Thread: External hard drive data recovery

I posted a message on about the 13th of the month in which I had stated that I was unable to retrieve data or have the computer recognize the external hard drive so to catch you up, I have recently replaced the hard drive in my computer and prior to that had backed up all of my information up to an external WD80 GB HD
The drive was working perfectly. Since then I have been unable to access the hard drive on my computer or any other. The drive says that it is working properly, and is found in the device manager. I have tried updating the drivers, uninstalling and re-installing to no avail. I at this point was told that the hard drive case might be bad and so I have taken it out and used a USB to IDE/SATA cable with the same results. The disk drive is working properly and I don’t believe it to be the problem. The USB ports are working properly as is evident in the mass storage unit showing up in device manager under both the disk drives and the USB controllers. I have tried to find it in disk management however it doesn’t show up there. I have tried booting straight to the hard drive with no luck. There must be some way in which to access the hard drives data. Some much needed advice would be great.
Thanks
VRP

Have you tried assigning a new drive letter for the usb drive ?

See here:
http://geekswithblogs.net/WynApseTec...13/113922.aspx

Originally Posted by Ferret

Have you tried assigning a new drive letter for the usb drive ?See here:http://geekswithblogs.net/WynApseTec...13/113922.aspx

When connecting the hard drive via the usb port the hard drive will only show up in the device manager in which it says that the device is working properly. When I look in my computer or in the disk management the hard drive isn't present. Under the disk management the two hard drives that are installed show up one using only XP and the other partioned for both XP and Vista. Both DVD drives show up and the mass storage device (HP 7200 series printer) No other devices are listed in this area. All the drives have the proper lettering and since the usb hard drive isn't showing up it cannot recieve a different letter. (Also a side note to this would be that I have played around with another hard drive via the USB to IDE/SATA cable and I'm able to get the computer to recognize it only in the Bios and device manager and not in my computer or in the disk management. Although the hard drive will run at bios start up when prompted it only partially runs windows setup. This could however be due to a bad hard drive.) I have tried switching all plug and play devices from manual to auto with no effect. Please advise on further thoughts to my problem.
thanks
Vic

Originally Posted by vicjr

When connecting the hard drive via the usb port the hard drive will only show up in the device manager in which it says that the device is working properly. When I look in my computer or in the disk management the hard drive isn't present. Under the disk management the two hard drives that are installed show up one using only XP and the other partioned for both XP and Vista. Both DVD drives show up and the mass storage device (HP 7200 series printer) No other devices are listed in this area. All the drives have the proper lettering and since the usb hard drive isn't showing up it cannot recieve a different letter. (Also a side note to this would be that I have played around with another hard drive via the USB to IDE/SATA cable and I'm able to get the computer to recognize it only in the Bios and device manager and not in my computer or in the disk management. Although the hard drive will run at bios start up when prompted it only partially runs windows setup. This could however be due to a bad hard drive.) I have tried switching all plug and play devices from manual to auto with no effect. Please advise on further thoughts to my problem.
thanks
Vic

Vic, are you able to open up your computer and connect this HDD directly? (bypassing USB ports) [sorry, I don't recall if you mentioned if this WD HDD was IDE or SATA, and what your computer will accept.] If you can get it directly connected inside your computer and get a letter asigned to it, you can check the SMART attributes to see if it is in fact failing/failed. Sometimes the manufacturer's recovery software can fix a bad disk, but I don't know that this will recover your data. Some SMART attribute failures can be resolved by writing the disk with zeros, but then all data would be lost.

What software did you use for the backup?

Where is the original HDD that you replaced in your computer? Is the original data still there? or, did you wipe it after you backed it up?

p.s. here is a free program to monitor SMART values/disk health (the hard drive must be direct connected internally to the computer)

http://www.download.com/DiskCheckup/...html?tag=mncol

Originally Posted by simrick

Vic, are you able to open up your computer and connect this HDD directly? (bypassing USB ports) [sorry, I don't recall if you mentioned if this WD HDD was IDE or SATA, and what your computer will accept.] If you can get it directly connected inside your computer and get a letter asigned to it, you can check the SMART attributes to see if it is in fact failing/failed. Sometimes the manufacturer's recovery software can fix a bad disk, but I don't know that this will recover your data. Some SMART attribute failures can be resolved by writing the disk with zeros, but then all data would be lost.

What software did you use for the backup?

Where is the original HDD that you replaced in your computer? Is the original data still there? or, did you wipe it after you backed it up?

p.s. here is a free program to monitor SMART values/disk health (the hard drive must be direct connected internally to the computer)

http://www.download.com/DiskCheckup/...html?tag=mncol

The hard drive is a WD IDE 80GB and my computer will handle both the IDE and SATA Yes, I have hooked it up internally and was unable to get a letter assigned to it. (Does the same as thru the USB ports) Computer doesn't acknowledge it. I have also tried to install the operating system on it thinking that I would be able to partion the drive and be able to retrieve it in that fashion, but the hard drive would not install the OS (Same thru the USB port)
When backing up the data from my computer to the external hard drive no software was installed on it. I had simply sent the files over to the hard drive in which I was able to open and retrieve the information as I needed it. (Have done this many times in the past and have never had a problem retrieving the files)
As for the original hard drive well you could say live and learn. I had installed the XP and Vista over it prior to plugging in my external hard drive as it was working fine and so I assumed that I would be able to just plug it in and send the files back to my computers internal hard drive.
Now as for the Smart values disk I agree that if I can get the computer to acknowledge its presence then I can assign it a letter. But as far as writting zeros to it and possibly losing the data this doesn't sound like the step to try since the main objective is to recover the data as I could care less about the hard drive and whether or not it ever works again so long as I can just retrieve the data.
So the quest continues, please advise
Thanks for your help
Vic

Try the external drive erm externally again. Try connecting usb and then booting the PC. If that fails try connecting after bootup and also try other usb ports.

