Bjossi on 6/6/2009 at 13:35
That is not entirely true. Data can be extracted from a hard drive as raw data as long as the read/write mechanism works properly. Another method is to install Windows on a new hard drive and then install the old one as a secondary drive. This of course is a risky move due to the nasty virus infection.
The former method was used when my system crapped out big time, not only did the recovery console not find Windows, but the HDD was reported as having 100% free space. Despite that I got my data back with just minor annoyances (most games did not work anymore fx.).
RocketMan on 6/6/2009 at 18:50
Yeah, I know what you're talking about...I did something kinda similar once before....
I have formatted my machine and reinstalled the 2 OS's but now I have a new annoyance...the same shit i went through the last time i reformatted...i should have taken notes. In fact I think I did it wrong this time.
XP doesn't have large disk support unless it's slipstreamed and I forgot about that so now that I have both xp and vista installed I have a 20 gig c drive, a 30 gig d drive (for vista) and 80 gigs of unformatted space on the PRIMARY PARTITION. Then there's another 128 gb on the EXTENDED PARTITION that was detected once I got my service packs installed to support large disks...that's all fine. Problem is I want to have a C, D, a 70 gig E and a 130 gig F making my total 250 gigs. So far I'm unable to do this because the PRIMARY and EXTENDED partitions refuse to change size. The extended contains the 2 logical drives belonging to vista + the unpartitioned space adding up to 128 gb (or at least it should be close to that). The PRIMARY partition has 128 gb for xp + unallocated space. I can't change the ratio....that is, I cannot shrink the PRIMARY partition enough to make the EXTENDED the size I want it. Can somebody tell me how to do this? FDISK was no help either as it didn't even see the layout correctly. Here's a screenshot:
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http://h1.ripway.com/RRRocketMan/system%20shock%20stuff/partiton.JPG)
