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Recovering Data From A Hard Drive


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Guest Saucer Man
Posted

I want to recover some data from a hard drive. I have a USB drive

enclosure. After I plug the drive into the enclosure, and the enclosure

into the PC, what steps are required to see the contents of this drive? I

don't want to format it.

 

--

 

Thanks.

  • Replies 18
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Guest sgopus
Posted

RE: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

you should be able to view the device easily using windows explorer, do you

get any errrors.

 

"Saucer Man" wrote:

> I want to recover some data from a hard drive. I have a USB drive

> enclosure. After I plug the drive into the enclosure, and the enclosure

> into the PC, what steps are required to see the contents of this drive? I

> don't want to format it.

>

> --

>

> Thanks.

>

>

>

>

Guest Ghostrider
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

 

Saucer Man wrote:

> I want to recover some data from a hard drive. I have a USB drive

> enclosure. After I plug the drive into the enclosure, and the enclosure

> into the PC, what steps are required to see the contents of this drive? I

> don't want to format it.

>

 

First, don't forget to turn on the power to the USB drive enclosure and

get the HD spinning. Next, after connecting to the PC and if all went

well, Windows XP should be able to see the hard drive and assign its

partition(s) its/their drive letter(s). The contents of the drive in the

USB enclosure should be readable.

 

If above scenario did not happen, post back with details of failure.

Guest Saucer Man
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

The last time I tried this...XP saw the partition but did not assign it a

drive letter. At that point, I followed the steps in Disk Management and I

ended up formatting it. I don't want that to happen this time. If XP

doesn't recognize it, can I assign it a letter without formatting it?

 

 

--

 

Thanks.

 

 

"Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message

news:%23dmxwxr3HHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>

> Saucer Man wrote:

>

>> I want to recover some data from a hard drive. I have a USB drive

>> enclosure. After I plug the drive into the enclosure, and the enclosure

>> into the PC, what steps are required to see the contents of this drive?

>> I don't want to format it.

>>

>

> First, don't forget to turn on the power to the USB drive enclosure and

> get the HD spinning. Next, after connecting to the PC and if all went

> well, Windows XP should be able to see the hard drive and assign its

> partition(s) its/their drive letter(s). The contents of the drive in the

> USB enclosure should be readable.

>

> If above scenario did not happen, post back with details of failure.

>

Guest Ghostrider
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

 

Saucer Man wrote:

> The last time I tried this...XP saw the partition but did not assign it a

> drive letter. At that point, I followed the steps in Disk Management and I

> ended up formatting it. I don't want that to happen this time. If XP

> doesn't recognize it, can I assign it a letter without formatting it?

>

>

 

Don't know why that would happen. We do this all the time and either the

drive letter(s) are assigned or we can do it through Disk Management just

by right-clicking on the icon for Disk 2 (or whatever) and then clicking

on the Change Drive Letter and Path line. The Edit feature is used to

change the drive letter.

 

Whatever happens, do not allow the HD to format.

Guest Saucer Man
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE DRIVE

LETTER to give it one?

 

How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier? I

also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off of the

drive I am adding because of permission issues.

 

--

 

Thanks.

 

 

"Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message

news:uHPOIXs3HHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>

> Saucer Man wrote:

>

>> The last time I tried this...XP saw the partition but did not assign it a

>> drive letter. At that point, I followed the steps in Disk Management and

>> I ended up formatting it. I don't want that to happen this time. If XP

>> doesn't recognize it, can I assign it a letter without formatting it?

>>

>>

>

> Don't know why that would happen. We do this all the time and either the

> drive letter(s) are assigned or we can do it through Disk Management just

> by right-clicking on the icon for Disk 2 (or whatever) and then clicking

> on the Change Drive Letter and Path line. The Edit feature is used to

> change the drive letter.

>

> Whatever happens, do not allow the HD to format.

>

Guest Paul Randall
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

If you are doing this with a WXP computer, it should automatically recognise

and assign drive letters to partitions formatted with standard PC type

formats, like NTFS, Fat32, and Fat16. It will probably not recognise Linux

or Mac partitions or formats. It will also probably not recognise

non-standard formats like those used a few years ago to allow using large

hard drives with BIOSs that couldn't handle large hard drives.

