[happyrock]

if the super glue guy says it will work...
have him connect his digital multimeter to the ends that connect to the mobo and read the voltage at that end and show you

[Advertisements]

Finally managed to get a USB to IDE adapter but when I connect it up to my laptop hard drive, although my desktop allocates a drive letter, all I get is drive not formatted do you wish to format the drive.
Anyway I can get around this or is it looking as though my data is lost ?

Cheers

[NOTEVER]

Finally managed to get a USB to IDE adapter but when I connect it up to my laptop hard drive, although my desktop allocates a drive letter, all I get is drive not formatted do you wish to format the drive.
Anyway I can get around this or is it looking as though my data is lost ?

Cheers

[happyrock]

testdisk my be able to rebuild the MFT and MBR so that your system can see the data...gonna need a few hours to get the how to typed up though...

Edited by happyrock, 07 May 2009 - 06:19 AM.

[happyrock]

first a little general info...
MFT... Describes all files on the volume, including file names, timestamps, stream names, and lists of cluster numbers where data streams reside, indexes, security identifiers, and file attributes like "read only", "compressed", "encrypted", etc.
MFTMirr is a Duplicate of the first vital entries of $MFT, usually 4 entries (4 KiB).
TestDisk will use the MFTMirr to rewrite the MFT...
The first sector of NTFS partitions is reserved for the partition boot sector. This contains the information that allows the OS to read the partition. Without it, the partition cannot be accessed.

NTFS keeps a backup copy of the boot sector on the last sector of the partition which can allow recovery programs to restore it. The FAT equivalent of this is also called the boot sector, and resides on the first sector of the partition. The difference is that FAT does not keep a backup copy of this information, making recovery much more difficult...
this is in addition to the other advantage of using NTFS..so you can see you really should use the NTFS instead of FAT

The first file stored on an NTFS partition is the Master File Table(MFT) which is essentially a listing of the names, properties and locations of all the other files in the partition. This is referenced by the operating system to access individual files.

NTFS stores a backup copy of this file. Data restoration software will attempt to access or restore a copy of the MFT in order to access files on the partition.

If the MBR or partition table are damaged, the drive will become unbootable, and may appear to be blank if the partition information has been erased.

TESTDISK will attempt to access and restore a copy of the MFT in order to access files on the partition.

• Please download the Ultimate Boot CD here.
• Please burn the file to a CD using a ISO burner. (If you do not have a ISO burner you can get one Here)
• Please boot to the CD using the disk you just burned.
• Press enter to boot to the disk when prompted.
• Using the up and down arrow keys select File System Tools.
• Select Partition Tools.
• Select TestDisk
• Let it load do not press anything until you get to the screen that says at the top:
  TestDisk 6.6 Data Recovery Utility
• Unless you have more then one hard drive installed take the default option and press enter to proceed....be sure to select the right drive...
• Due to you are on a PC select Intel and press enter.
• Select analyze
• The next screen will display the current partition structure. If your System shows anything but No partition is bootable please post back with what it says.
• Click Enter to Proceed.
• The next screen is where TestDisk will analyze your disk.
• After that it will come back with the results. It should show. Under Partition NTFS. With a Star Indicating Primary Bootable.
• Press enter to continue.
• Use the Left and Right arrow keys to select write.
• Type Y and press enter to confirm.
• Remove the disk.
• Restart your computer.

[NOTEVER]

Apologies for being an idiot but the laptop hard drive doesn't respond when its in the laptop so I can't boot to the CD. The only way I can connect to it is thru the USB on my main desktop PC using this new USD/IDE cable but I'm unclear what I should do next. Your instructions seem to mean running the Ultimate Boot Disk on the laptop hard drive but I can't do that.
Cheers