Vista - Hard Drive Problem

All of a sudden I started getting error messages about a security
infringement (something about a file size mismatch) and then a message about
not having genuine Windows. I restarted my computer and an update was
supposed to install, but upon start up it hadn't installed and now my 500GB
hard drive that has all of my media, documents, photos, etc. isn't working.
Windows says it hasn't been initialized, and I know if I initialize it I'll
have to reformat it and lose almost 500GB of data. How do I fix this?

Hi,

Bring it to a technician for drive recovery. They should first image the
disk to prevent loss of data, then start recovery efforts. The drive itself
may have a mechanical failure.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"S Murder" <SMurder@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1CEAFB88-8E68-49E9-8DC3-05800E2B835E@xxxxxx

Seeing as how the drive was working fine (I was in the middle of watching a
downloaded TV show) and then I got a bunch of Windows error messages and the
drive only disappeared after restart, this sounds like it's probably Window's
fault. Before I take it to a technician, I'd like to first find out if
there's any software solutions. The drive still shows up in the BIOS, Device
Manager, and Disk Manager, and I'm pretty sure most hardware problems would
prevent the drive from working at all.

"Rick Rogers" wrote:

Hi,

Run a disk check (chkdsk) on the drive. You can also download a drive
integrity check from the drive manufacturer and use it to assess the state
of the drive.

By the way, your added comments on what happened only supports what I
believe to be the problem. The electronics (circuit board) are working, the
disks have failed. That's why it shows in the BIOS and DM, but is not
accessible.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"S Murder" <SMurder@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EEE715E7-9A5C-4A5F-8A61-A2AA0144191C@xxxxxx

I found the problem. The disk that Windows said wasn't initialized was the
spare 500GB drive I haven't formatted yet, and the drive with all the data
wasn't having the correct driver applied to it on start up (which is weird
because the uninitialized disk is the same make and model of the one that
wasn't installed properly).

How do I make sure that my drives are installed correctly upon start up?

"Rick Rogers" wrote: