[littlewing2]

Hello all, new here.

One of our old computers (running XP-SP2) finally was more trouble than it was worth (power supply failure for a second time, cooling failure burning graphics card, etc). So, into the graveyard it goes, but I thought I'd rescue the old SATA (Seagate 160GB 7200rpm) HD, which was the C: drive, by getting one of those SATA/IDE to USB conversion kits. It hooks up, powers up the drive. The new/temporary computer (my laptop also running XP-SP2) sees that a USB device has connected, but no USB/removable storage device mounts in the drive list. When I pull up the C: properties and look at the hardware tab, it shows a second drive (called "USB Device") in addition to the one I know to be the installed C drive (based on size and name). The installed (laptop) C drive is listed at location "Location: 0 (0)", while the USB Device is listed at Location 0. I checked the laptop drive to see if the old HD was somehow mounted as a folder, but no joy.

I assume this problem stems from the original/old drive being named as "C:/" in the old computer, which now confuses things and doesnt allow me to have it mount properly. Is there someway to change this without reformatting this drive- I'd rather not lose the data from this drive if at all possible.

Any ideas?

Thanks a bunch for reading the long story. Cheers,

lw

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Hi littlewing and welcome to G2G!!

Please make sure that the drivers for the USB Enclosure are installed, (if any). When you change a drive the letter also changes accordingly to the new computer so the thing you mensioned is not the case here. Can you give us a link to the Enclosure you purchased or at least the name?

Soorena

[SOORENA]

Hi littlewing and welcome to G2G!!

Please make sure that the drivers for the USB Enclosure are installed, (if any). When you change a drive the letter also changes accordingly to the new computer so the thing you mensioned is not the case here. Can you give us a link to the Enclosure you purchased or at least the name?

Soorena

[littlewing2]

Thanks for the quick response. There aren't any drivers needed for this enclosure as I understand it, since I am using XP SP2 (which includes drivers for both USB 1.0 and 2.0). There was a mini-disk included, which seems to contain drivers for Win98.

The unit is a Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 adapter. A review of it is here.

It sounds really awesome on paper, and seems like it should work great. Dunno why it wont work for me, as far as I can recall, I didnt have any serious HD issues with the old SATA drive (despite the many other problems I had). Perhaps somehow the drive got corrupted, which will make me a very sad panda.

[SOORENA]

Ok try going to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manger and tell me if you see any yellow question marks or anything else that doesn't belong.

Soorena

[littlewing2]

nothing odd, the device shows up on Device Manager under Disk drives as "USB Device". But, repeated attempts to get it to show up in the "My Computer" as a drive show nothing.

Thanks for trying though.

[SOORENA]

Have you tried using this on other computers cause it might be just this computer that has trouble reading it.

Soorena

[littlewing2]

I just wanted to post to say thank you to Soorena for the suggestions. Unfortunately, trying to use the drive on multiple comps all gave the same problem (recognized as a USB device, but not showing up in HD list). I think I am stuck with going to pay for a HD recovery service to get the data off.

Happy New Year everyone!

Edited by littlewing2, 27 December 2007 - 09:48 AM.

[happyrock]

you can try using linux to access your data...these instructions are for a computer that won't boot to windows but it will work for you as well...
this is a canned reply...so you will have to adjust a little...like mount the external drive and your c drive and drag and drop the data to the c drive instead of to a flash drive...I don't have the time to adjust the reply right now

get puppy linux...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd ...if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all yor data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...
==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...

drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...then drag the window to the
right edge of the screen...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to

the narrowest you can..drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Edited by happyrck, 28 December 2007 - 07:41 AM.

[littlewing2]

woah, that sounds awesome. I will try it as soon as I get home tonite! Thanks a bunch.

[glen_m_32]

I would suggest checking if the USB HD is visable in START > CONTROL PANEL > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS > COMPUTER MANAGMENT > COMPUTER MANAGEMENT > DISK MANAGER

There should a list of drive one of which should be your USB drive. When i have had this issue, i have needed to format the drive and it always seems to work! If an admin/more experienced member could back up my suggestion it'd be greatly appreciated

[happyrock]

i have needed to format the drive and it always seems to work!

he wants to save his data...your suggestion would have him format the drive losing all the data....

[glen_m_32]

I do appolgise happyrck, but in my experience it has been the only way i have got this set up to work.

I will be watching this thread intently, it might just enlighten me to a different method!