE
    PSU
    Enerrmax 535W All-in-one SLI 20/24+6+
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Cooling
    Antec 12cm SmartCool
    Keyboard
    Logitech LX710
    Mouse
    Logitech MX100 Laser
    Internet Speed
    Bell Canada DSL 12MBps (supposedly)
    Other Info
    2 x HP Pavilion 9700v Laptops
1. go into disk management and change D to C
2. now make C the active partition - after assigning another letter to the current C.
All this assumes that you have an MBR on the current D. Else you have to repair the MBR.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    CPU
    Q6600
    Memory
    4GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP w2207h
    Hard Drives
    2x250GB HDDs
    1x60GB OCZ SSD
    6 external disks 60 to 640GBs
    Other Info
    Also 1xHP desktop, 1xHP laptop, 1xGateway laptop
1. go into disk management and change D to C
2. now make C the active partition - after assigning another letter to the current C.
All this assumes that you have an MBR on the current D. Else you have to repair the MBR.

Don't think so. The Registry now has all Windows references pointing to the D: drive. He'd at least have to change all the Environment Variables, and, even then, I think he'd be asking for more trouble down the road.

Ed
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B-E
    Memory
    3006 MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB
    Sound Card
    Motherboard - SoundMax
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VX2235wm / Dell 17" Generic PnP Anolog
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050 x 4294967296 colors / 1024 x 768
    Hard Drives
    3 x ST3250620AS 250GB SATA IDE
    1 x WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0 120 GB SATA IDE
    PSU
    Enerrmax 535W All-in-one SLI 20/24+6+
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Cooling
    Antec 12cm SmartCool
    Keyboard
    Logitech LX710
    Mouse
    Logitech MX100 Laser
    Internet Speed
    Bell Canada DSL 12MBps (supposedly)
    Other Info
    2 x HP Pavilion 9700v Laptops
When you say "made that my OS", how exactly did you do that? Clean install?

What did you do about the OS on C:?

Did you change any of the BIOS boot settings?

Ed
I used Easy bcd to do it, and my C Drive is still sitting there, full. I don't recall changing any of the bios settings.
1. go into disk management and change D to C
2. now make C the active partition - after assigning another letter to the current C.
All this assumes that you have an MBR on the current D. Else you have to repair the MBR.
I can't do that, I get to the boot manager and then my computer just restarts itself over and over. I can never log on.
 

My Computer

Your MBR's screwed up. Unfortunately, EasyBCD isn't as foolproof as many would like to think.

Let's try the easy way first:

Boot into your Vista DVD, and try a Repair. It should detect two installations of Windows. Make sure you select the one on your D: drive (if they have identical names, select the second one).

Then, click on Startup Repair, and follow any instructions. After it's done, reboot normally (don't reboot into the DVD).

If that doesn't work, try it again, but select the system on C:.

If that doesn't do it, it means editing the MBR in Command Prompt, where it gets a little tricky.

Ed
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B-E
    Memory
    3006 MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB
    Sound Card
    Motherboard - SoundMax
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VX2235wm / Dell 17" Generic PnP Anolog
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050 x 4294967296 colors / 1024 x 768
    Hard Drives
    3 x ST3250620AS 250GB SATA IDE
    1 x WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0 120 GB SATA IDE
    PSU
    Enerrmax 535W All-in-one SLI 20/24+6+
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Cooling
    Antec 12cm SmartCool
    Keyboard
    Logitech LX710
    Mouse
    Logitech MX100 Laser
    Internet Speed
    Bell Canada DSL 12MBps (supposedly)
    Other Info
    2 x HP Pavilion 9700v Laptops
Ok, so what happened was I formatted my D Drive and made that my OS, then I restarted my computer. Every time I turn it on it gets to the boot manager and then restarts again over and over. It never gets passed that, not even to the log on page.

Is there a way I can undo what i did (make my C Drive my OS again)?
**************************************************
I am a little late to this discussion.
My first thought is why did you do it ?
What where you trying to achieve ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    Memory
    2 GB
Your MBR's screwed up. Unfortunately, EasyBCD isn't as foolproof as many would like to think.

Let's try the easy way first:

Boot into your Vista DVD, and try a Repair. It should detect two installations of Windows. Make sure you select the one on your D: drive (if they have identical names, select the second one).

Then, click on Startup Repair, and follow any instructions. After it's done, reboot normally (don't reboot into the DVD).

If that doesn't work, try it again, but select the system on C:.

If that doesn't do it, it means editing the MBR in Command Prompt, where it gets a little tricky.

Ed
So I put the disk in, but nothing happens. I wasn't able to open anything.
Ok, so what happened was I formatted my D Drive and made that my OS, then I restarted my computer. Every time I turn it on it gets to the boot manager and then restarts again over and over. It never gets passed that, not even to the log on page.

