Recovering Files From HDD

[Stoney]

My wifes laptop had the mobo die. Got her a new laptop an now I want to transfer files from the old HDD to the new laptop. I bought a Mad Dog MegaVault which allows me to plug the drive into a USB port. Everything appears to be working fine and the drive shows in the disk manager as healthy and active but without a drive letter or path to the primary partition. The instructions that came with the unit only show how to install a new partition and I am thinking that would destroy the old one. I was hoping I would simply be able to use windows explorer and transfer data from the old drive to the new computer but the drive doesn't show in the explorer path. Any Ideas how to get a path to the external drive without deleting the old partition and reformating?
Thanks in advance for your time and efforts.

[clearwaterms]

what OS? new / old?

[PewterTA]

Assuming Win2k or newer:
Right click on My Computer -> Manage. When that comes up click on "Disk Management."

Once in there, you might have to both or just one of the things below...

-If you see the disk listed there and it says something basically to the effect that it can't "recognize it" you need to right click on the Disk and do an "Import Foreign Disk" This will basically just tell Windows to use the disk.

-If you see the disk and partition listed there, but with no 'letter' assigned to it, right click the area (partition) that you want to assign a letter to and select "Change Drive letter and paths" This will allow you to assign whatever letter you want to it.

Hope that helps.

[Stoney]

I am using Windows XP. When I right click in Disk Manager, the only options that are available are "Delete Partition" and "Help", the others are all greyed out.

I am usind a Toshiba HDD2189 2.5" drive. There are four pins outside of the IDE connector after it is installed in the case. Do I have to jumper it as a slave? Are these pins for that purpose. (I am trying to find documentation on the web).

[Stoney]

I just found the manual on the web. Those pins are for Master/slave config. Now I just need to find a jumper and try it.

[Stoney]

Well, found a jumper and installed it from C-D but results are the same.

http://sdd.toshiba.com/localcache/82000000293800000BBB0000000100000000.pdf

[PewterTA]

You don't want anything on it, it should be set to "master" = no jumpers.

Are you getting a drive letter associated with it?

If not, right click within the drive "area" (not on the left, but on the right half of the drive), it should have "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." and that should allow you to assign a drive letter to it.

[Stoney]

Hey Pewter; Thanks for replying. The option to change drive letter and path is greyed out. All that is available is Delete Partition. It may have something to do with the USB conversion. I've been told that if I connect it to my desktop using a converter to connect it internally it will be recognised as a regular drive and work as I want. Once I get the files off that I want, I can plug it back into the USB device and use it as an external. The adaptor is only $12, so it seems well worth a try.

[PewterTA]

That sounds right, good luck, let us know what happens!

[Stoney]

I got the adaptor, plugged it in and get the same results as with the USB adaptor. I also tried letting the PC boot off of the drive but of course it didn't like the drivers, etc. and couldn't boot. I guess I'll have to take it to a data recovery place and let them try.

[PewterTA]

When you look at the drive in the disk management, what type of file system does it say it has on the partition? NTFS, FAT32, etc?

When I get home, I'll try playing with my home built USB HDD and see if I can figure out what's happening to cause it...

Maybe if you can get a screenshot of your disk management, it help me figure out the issue.

Thanks,
-Dan

[whoaru99]

I guess I'll have to take it to a data recovery place and let them try.

Are these valuable and or non-replaceable files?

Depending on the extent of recovery needed that route can be REALLY expensive.

[Stoney]

The drive is NTFS formt. I called a place up and he quoted $200 to retreive "my documents" and "my pictures". ouch! Another place quoted $60 per hr. Not sure the files are worth that much to us. In talking with the first person, he suggested that the partition was probably corrupted. I think I'll try to find a free program for partition repair/recovery and see what that will do. (yes, I'm cheap).

[PewterTA]

You could try Easy Recovery Pro from www.ontrack.com. I've used that for years to recover stuff...though it's not "freeware."

The only other option I could give you (if interested) is if you want to send the drive to me I'll extract the files for free and send them to you on a CD/DVD (whatever you would need off the drive) with the drive...just work out the shipping part. That'd be up to you.

[Stoney]

Dan; Thank you very much for the offer and the continued advice that you give. I think I will continue to work on it myself. The files are not all that important and we haven't really missed any of them. It is one of those man over machine challenges that gives me something to putter around with.

[Stoney]

arty: :banana: :banana: arty:

Was able to fix the partition using this.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/

Not really sure what I did, but now it works!