I was researching this problem on another interchange board and found a
possible explanation for the problem I am having:

"It would appear drives that have GoBack installed will not be recognized by
Windows XP due to changes GoBack makes to the MBR (?). The solution is to
simply put the hard drive back into the old computer and uninstall GoBack.
This is done in two steps. First you need to hit the Space Bar while booting
to access the GoBack menu. From this menu you need to disable GoBack. Once
GoBack is disabled you need to load Windows and uninstall GoBack. Worked
like a charm for me.  Make sure to let your old drive reboot after
uninstalling Goback so it can make the MBR change, then shut it down for the
last time and slave it once again."

I did have Go Back installed on the drive from my failed laptop.  Anyone
have any thoughts about how I may remove GoBack from this drive.  Would it
be possible to install this as the main drive in my new laptop and have it
boot with no complications?  Will there be any risk of incompatibilities?

Jim Lloyd
[log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim Lloyd
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 11:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] USB External 2.5 inch drive

I had a laptop with a failed motherboard (Operating system is Windows XP and
the file type is NTFS)  I removed the Toshiba HD and installed it into a USB
HD enclosure made by Adaptec.  I connected it to my HP laptop which also has
an file type of NTFS therefore compatible and a Windows XP OS.  The attached
drive is recognized and I can view its properties but I cannot explore the
file structure.  It is not detected as a HD by my laptop.  Under the control
panel all I can do under computer management besides read the properties is
to remove the partition.  As I need to off load the valuable files I have on
this disk I do not want to reformat the drive at this point.  How do I
safely get my laptopto properly identify this external drive so I might copy
the files to the laptop?

If this is possible, what is best way then to convert this disk to just a
pure data storage disk by removing the operating system that still probably
resides on the external disk.  (External disk is 40 G IBM Travelmaster and
the laptop HD is Fujitsu.  The used portion of the external disk including
the OS is smaller than the unused size of the laptp so I am presuming all
the files can be copied.

Any help is appreciated.

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