 

What is the partitioning and formatting of the drive in question?

 

-Paul Randall

 

"Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>

> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier? I

> also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off of

> the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>

> --

>

> Thanks.

>

>

> "Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message

> news:uHPOIXs3HHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>>

>> Saucer Man wrote:

>>

>>> The last time I tried this...XP saw the partition but did not assign it

>>> a drive letter. At that point, I followed the steps in Disk Management

>>> and I ended up formatting it. I don't want that to happen this time.

>>> If XP doesn't recognize it, can I assign it a letter without formatting

>>> it?

>>>

>>>

>>

>> Don't know why that would happen. We do this all the time and either the

>> drive letter(s) are assigned or we can do it through Disk Management just

>> by right-clicking on the icon for Disk 2 (or whatever) and then clicking

>> on the Change Drive Letter and Path line. The Edit feature is used to

>> change the drive letter.

>>

>> Whatever happens, do not allow the HD to format.

>>

>

>

Guest GHalleck
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

 

Saucer Man wrote:

> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE DRIVE

> LETTER to give it one?

>

> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier? I

> also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off of the

> drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>

 

First, it will probably not be any easier. The failure to assign a

drive letter indicates that Windows is not recognizing the drive, for

whatever reason. Perhaps it was not properly configured as a single

drive when put into the external enclosure.

 

Second, putting a HD as the second drive into a computer is also fraught

with potential problems. There are things to know, such as the type of

ribbon cable being used (viz., IDE or Cable Select) possibly leading to

jumpering both hard drives, etc. Any error could result in loss of data

from one or both drives or their corruption.

 

If the data is important and there are no backups for it, get professional

assistance.

Guest Saucer Man
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at a

friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive was in

his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated it came up

with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He has since

installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some pictures from

the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and thought it might be

helpful. I have been reading that people get a message "Access Denied" when

trying to copy data from Windows XP drives. The company that manufactured

the enclosure wasn't any help. They said be sure to set the jumpers on the

drive to MASTER. They also said that the drive has to be formatted after

the enclosure is connected to the PC! I told them this defeats the purpose.

 

 

--

 

Thanks.

 

 

"Paul Randall" <paulr901@cableone.net> wrote in message

news:%23$N3Irv3HHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> If you are doing this with a WXP computer, it should automatically

> recognise and assign drive letters to partitions formatted with standard

> PC type formats, like NTFS, Fat32, and Fat16. It will probably not

> recognise Linux or Mac partitions or formats. It will also probably not

> recognise non-standard formats like those used a few years ago to allow

> using large hard drives with BIOSs that couldn't handle large hard drives.

>

> What is the partitioning and formatting of the drive in question?

>

> -Paul Randall

>

> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

>> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>

>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier? I

>> also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off of

>> the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>

>> --

>>

>> Thanks.

>>

>>

>> "Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message

>> news:uHPOIXs3HHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>>>

>>> Saucer Man wrote:

>>>

>>>> The last time I tried this...XP saw the partition but did not assign it

>>>> a drive letter. At that point, I followed the steps in Disk Management

>>>> and I ended up formatting it. I don't want that to happen this time.

>>>> If XP doesn't recognize it, can I assign it a letter without formatting

>>>> it?

>>>>

>>>>

>>>

>>> Don't know why that would happen. We do this all the time and either the

>>> drive letter(s) are assigned or we can do it through Disk Management

>>> just

>>> by right-clicking on the icon for Disk 2 (or whatever) and then clicking

>>> on the Change Drive Letter and Path line. The Edit feature is used to

>>> change the drive letter.

>>>

>>> Whatever happens, do not allow the HD to format.

>>>

>>

>>

>

>

Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

Saucer Man wrote:

> I want to recover some data from a hard drive. I have a USB drive

> enclosure. After I plug the drive into the enclosure, and the enclosure

> into the PC, what steps are required to see the contents of this drive? I

> don't want to format it.

>

Are you using TweakUI ? If so are more drive

letters available for assignment?

Guest Saucer Man
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

I haven't seen this drive or his PC yet. I wanted to get as much background

info first before I go there.

 

--

 

Thanks.

 

 

"Ed Mc" <namvtn@noway.com> wrote in message

news:WcednVFsoa26l17bnZ2dnUVZ_tLinZ2d@comcast.com...

