HDD requires formatting after re-installing Windows XP

Hey there.
I had some problems in the last couple of days with my Windows, and had to format and reinstall Windows XP. After I installed it and configured everything, I noticed my other HDD (I have one 80gb for OS, and a 250gb one for everything else - games, music, well everything) is inaccessible, and that it requires a format so I could begin working with it.
I have almost 200gb of data on it, so I would really rather not to format the drive.
So I have a few questions:
1. Why is this happening? Why did a HDD that worked perfectly a hour ago, would now need formatting? I've reinstalled windows a thousand times before and never encountered that before.
2. How can I either override the need to format, or save atleast some of the data on the drive if I absoloutley have to...

Thanks alot.

 

buy/borrow and install a new hard drive as a master, and install a fresh winxp/2000 on it. Now put the faulty drive as a slave. Plug in and listen to the faulty drive - If it is powering up and spinning and is not clicking or powering down, you MAY be able to recover some data back to the new drive u just installed.

Then download getdataback:

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-faq.htm and install it on the new drive, run it and watch your old data come flooding back...

..its saved my bacon many times at client sites!

Good Luck!!

 

I would try running chkdsk /r on the corrupted drive before doing anything else. Run, chkdsk /r and then hit enter.

 

forgot how to get to C prompt to run chkdsk, even w/ that the partition that XP is on is too small. If I had it to do all over I think I would leave each drive as a single large partition, any thoughts?

 

And I would stick it in another PC and see what happens is it usable etc..
What type of disc's are they, basic (recommended) or dynamic?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314343
you can see this info by going into disk management.
look below disk0 disk1 etc...
if they are dynamic or different from each other that may be your problem.

**Next time always remove extra drives when doing an install or anything major to a hard drive.
I had the same exact thing happen about 7 years ago and didn't know enough to figure it out nor was there a site like this that I could find to get help so I lost everything...
**lesson learned backup to CD-DVD

 

That's why I told you how:
"Run", "chkdsk /r " and then hit enter.

 

Discovered the evil squirrels that have been playing with my sanity. Daughter's b/f from the Geek Squad formatted one of my drives FAT for starters. Pulled an old drive that I knew was good & did a clean install on that, then added & removed others and reformatted accordingly. Got the partitions all squared away & everything's humming along just fine. XPsp3 in and this time I'm slippin' a CD for my next senior moment. Had a googol of driver updates to install & all went well except those from Intel (875 chip), but I'm hopin' to overcome thru prayer or applied physics (read hammer). Interesting time w/ Microsoft's Indian support mill over my validation/authentication getting blocked. After 2 hours of asking a very polite, but very heavily accented, young man to please speak more slowly, he finally escalated my problem. Gave me a 4 hr. window over 3 days that I had to be available. Hour 3 of day 3 I'm in the shower all soaped up & just miss the 2nd ring. Called back the I.D. # & got an North American help center that I could actually understand. Problem was, I didn't have an "alias" so they couldn't help me and oh by the way how did I get their number if I wasn't a MS employee? Now I understand the market dynamics but seems a bit hypo to me that the minions have to deal with scripted Hindi helpers and employees of the Borg get Mom's apple pie, from Colorado I believe it was. Ah well. Thanks to all who contribute here, my health insurer and the other kids in my therapy group appreciate it greatly. Always learn sumphin!

"A child of 5 would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of 5!" -Groucho