Originally Posted by vicjr

The hard drive is a WD IDE 80GB and my computer will handle both the IDE and SATA Yes, I have hooked it up internally and was unable to get a letter assigned to it. (Does the same as thru the USB ports) Computer doesn't acknowledge it.

This appears to be a serious failure. I had a HDD fail once in this manner. I believe it was the read sector that went bad. I even sent it out to a professional recovery service with a $1,000 authorization and there was nothing they could do to recover my data. I'm sorry, but I am out of ideas, short of contacting a recovery service - There is one suggestion I will mention - I have never tried this program, but it appears to be an alternative: SpinRite

www.grc.com

There's a video of the program, customer reviews, etc. It provides low-level access to mass storage devices in a computer. I've never used it, but you may want to consider looking in to it. It's around $90 - which is cheaper than going to a recovery service, but there's no guarantee you will be successful. Like I said, I've never used the program, so I won't be able to help you through it, but I'm sure Gibson Research will assist you.

Please read the FAQs to get a feel for it:
http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm

Originally Posted by vicjr

When backing up the data from my computer to the external hard drive no software was installed on it. I had simply sent the files over to the hard drive in which I was able to open and retrieve the information as I needed it. (Have done this many times in the past and have never had a problem retrieving the files)
As for the original hard drive well you could say live and learn. I had installed the XP and Vista over it prior to plugging in my external hard drive as it was working fine and so I assumed that I would be able to just plug it in and send the files back to my computers internal hard drive.

Yes, okay, I probably would have done the same. [Fortunately I keep a 2nd backup set off-site...]

Originally Posted by vicjr

Now as for the Smart values disk I agree that if I can get the computer to acknowledge its presence then I can assign it a letter. But as far as writting zeros to it and possibly losing the data this doesn't sound like the step to try since the main objective is to recover the data as I could care less about the hard drive and whether or not it ever works again so long as I can just retrieve the data.
So the quest continues, please advise
Thanks for your help
Vic

No, we don't want to write zeros to it just yet! I just mentioned that because some of these manufacturers' software will do that immediately and I wanted you to be aware of the danger.

I'm just wondering ... if you put the WD HDD back inside your computer ... if SpinRite will discover it in the FreeDOS environment and recover the data? Perhaps you might contact Gibson Research and ask their opinion/experience.

Really sorry I can't be of more help. I sympathize with you - I lost an entire first year's pics of my firstborn to a failed HDD. Really learned my lesson...

Originally Posted by simrick

This appears to be a serious failure. I had a HDD fail once in this manner. I believe it was the read sector that went bad. I even sent it out to a professional recovery service with a $1,000 authorization and there was nothing they could do to recover my data. I'm sorry, but I am out of ideas, short of contacting a recovery service - There is one suggestion I will mention - I have never tried this program, but it appears to be an alternative: SpinRite

www.grc.com

There's a video of the program, customer reviews, etc. It provides low-level access to mass storage devices in a computer. I've never used it, but you may want to consider looking in to it. It's around $90 - which is cheaper than going to a recovery service, but there's no guarantee you will be successful. Like I said, I've never used the program, so I won't be able to help you through it, but I'm sure Gibson Research will assist you.

Please read the FAQs to get a feel for it:
http://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm



Yes, okay, I probably would have done the same. [Fortunately I keep a 2nd backup set off-site...]



No, we don't want to write zeros to it just yet! I just mentioned that because some of these manufacturers' software will do that immediately and I wanted you to be aware of the danger.

I'm just wondering ... if you put the WD HDD back inside your computer ... if SpinRite will discover it in the FreeDOS environment and recover the data? Perhaps you might contact Gibson Research and ask their opinion/experience.

Really sorry I can't be of more help. I sympathize with you - I lost an entire first year's pics of my firstborn to a failed HDD. Really learned my lesson...

I have tried install/un-install in every imaginable way at this point with every available port and there are several with no change in status.
I will do some research into the SpinRite and see it that might be a solution. And yes sometimes you just have to admit the horse is dead and stop shooting it. And yes the dreaded cost of recovery may be a last ditch effort that may be the inevitable. Thanks again for your help
Vic

Originally Posted by vicjr

I have tried install/un-install in every imaginable way at this point with every available port and there are several with no change in status.
I will do some research into the SpinRite and see it that might be a solution. And yes sometimes you just have to admit the horse is dead and stop shooting it. And yes the dreaded cost of recovery may be a last ditch effort that may be the inevitable. Thanks again for your help
Vic

Good luck with SpinRite and let us know how you fare; I hope you are successful!

Originally Posted by simrick

Good luck with SpinRite and let us know how you fare; I hope you are successful!

Well I tried to use the SpinRite program with no success. It still wouldn't find the drive, However I started looking at the problem from a different angle, which I have you to thank for bringing it up. I found a software program from Stellar Phoenix that is a Windows Data Recovery program. It was a free download and when ran, found the hard drive immediately. (It didn't have a letter assigned to it though) It is now running a search for file types and with any luck will be able to retrieve the data. (One drawback) I was using the USB cable since it is really a major pain to get to the computer itself since it is in my office and in a large desk config, Anyway it is a slow process to download the info via USB once again live and learn. So hopefully it will retrieve the data and I can get on with things. Once again thanks for mentioning software.
Vic