How to get PC (Win XP) to mount as external drive on Snow Leopard

Hi all,

New to the forums here and have been searching for the last hour for the answer to an issue I'm having with my new MBP.

I have an old (and by "old" I mean 7 years - yikes!) desktop HP running Windows XP. Unsurprisingly, it recently crashed. What I'm trying to do (and being very unsuccessful at googling the answer for) is connect the desktop via firewire to my macbook and launching the XP into something similar to target disk mode. (so my mbp can read the drive as an external drive that I can use Disk Warrior on)

Any suggestions or help? Is this even possible? If not, would it work to buy an external enclosure for the drive and just hook it up as such?

Thanks in advance for all your help.
EP

Some notes: I used to be a hardcore PC person back in the day but now probably couldn't even figure out how to change the screensaver on windows anymore since I got my first mac several years ago (and my computing life UTTERLY changed for the better). So please bare with me if I don't understand Windowsy-things.

Target Disk Mode only works between Macs, so that method is out. Just remove the hard drive from the old HP and place it in an external carrier or use a universal adapter.

However, if you were planning on using Disk Warrior, forget it. It only works on Mac formatted drives. You'll have to find another program that you can use on your Mac that can possibly repair the HDD.

Probably much easier to just attach the bad HDD (in a carrier) to another PC and use a Windows program to do the repairs. Or even chkdsk.exe.

Regards.

elphabapotter said:

Unsurprisingly, it recently crashed.

Click to expand...

Can you define crashed for us please? What is happening when you turn on the PC?

I agree with Chscag, Target Disk and Disk Warrior won't be of help here I'm afraid. Windows XP has a system repair and restore feature that will sort out any system file that has been corrupted...

I'm also going to ask a silly question; How's your backup? If you don't I recommend getting yourself a backup plan; even Apple's hard drives die. Have a read of this: Clicky

chscag said:

Target Disk Mode only works between Macs, so that method is out. Just remove the hard drive from the old HP and place it in an external carrier or use a universal adapter.

However, if you were planning on using Disk Warrior, forget it. It only works on Mac formatted drives. You'll have to find another program that you can use on your Mac that can possibly repair the HDD.

Probably much easier to just attach the bad HDD (in a carrier) to another PC and use a Windows program to do the repairs. Or even chkdsk.exe.

Regards.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your advice. A couple follow-up questions.

I also have Drive Genius 3 and Data Rescue 3 (on my MBP, obviously), will those work with a PC drive? (i can't seem to google the answer to that)

In case that is a resounding no, do you have any recommendations/preferences for windows data recovery software?

Thanks again,
EP

thedoc said:

Can you define crashed for us please? What is happening when you turn on the PC?

I agree with Chscag, Target Disk and Disk Warrior won't be of help here I'm afraid. Windows XP has a system repair and restore feature that will sort out any system file that has been corrupted...

I'm also going to ask a silly question; How's your backup? If you don't I recommend getting yourself a backup plan; even Apple's hard drives die. Have a read of this: Clicky

Click to expand...

Crashed as in 'wont' leave the boot screen' - it's stuck after the windows startup sound.

I may try a combination of Chscag's recommendation and yours. I'll get an external enclosure for the drive and try XP's system repair on it from another, functioning PC. (did I get that right?)

I backup in three different places once a month. (After a hard drive crash three years ago, I learned my lesson!) This PC is my roommate's computer. And yes, she has already gotten "The Talk" from me regarding backing up her files).

Thanks for your suggestion!
EP

A couple of things to try first;
1) Boot the machine in to Safe Mode (mash F8 when turning the machine on) that may get you to a desktop
2) If that fails boot the machine off the windows XP and try taking the machine back to a system restore point.