DiscWizard and MaxBlast

[GMC325]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased a Maxtor 500gb ATA/100 internal HD to replace my WD 120gb ATA that is starting to make noise, fyi both are PATA not SATA. I am running Windows 2000 pro SP4, and edited the registry to enable BIGLBA.

Installation worked fine, I removed the extra 20gb that was the slave HD, I installed the new HD (jumper set to cable select position), BIOS identified everything correctly, 120gb primary master, 500gb primary slave. I  I installed MaxBlaster 5 from the cd, restarted, ran the program. I allowed it to partition the new drive, I was able to open it in Explorer no problem.

Then  I started the clone process. Everything looked good, old source HD (WD 120gb C was selected, and then the destination (MX 500gb F: or G: can't remember) they were the only two HDs shown and I double checked that I selected properly. I clicked next for it to reboot, started the normal restart procedure, and after it displays to the windows progress bar, it goes to a blue screen with a stop error, telling me to remove any newly installed hardware or software.

 I reset and get the same result. I disconnected the new 500gb drive leaving my original 120gb master drive and tried to start the computer, and the bios does not recognize it as a HD for some reason (uh oh! ) it goes to a black screen asking for a boot disk. I installed the new 500gb by itself as the primary, and it is recognized in bios, then goes to a black screen with a NTLDR error, so worst case I should still be able to install Windows to the new disk right? But my problem is that I'm in graphic design, and have irreplaceable files on my 120gb drive, and considering it didn't even have enough time to delete files and that my custom windows start screen loads (which has to use a .bmp located on the drive to display) the data should still be on the disk correct? I just don't know much about recovery options, and unless I can get this resolved for free I will be very disappointed in my Seagate purchase, I don't have the money to pay someone to recover my files, it just seemed like such a simple process I don't know what went wrong.

I'm pretty upset right now, really hoping someone can help me out, even if you're not 100% on the answer, any suggestions would be great. I'll be checking this from another computer in my house.

Thanks in advance!

Message Edited by GMC325 on 07-02-2008 06:57 AM

[JanJanssen]

You'll be disappointed in Seagate?  You were the one who didn't backup your files before you attempted a risky procedure, which a drive swap certainly is.  Sorry man, this one's on you.

I'd try first of all to connect the new drive as primary master, make sure it's connected to the end connector of the cable (which is master) and not to the middle (which is slave).  Try the jumper on cable select and if that doesn't work try it on master. 

If that fails, take your Windows install CD and reboot to the CD and try a Windows repair.  Maybe that will get the cloning completed.  

If that fails, put the old 120 GB drive back as primary master and remove the new drive and try the Windows install CD thing again to repair Windows. 

Good luck, and make and keep a backup once you finish all this.

[GMC325]

Haha, hell yes I'd lay the blame on Seagate. They make the software they include with their product, it should work, or at least not fubar the user's OS so they can't even log into their comp. I followed all directions exactly with no warning signs of anything wrong and the software did not work properly, I can't imagine how someone who wasn't knowledgeable about computers would feel if this happened to them (although they probably wouldn't install stuff on their own). Whatever, I got the computer working and copied the files over on my own, I just know I'm not the only one to experience this problem after reading through this forum. I don't have the cash to throw down on an external right now, so I had to do this in one shot. Thanks for nothing MaxBlast you POS program..