Originally Posted by driv
I feel your pain Mark sick

I'm trying to help a friend who has years of data on an un-backed-up drive. It has a corrupted boot sector.

Sometimes I can get it through the POST and even through the auto-detect - but then it hangs. (On very infrequent ocassions I've gotten it to boot and even seen the files - but not had another drive to back-up to.)

I've tried it on primary master - primary slave.
secondary master - secondary slave.

Trying my best for her - tearful women have that effect.... frown

Driv,

I realize you're trying to help but you HAVE to be careful. All these changes you're making could cause the system to actually lose the data permanently.

Best method is to remove the drive and place it into another unit and use some dedicated software to attempt the retrieval. (unless she is willing to pay $500 to $1,500 for professional retrieval - which I doubt)

You could also try creating a bootable repair CD
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows

Already has many free tools to assist in data repair and recovery.