[stormjw]

I have an old Western Digital 40 gig IDE hard drive. It should have Windows XP as the OS. I bought a Gigaware IDE enclosure and have been trying to read the disk. It says the disk needs to be formatted. When I try to open in command prompt and run chkdsk it says Access denied you do not have have sufficient privileges. The hard drive has photos of my wife and I before she passed away and the birth of our son. Any help in a walkthrough would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi stormjw
Here are a couple of links to some data recovery software programmes for you to try, Recuva has a good success rate so I would try that first; http://www.snapfiles...tarecovery.HTML or http://3d2f.com/tags...sh/disk/repair/
Hopefully one of the above will help you to retrieve your obviously irreplaceable files etc, best of luck.

[phillpower2]

Hi stormjw
Here are a couple of links to some data recovery software programmes for you to try, Recuva has a good success rate so I would try that first; http://www.snapfiles...tarecovery.HTML or http://3d2f.com/tags...sh/disk/repair/
Hopefully one of the above will help you to retrieve your obviously irreplaceable files etc, best of luck.

[Macboatmaster]

I have no real way of knowing your level of knowledge
WHATEVER YOU DO DO NOT REPEAT NOT format that disk.
The reason you are receiving that message is simply because the computer cannot see the files.

At this stage do not, even if you could run chkdsk on the disc.

On which computer and O/S is the enclosure connected to pls.

I am not familiar with the reocvery program that phillpower2 has sent you. PLEASE do not think I am suggesting that there is anything wrong with this program. HOWEVER there are a few golden rules regarding recovery.
One is - always attempt first if possible to recover from a copy, never from the original, if the recovery is unsuccessful, you may NOT get another chance at recovery if you use the original files.

I have a feeling the problem lies , not so much in the files , but in the ability of your system to read the files.

Is the drive shown as a drive Computer OR in Disk Management

Edited by Macboatmaster, 21 December 2010 - 03:27 PM.

[stormjw]

Thanks guys. I haven't done anything yet but some more info on my setup is as follows

Western Digital IDE 3.5 HDD inside of a Gigaware enclosure
hooked up to an HP Pavilion Dv5 running Windows 7

When I go to computer in the menu it shows up as Local Disk G

Then it says that it needs to be formatted (which I have not done)

I did try the recura program but it did not see the drive

My skill level is subpar but I learn fast with the right direction. Thanks again for the help

I checked under computer management and it shows up as
(G:)
37.26 GB RAW
Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)

Edited by stormjw, 21 December 2010 - 04:03 PM.

[Alzeimer]

Try this program "TestDisk" it is a very good free program that i have used with good success, if your data was never erased or formated this program will probably be able to recover all or only the parts (files) you want.

Here is the link to download, you do not need to install this program just put the folder on your desktop and click on the .exe and it will run.
http://www.cgsecurit...stDisk_Download

Here is the description of the program:

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk can:
Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
Fix FAT tables
Rebuild NTFS boot sector
Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
Fix MFT using MFT mirror
Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.


Hope this will help you recover your precious photos.

[Macboatmaster]

Now I know that it is shown in My Computer and in Disk Management as Raw data it is very likely nothing to do with this but check please anyway just to be certain
If you are using an IDE or ATA Hard Disks with an enclosure then it’s important that you set the jumper settings on the disk to “master” and not cable select or slave. If the jumper setting is incorrectly set then the hard disk will not be recognised when connected to the PC. The default setting when removing a hard disk from a PC is not always master and whilst it seems logical that any disk installed in an external enclosure is set to “slave” but it does need to be set to “master”.

After doing this and following this procedure there is just a very slight chance that the data will now be seen.
1. STOP the device. If the computer is switched off, and the external drive is not powered it can safely be disconnected.
Disconnecting a device

Most USB devices can be removed and unplugged. When unplugging storage devices, such as USB flash drives, make sure that the computer has finished saving any information to the device before removing it. If the device has an activity light, wait for a few seconds after the light has finished flashing before unplugging it.

If you see the Safely Remove Hardware icon Picture of the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area on the right side of the taskbar, you can use this as an indication that devices have finished all operations in progress and are ready to be removed. Click the icon and you'll see a list of devices. Click the device that you want to remove. Windows will display a notification telling you it's safe to remove the device.

Note
You can also safely remove devices from the Computer folder. Click the Start button Picture of the Start button, click Computer, right-click the device you want to remove, and then click Eject.

TRY THIS PLEASE it is worthwhile before you attempt recovery which is always risky.
STOP the device.
Check the jumper - as above.
Reconnect the device.
Reboot the computer.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 21 December 2010 - 06:11 PM.

[stormjw]

Still working on this, didn't have time today I will get back on it tomorrow. Thanks again guys

[SpywareDr]

If you absolutely gotta' have whatever is on that drive, send it to Kroll Ontrack. They have over 50,000 successful data recovery stories to tell every year.

FWIW, here's their Top Ten List of Data Disasters this year
http://www.krollontr...-Disasters.aspx