> Saucer Man wrote:

>> I want to recover some data from a hard drive. I have a USB drive

>> enclosure. After I plug the drive into the enclosure, and the enclosure

>> into the PC, what steps are required to see the contents of this drive?

>> I don't want to format it.

>>

> Are you using TweakUI ? If so are more drive letters available for

> assignment?

Guest Paul Randall
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

That is the kind of info we needed. Being a WXP machine increases the

chances that it probably used standard PC partitioning and formatting.

Unmountabe Volume indicates that the master boot record or partition table

got messed up. There are utilities that can fix this kind of stuff. It is

possible the directory also got messed up, but there are utilities to

attempt to fix that too.

 

Depending on how important the pictures are, you may want to make an image

with Norton Ghost or Acronis before starting the recovery.

 

Hopefully someone will jump in here with some actual experience. If not,

start a new thread with a title something like 'need help recovering files

from unmountable volume', and include the info you presented in this

message.

 

-Paul Randall

 

"Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

news:WKDwi.3828$E84.559@bignews1.bellsouth.net...

> I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at a

> friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive was

> in his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated it

> came up with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He has

> since installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some

> pictures from the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and

> thought it might be helpful. I have been reading that people get a

> message "Access Denied" when trying to copy data from Windows XP drives.

> The company that manufactured the enclosure wasn't any help. They said be

> sure to set the jumpers on the drive to MASTER. They also said that the

> drive has to be formatted after the enclosure is connected to the PC! I

> told them this defeats the purpose.

>

>

> --

>

> Thanks.

>

>

> "Paul Randall" <paulr901@cableone.net> wrote in message

> news:%23$N3Irv3HHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>> If you are doing this with a WXP computer, it should automatically

>> recognise and assign drive letters to partitions formatted with standard

>> PC type formats, like NTFS, Fat32, and Fat16. It will probably not

>> recognise Linux or Mac partitions or formats. It will also probably not

>> recognise non-standard formats like those used a few years ago to allow

>> using large hard drives with BIOSs that couldn't handle large hard

>> drives.

>>

>> What is the partitioning and formatting of the drive in question?

>>

>> -Paul Randall

>>

>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

>>> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>>

>>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier? I

>>> also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off of

>>> the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>>

>>> --

>>>

>>> Thanks.

>>>

>>>

>>> "Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message

>>> news:uHPOIXs3HHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>>>>

>>>> Saucer Man wrote:

>>>>

>>>>> The last time I tried this...XP saw the partition but did not assign

>>>>> it a drive letter. At that point, I followed the steps in Disk

>>>>> Management and I ended up formatting it. I don't want that to happen

>>>>> this time. If XP doesn't recognize it, can I assign it a letter

>>>>> without formatting it?

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>

>>>> Don't know why that would happen. We do this all the time and either

>>>> the

>>>> drive letter(s) are assigned or we can do it through Disk Management

>>>> just

>>>> by right-clicking on the icon for Disk 2 (or whatever) and then

>>>> clicking

>>>> on the Change Drive Letter and Path line. The Edit feature is used to

>>>> change the drive letter.

>>>>

>>>> Whatever happens, do not allow the HD to format.

>>>>

>>>

>>>

>>

>>

>

>

Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

 

"Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

news:WKDwi.3828$E84.559@bignews1.bellsouth.net...

> I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at a

> friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive was

> in his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated it

> came up with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He has

> since installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some

> pictures from the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and

> thought it might be helpful. I have been reading that people get a

> message "Access Denied" when trying to copy data from Windows XP drives.

> The company that manufactured the enclosure wasn't any help. They said be

> sure to set the jumpers on the drive to MASTER. They also said that the

> drive has to be formatted after the enclosure is connected to the PC! I

> told them this defeats the purpose.

> --

> Thanks.

>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

>>> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>>

>>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier? I

>>> also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off of

>>> the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>> --

>>> Thanks.

 

 

Saucer Man:

As you surmise, it probably would be best if you install your friend's HDD

as an internal HDD in your system and extract whatever data you can from it.

Obviously this assumes the disk is non-defective and its data can at least

be accessed even if the drive for one reason or another is unbootable.