Is there a way I can undo what i did (make my C Drive my OS again)?
**************************************************
I am a little late to this discussion.
My first thought is why did you do it ?
What where you trying to achieve ?
It was just my poor attempt on formatting my computer without any help or instructions.
 

My Computer

Did you change your BIOS settings to allow booting from the DVD?

Depending on your machine, you usually have to press either Del, F2, or F12 on the first screen you see after you start up (it should say, probably near the bottom, or check your computer user guide). There's a setting you have to change to make the CD/DVD drive the primary booting device.

What's the make and model of your computer?

Ed
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B-E
    Memory
    3006 MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB
    Sound Card
    Motherboard - SoundMax
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VX2235wm / Dell 17" Generic PnP Anolog
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050 x 4294967296 colors / 1024 x 768
    Hard Drives
    3 x ST3250620AS 250GB SATA IDE
    1 x WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0 120 GB SATA IDE
    PSU
    Enerrmax 535W All-in-one SLI 20/24+6+
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Cooling
    Antec 12cm SmartCool
    Keyboard
    Logitech LX710
    Mouse
    Logitech MX100 Laser
    Internet Speed
    Bell Canada DSL 12MBps (supposedly)
    Other Info
    2 x HP Pavilion 9700v Laptops
Did you change your BIOS settings to allow booting from the DVD?

Depending on your machine, you usually have to press either Del, F2, or F12 on the first screen you see after you start up (it should say, probably near the bottom, or check your computer user guide). There's a setting you have to change to make the CD/DVD drive the primary booting device.

What's the make and model of your computer?

Ed
it's a dell inspiron 531s with windows vista basic. Also i don't think i really did anything to my bios, just the os.
 

My Computer

1. Restart the computer. Press <F12> immediately after the DELL™ logo appears.

2. When the boot device list appears, highlight CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive and press <Enter>. This changes the boot sequence for one time only. On the next start-up, the computer boots according to the devices specified in the system setup program.

3. Press any key to Boot from CD-ROM.

4. Do a Startup Repair - see http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html Method Two. When it shows the list of operating systems installed, select the one on your D: drive (if they have identical names, select the second one).

Then, click on Startup Repair, and follow any instructions. If it doesn't fix anything, Restart and go back to Step 1, but this time select the OS on Drive C:

Let us know what happens.

Ed
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B-E
    Memory
    3006 MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB
    Sound Card
    Motherboard - SoundMax
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VX2235wm / Dell 17" Generic PnP Anolog
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050 x 4294967296 colors / 1024 x 768
    Hard Drives
    3 x ST3250620AS 250GB SATA IDE
    1 x WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0 120 GB SATA IDE
    PSU
    Enerrmax 535W All-in-one SLI 20/24+6+
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Cooling
    Antec 12cm SmartCool
    Keyboard
    Logitech LX710
    Mouse
    Logitech MX100 Laser
    Internet Speed
    Bell Canada DSL 12MBps (supposedly)
    Other Info
    2 x HP Pavilion 9700v Laptops
1. Restart the computer. Press <F12> immediately after the DELL™ logo appears.

2. When the boot device list appears, highlight CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive and press <Enter>. This changes the boot sequence for one time only. On the next start-up, the computer boots according to the devices specified in the system setup program.

3. Press any key to Boot from CD-ROM.

4. Do a Startup Repair - see http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html Method Two. When it shows the list of operating systems installed, select the one on your D: drive (if they have identical names, select the second one).

Then, click on Startup Repair, and follow any instructions. If it doesn't fix anything, Restart and go back to Step 1, but this time select the OS on Drive C:

Let us know what happens.

Ed
It worked!!! Thanks so much. But that still leaves me with the other issue I've been trying to get to. How do I reformat it (do a clean install, factory settings)? I want to completely wipe it clean.

Update: Nevermind, I got it. Thanks so much to everyone who helped me out!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

Great! Glad we could help.

Ed
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown Desktop
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B-E
    Memory
    3006 MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB
    Sound Card
    Motherboard - SoundMax
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VX2235wm / Dell 17" Generic PnP Anolog
    Screen Resolution
    1680 x 1050 x 4294967296 colors / 1024 x 768
    Hard Drives
    3 x ST3250620AS 250GB SATA IDE
    1 x WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0 120 GB SATA IDE
    PSU
    Enerrmax 535W All-in-one SLI 20/24+6+
    Case
    Antec Sonata
    Cooling
    Antec 12cm SmartCool
    Keyboard
    Logitech LX710
    Mouse
    Logitech MX100 Laser
    Internet Speed
    Bell Canada DSL 12MBps (supposedly)
    Other Info
    2 x HP Pavilion 9700v Laptops
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