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The problem I encountered is:

  1. The OS I use is Windows XP SP3. Suddenly the booting becomes extremely slow, and everthing else becomes very slow too.
  2. I cannot access to files that's located on D:, E:, and F:, but C: seems ok.
  3. After that, I use cmd.exe and type: cd d: after a while the DOS tells me that it cannot identify the files system on d: and also e: etc, and has me make sure if the disk is broken or not. And I cannot access to D: E: etc anyhow.

More info:

  • I had reinstalled Windows XP more than a week ago
  • I had just manipulated msconfig (disable services that I don't find necessary, but leave Microsoft services largely unchanged, and also disable some unwanted plugins on IE)

So what seems to be the problem and how can I fix this? Because there are many very important files on D: and E:.

Update:

yes the diskmgmt list my disk info as follows:

C:\    basic  ntfs   ok   30.01 GB   76% free
D:\    basic         ok   138.01GB   100% free
E:\    basic  fat32  ok   137.98GB   99% free
F:\    basic  fat32  ok   137.98GB   98% free
G:\    basic  fat32  ok   21.71GB    95% free

though c:\and d:\ volume name do not display properly

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  • 4
    Your hard disk has almost certainly kicked the bucket. Backup as much of your data as you can still get at immediately, and purchase a new one. Don't trust any data to this disk until you can verify it's still good.
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Mar 3, 2011 at 11:13

5 Answers 5

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Your hard disk has died. Buy a new one and restore from backup.

You did backup, didn't you?

If you are lucky you will be able to retrieve some of your files from the disk.

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You could download, burn and boot a live Linux distro; then try to mount the problem drives. If your important files are small, you could e-mail them to yourself. If they're big, then have a thumb drive handy.

If it doesn't mount, then odds are it is a corrupted hd.

I personally like DSL for these types of situations, but if you are not familiar with Linux, then go with an Ubuntu live distro.

NOTE: If you do this, please make sure you boot from the CD-ROM. Do not install the OS on your harddrive.

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Which of your disks are real physical disks and which are partitions? You will be safer if D and E were on another physical disk than C, because your problems seem to be mainly with C.

Try undoing your changes to the system services, or rollback the system to a restore-point dating from before these changes. If this doesn't help, try to reinstall Windows. But do not touch disks D and E.

If after this Windows regains its normal speed, then everything is (maybe) OK, and you should make future changes with more care. If not, then your disk is lost. Get the help of a professional or a knowledgeable friend to save your data and install a new hard disk.

Even if the situation returns to normal, you should create backups to all your files, for example on an external USB disk.

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Have you tried rebooting the PC?

Go to start > run > and type diskmgmt.msc and press enter. Check if this program identifies your other drives. You can run disk check from there too.

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    chkdsk is a very bad idea if the drive is already failing, as it puts strain on the device and can potentially destroy the last data that might have been rescued otherwise.
    – Tamschi
    Mar 3, 2011 at 11:36
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You need to edit Security Permissions on your drives D, E and F. With the reinstall of Windows XP this usually happens. (Security tab) Add yourself depending if you have low privileges or Administrator if you set such privileges to yourself.

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  • Don't know if this same condition exists on non-NTFS partions.
    – Nocturnal
    Mar 4, 2011 at 8:38

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