 

I'm assuming, of course, that you're working with a desktop PC and won't

have any problems connecting that HDD as a secondary HDD in your system -

either as a Slave to your own Primary Master boot drive or anywhere on the

motherboard's Secondary IDE channel. I assume you know your way about this,

right? Just make sure you jumper the drive correctly and that your

connections are secure. I'm also making the assumption this is a PATA (not a

SATA) HDD. It's a relatively simple process if you've been inside your PC

case a few times.

 

On the other hand, there's no reason why you couldn't simply install the

disk in your USB enclosure and try that method to access the data. It's

simple enough and presumably should work assuming you're dealing with a

non-defective HDD.

Anna

Guest Paul Randall
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

I should have stated that 'unmountable volume' means that you will

definitely not see a drive letter for this drive in Windows or DOS, whether

set up as an internal hard drive or in the USB enclosure. The BIOS should

see it as an internal hard drive and WXP's disk management should see it

either as an internal hard drive and in the USB enclosure. Repair utilities

and Norton Ghost and Acronis will see it if the BIOS sees it, and may see it

if disk management sees it. If they can see it then they can probably read

and write it. I'm a fan of the DOS version of Ghost because I trust that

booting from a CD or floppy will not mess with the hard drives. I'm less

trusting of Windows to not automatically do something. Depending on the

version of Ghost and the DOS USB drivers it provides and compatibility with

your enclosure, you may be able to repair the drive with DOS utilities.

 

-Paul Randall

 

"Paul Randall" <paulr901@cableone.net> wrote in message

news:eMnM7v03HHA.2108@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> That is the kind of info we needed. Being a WXP machine increases the

> chances that it probably used standard PC partitioning and formatting.

> Unmountabe Volume indicates that the master boot record or partition table

> got messed up. There are utilities that can fix this kind of stuff. It

> is possible the directory also got messed up, but there are utilities to

> attempt to fix that too.

>

> Depending on how important the pictures are, you may want to make an image

> with Norton Ghost or Acronis before starting the recovery.

>

> Hopefully someone will jump in here with some actual experience. If not,

> start a new thread with a title something like 'need help recovering files

> from unmountable volume', and include the info you presented in this

> message.

>

> -Paul Randall

>

> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

> news:WKDwi.3828$E84.559@bignews1.bellsouth.net...

>> I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at a

>> friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive was

>> in his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated it

>> came up with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He has

>> since installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some

>> pictures from the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and

>> thought it might be helpful. I have been reading that people get a

>> message "Access Denied" when trying to copy data from Windows XP drives.

>> The company that manufactured the enclosure wasn't any help. They said

>> be sure to set the jumpers on the drive to MASTER. They also said that

>> the drive has to be formatted after the enclosure is connected to the PC!

>> I told them this defeats the purpose.

>>

>>

>> --

>>

>> Thanks.

>>

>>

>> "Paul Randall" <paulr901@cableone.net> wrote in message

>> news:%23$N3Irv3HHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>>> If you are doing this with a WXP computer, it should automatically

>>> recognise and assign drive letters to partitions formatted with standard

>>> PC type formats, like NTFS, Fat32, and Fat16. It will probably not

>>> recognise Linux or Mac partitions or formats. It will also probably not

>>> recognise non-standard formats like those used a few years ago to allow

>>> using large hard drives with BIOSs that couldn't handle large hard

>>> drives.

>>>

>>> What is the partitioning and formatting of the drive in question?

>>>

>>> -Paul Randall

>>>

>>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>>> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>>>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

>>>> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>>>

>>>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier?

>>>> I also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off

>>>> of the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>>

>>>> Thanks.

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> "Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message

>>>> news:uHPOIXs3HHA.5164@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>>>>>

>>>>> Saucer Man wrote:

>>>>>

>>>>>> The last time I tried this...XP saw the partition but did not assign

>>>>>> it a drive letter. At that point, I followed the steps in Disk

>>>>>> Management and I ended up formatting it. I don't want that to happen

>>>>>> this time. If XP doesn't recognize it, can I assign it a letter

>>>>>> without formatting it?

