harddrive not accessible using a sata/ide adapter

[Bumblebee]

Hello! Desperate panic here...

 

My old laptop has died, and I am trying to recover the data from the harddrive using a sata/ide usb adapter from Maplin. I have watched this being carried out successfully in the past (with another laptop of mine), but this is the first time I have tried to do it myself.

 

The drive is powering up, and the laptop can 'see' the old drive via the usb, but it has no letter and I am unable to access any of the data. The drive is also not showing up in 'my computer'.

 

I dont know if I am doing something wrong or if it is totally screwed up.

 

Any help or tips would be great!

 

Thank you.

[Armageddon]

Hello Bumblebee have you tried going to disk management and seeing if the drive is detected there and what if any file format the disk has been given , to get to disk management click the start orb then right click computer then select manage then when that opens select disk management.

[KenB]

Hi Bumblebee and welcome to ExTS

 

To get to Disk Management as Armageddon suggests ......... Start ...type in ...diskmgmt.msc ....ENTER

The main drive on the pc will be "Disk 0"

The DVD will show up there too.

 

A screen shot would be useful if you can provide one.

[Bumblebee]

Hello!

 

I have gone into Disk Management, and it sees the disk (it is labeled as Disk 1) but it says it is unknown and not initialized. I really need to be able to get the data off this, as it has some photos and work on for university. I have tried to post a screenshot, but cannot make it bigger! Any advice would be very helpful. Thank you.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1952[/ATTACH]

[Armageddon]

Hi again can you right click on the uninitialized drive from within disk mangement then select initialize

[KenB]

If you right click on Disk 1 - what options do you get ( if any ) ?

 

EDIT - Dave got there first :)

Obviously DO NOT format the drive if prompted.

[Bumblebee]

Hello!

I have reconnected the disk, and disk manager has given me a pop up box, saying that I have to intialize the disk before it can be accessed. Do I press OK or will this damage it more?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1953[/ATTACH]

[Bumblebee]

Also - Thank you Armageddon, but my PM messages do not seem to be sending!

[Armageddon]

You can press ok then follow the wizard but when it asks you to format the drive Do Not format it

[Bumblebee]

I got an error message :(

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1954[/ATTACH]

[Armageddon]

Hi again Bumblebee hat is the make of the harddrive from the old laptop we may be able to find drive checking tools for that make of drive if not use a generic one to check the drive

[Bumblebee]

Hello! Thank you so much for the help...

 

The HDD is a Western Digital Scorpio Blue - where might I find a drive checker? :S

[Bumblebee]

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3 would this work?

[Armageddon]

hi the following link is WD Disk Diagnostics http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3 click on the download button about a third of the way down extract the files then run the set up you'll end up with this or something like

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1955[/ATTACH]

 

select your external drive then click the run tests

[Bumblebee]

Ok, I have done that.... it says the drive is not available?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1956[/ATTACH]

[Bumblebee]

It has passed the quick test, I am now going to do an extended test.

[Bumblebee]

And it has also passed the extended test... but it still says the disk is unavailable?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1957[/ATTACH]

[Armageddon]

ok with the usb drive highlighted right click on it and select run diagnostics then select extended test and click start

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1958[/ATTACH]

[Armageddon]

ok you bet me too it what size is the drive meant to be ?

[Bumblebee]

It is supposed to be a 320GB drive.

[Armageddon]

Can you go back to disk management then right click on the drive select properties then select tools then select check the drive for errors

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1960[/ATTACH]

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, if you don't mind me nipping in, in your first post you say the drive is powering up.

If none of the fixes above works, try this.

What you should feel if holding the drive in your hand at the moment of plugging the drive into the USB port, is first a gentle build up of slight vibration as the disk or disks spin up to speed, possibly accompanied by a slightly quiet whine sound.

 

After a short time you should then feel and maybe hear slight clicking vibration and sounds as the read head moves across the disks looking for information.

 

If there is no spin up vibration and sound, or if no clicking, there is a mechanical fault within the drive. A light tap on the side with something like a very small hammer or a screwdriver handle just might release the read head if it has stuck, or loosen the disk drive enough for the disk to spin.

 

If there is a definite mechanical fault where none of the above works, no amount of software can work or do any good, even if the electronic part of the drive is letting the computer know there is a drive connected.

 

In cases like this, it has been found that freezing the drive in the domestic freezer can sometimes allow the drive to run and data copied.

 

To freeze it, it must be tightly wrapped in a polythene bag or better still cling film, this is to prevent condensation forming during the freezing process.

 

It needs to be kept in the freezer for a reasonable length of time, over night is usually the recommended time. Remove the drive from the freezer and connect it to the computer as quickly as possible before it has chance to warm up again and see if it can be accessed then.

 

The freezing method has been known to work but not very often. In most cases it fails, but still worth a try tonight before going to sleep.

 

Nev.

[Bumblebee]

Apologies to everyone, but I have been away working for a couple of weeks, so have not been able to reply to this!

 

I am still having trouble, and have not been able to access the drive. Are there any other tricks that might get my data back?

 

The drive is defintely powering up, then clicking a few times.

 

Could the freezing method damage it even more?

 

Thanks!

[KenB]

Could the freezing method damage it even more?

If the drive is clicking then it does sound as if it has died. The clicking is actually the read head skipping over the disk and hitting up against a stop.

It is trying to locate data - and failing.

Freezing will not make this any worse.

It is worth a try - sometimes it works ...... more often than not it doesn't.