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>> Don't know why that would happen. We do this all the time and either

>>>>> the

>>>>> drive letter(s) are assigned or we can do it through Disk Management

>>>>> just

>>>>> by right-clicking on the icon for Disk 2 (or whatever) and then

>>>>> clicking

>>>>> on the Change Drive Letter and Path line. The Edit feature is used to

>>>>> change the drive letter.

>>>>>

>>>>> Whatever happens, do not allow the HD to format.

>>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>

>>>

>>

>>

>

>

Guest Saucer Man
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

Yes. I have done this before and we are talking about an IDE drive. I

thought it was okay to leave the drives jumpers on cable select?

 

--

 

Thanks.

 

 

"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message

news:uH00IV13HHA.5212@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>

> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

> news:WKDwi.3828$E84.559@bignews1.bellsouth.net...

>> I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at a

>> friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive was

>> in his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated it

>> came up with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He has

>> since installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some

>> pictures from the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and

>> thought it might be helpful. I have been reading that people get a

>> message "Access Denied" when trying to copy data from Windows XP drives.

>> The company that manufactured the enclosure wasn't any help. They said

>> be sure to set the jumpers on the drive to MASTER. They also said that

>> the drive has to be formatted after the enclosure is connected to the PC!

>> I told them this defeats the purpose.

>> --

>> Thanks.

>

>>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>>> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>>>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

>>>> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>>>

>>>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier?

>>>> I also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off

>>>> of the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>>> --

>>>> Thanks.

>

>

> Saucer Man:

> As you surmise, it probably would be best if you install your friend's HDD

> as an internal HDD in your system and extract whatever data you can from

> it. Obviously this assumes the disk is non-defective and its data can at

> least be accessed even if the drive for one reason or another is

> unbootable.

>

> I'm assuming, of course, that you're working with a desktop PC and won't

> have any problems connecting that HDD as a secondary HDD in your system -

> either as a Slave to your own Primary Master boot drive or anywhere on the

> motherboard's Secondary IDE channel. I assume you know your way about

> this, right? Just make sure you jumper the drive correctly and that your

> connections are secure. I'm also making the assumption this is a PATA (not

> a SATA) HDD. It's a relatively simple process if you've been inside your

> PC case a few times.

>

> On the other hand, there's no reason why you couldn't simply install the

> disk in your USB enclosure and try that method to access the data. It's

> simple enough and presumably should work assuming you're dealing with a

> non-defective HDD.

> Anna

>

Guest Saucer Man
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

Also, if I connect the drive in the enclosure, do I need to set the jumpers

to anything specific?

 

--

 

Thanks.

 

 

"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message

news:uH00IV13HHA.5212@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>

> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

> news:WKDwi.3828$E84.559@bignews1.bellsouth.net...

>> I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at a

>> friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive was

>> in his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated it

>> came up with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He has

>> since installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some

>> pictures from the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and

>> thought it might be helpful. I have been reading that people get a

>> message "Access Denied" when trying to copy data from Windows XP drives.

>> The company that manufactured the enclosure wasn't any help. They said

>> be sure to set the jumpers on the drive to MASTER. They also said that

>> the drive has to be formatted after the enclosure is connected to the PC!

>> I told them this defeats the purpose.

>> --

>> Thanks.

>

>>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>>> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>>>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

>>>> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>>>

>>>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier?

>>>> I also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off

>>>> of the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>>> --

>>>> Thanks.

>

>

> Saucer Man:

> As you surmise, it probably would be best if you install your friend's HDD

> as an internal HDD in your system and extract whatever data you can from

> it. Obviously this assumes the disk is non-defective and its data can at

> least be accessed even if the drive for one reason or another is

> unbootable.

>

> I'm assuming, of course, that you're working with a desktop PC and won't

> have any problems connecting that HDD as a secondary HDD in your system -

> either as a Slave to your own Primary Master boot drive or anywhere on the

> motherboard's Secondary IDE channel. I assume you know your way about

> this, right? Just make sure you jumper the drive correctly and that your

> connections are secure. I'm also making the assumption this is a PATA (not

> a SATA) HDD. It's a relatively simple process if you've been inside your

> PC case a few times.

>

> On the other hand, there's no reason why you couldn't simply install the

> disk in your USB enclosure and try that method to access the data. It's

> simple enough and presumably should work assuming you're dealing with a

> non-defective HDD.

> Anna

>

Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

 

>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>> news:WKDwi.3828$E84.559@bignews1.bellsouth.net...

>>> I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at a

>>> friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive

>>> was in his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated

>>> it came up with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He

>>> has since installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some

>>> pictures from the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and

>>> thought it might be helpful. I have been reading that people get a

>>> message "Access Denied" when trying to copy data from Windows XP drives.

>>> The company that manufactured the enclosure wasn't any help. They said

>>> be sure to set the jumpers on the drive to MASTER. They also said that

>>> the drive has to be formatted after the enclosure is connected to the

>>> PC! I told them this defeats the purpose.

>>> --

>>> Thanks.

>>

>>>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>>>> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>>>>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select CHANGE

>>>>> DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>>>>

>>>>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier?

>>>>> I also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files off

>>>>> of the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>>>> --

>>>>> Thanks.

 

> "Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message

> news:uH00IV13HHA.5212@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>> Saucer Man:

>> As you surmise, it probably would be best if you install your friend's

>> HDD as an internal HDD in your system and extract whatever data you can

>> from it. Obviously this assumes the disk is non-defective and its data

>> can at least be accessed even if the drive for one reason or another is

>> unbootable.

>>

>> I'm assuming, of course, that you're working with a desktop PC and won't

>> have any problems connecting that HDD as a secondary HDD in your system -

>> either as a Slave to your own Primary Master boot drive or anywhere on

>> the motherboard's Secondary IDE channel. I assume you know your way about

>> this, right? Just make sure you jumper the drive correctly and that your

>> connections are secure. I'm also making the assumption this is a PATA

>> (not a SATA) HDD. It's a relatively simple process if you've been inside

>> your PC case a few times.

>>

>> On the other hand, there's no reason why you couldn't simply install the

>> disk in your USB enclosure and try that method to access the data. It's

>> simple enough and presumably should work assuming you're dealing with a

>> non-defective HDD.

>> Anna

 

 

"Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

news:wbHwi.1995$t9.21@bignews7.bellsouth.net...

> Yes. I have done this before and we are talking about an IDE drive. I

> thought it was okay to leave the drives jumpers on cable select?

> --

> Thanks.

 

Also, if I connect the drive in the enclosure, do I need to set the jumpers

to anything specific?

 

SM:

It's fine to connect/configure that secondary HDD as Cable Select. I assume

you have an understanding of Master/Slave relationships as affected by

whether the drive is connected to the end or middle connector of the IDE

data (ribbon) cable when the CS configuration is used. In any event it's

probably of little importance here where your only intention is to access

that secondary HDD in order to copy data from it.

 

As to installing the drive in a USB enclosure...

In most cases it simply doesn't matter how the jumpers are set - whether

jumpered as Master, Slave, or CS. The system will still recognize (detect)

the USB external HDD. However, in a very few cases it does matter. As long

as you have the disk handy you might as well jumper it as Master. If it's a

Western Digital disk and there's a problem with drive recognition by the

system, set it as a Single device (unjumpered). A number of users have

reported the need to do so with WD drives. Frankly, I can't remember a

single instance where this was necessary in my experience and I've dealt

with quite a few WD disks used in a USB device. But I continually come

across reports & postings about the need to do so I'm mentioning it just in

case...

Anna

Guest Ghostrider
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

 

Saucer Man wrote:

> Also, if I connect the drive in the enclosure, do I need to set the jumpers

> to anything specific?

>

 

What do the instructions for the hard drive enclosure say to set the

jumpers? Don't guess...get the documentation.

Guest Saucer Man
Posted

Re: Recovering Data From A Hard Drive

 

Ok. Here is what happened.

 

I first tried to install the drive in the USB enclosure. XP did not even

recognize that I plugged something into the USB port. The port was working

because I tested it with a flash drive. I tried the jumper on Master and

Slave. The documentation that came with the drive didn't say anything about

the jumper.

 

Then I installed the drive inside the PC as a Slave. XP recognized it and

assigned it a letter. However, it said the disk is not formatted and it

asked if I wanted to format it. At that point I stopped and told the guy

that I cannot recover data from this disk. I told him to search for

professional data recovery experts if he wants to get the photos off.

 

This case is closed and I want to thank everyone for their input and advice!

 

--

 

Thanks.

 

 

"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message

news:eePIDt23HHA.4184@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>

>

>>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>>> news:WKDwi.3828$E84.559@bignews1.bellsouth.net...

>>>> I'm not sure of the partitioning as I haven't seen this yet. It is at

>>>> a friends and he wants me to get some photos from the drive. The drive

>>>> was in his windows xp box but the PC would not boot one day. He stated

>>>> it came up with a BSD with a message similar to Unmountable Volume. He

>>>> has since installed a new drive in his PC but wants me to extract some

>>>> pictures from the old drive. I have this USB hard drive enclosure and

>>>> thought it might be helpful. I have been reading that people get a

>>>> message "Access Denied" when trying to copy data from Windows XP

>>>> drives. The company that manufactured the enclosure wasn't any help.

>>>> They said be sure to set the jumpers on the drive to MASTER. They also

>>>> said that the drive has to be formatted after the enclosure is

>>>> connected to the PC! I told them this defeats the purpose.

>>>> --

>>>> Thanks.

>>>

>>>>> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

>>>>> news:Uqtwi.7250$aa7.3445@bignews3.bellsouth.net...

>>>>>> Ok. If there is NO driver letter, I can right-click and select

>>>>>> CHANGE DRIVE LETTER to give it one?

>>>>>>

>>>>>> How about if I install the drive inside the PC? Will this be easier?

>>>>>> I also don't want to get into issues where I cannot copy the files

>>>>>> off of the drive I am adding because of permission issues.

>>>>>> --

>>>>>> Thanks.

>

>

>> "Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message

>> news:uH00IV13HHA.5212@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>> Saucer Man:

>>> As you surmise, it probably would be best if you install your friend's

>>> HDD as an internal HDD in your system and extract whatever data you can

>>> from it. Obviously this assumes the disk is non-defective and its data

>>> can at least be accessed even if the drive for one reason or another is

>>> unbootable.

>>>

>>> I'm assuming, of course, that you're working with a desktop PC and won't

>>> have any problems connecting that HDD as a secondary HDD in your

>>> system - either as a Slave to your own Primary Master boot drive or

>>> anywhere on the motherboard's Secondary IDE channel. I assume you know

>>> your way about this, right? Just make sure you jumper the drive

>>> correctly and that your connections are secure. I'm also making the

>>> assumption this is a PATA (not a SATA) HDD. It's a relatively simple

>>> process if you've been inside your PC case a few times.

>>>

>>> On the other hand, there's no reason why you couldn't simply install the

>>> disk in your USB enclosure and try that method to access the data. It's

>>> simple enough and presumably should work assuming you're dealing with a

>>> non-defective HDD.

>>> Anna

>

>

> "Saucer Man" <saucerman@nospam.net> wrote in message

> news:wbHwi.1995$t9.21@bignews7.bellsouth.net...

>> Yes. I have done this before and we are talking about an IDE drive. I

>> thought it was okay to leave the drives jumpers on cable select?

>> --

>> Thanks.

>

> Also, if I connect the drive in the enclosure, do I need to set the

> jumpers

> to anything specific?

>

> SM:

> It's fine to connect/configure that secondary HDD as Cable Select. I

> assume you have an understanding of Master/Slave relationships as affected

> by whether the drive is connected to the end or middle connector of the

> IDE data (ribbon) cable when the CS configuration is used. In any event

> it's probably of little importance here where your only intention is to

> access that secondary HDD in order to copy data from it.

>

> As to installing the drive in a USB enclosure...

> In most cases it simply doesn't matter how the jumpers are set - whether

> jumpered as Master, Slave, or CS. The system will still recognize (detect)

> the USB external HDD. However, in a very few cases it does matter. As long

> as you have the disk handy you might as well jumper it as Master. If it's

> a Western Digital disk and there's a problem with drive recognition by the

> system, set it as a Single device (unjumpered). A number of users have

> reported the need to do so with WD drives. Frankly, I can't remember a

> single instance where this was necessary in my experience and I've dealt

> with quite a few WD disks used in a USB device. But I continually come

> across reports & postings about the need to do so I'm mentioning it just

> in case...

> Anna

>


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