[NOTEVER]

I have a laptop running Vista which suddenly decided to stop working the recovery disk didn't help just tells me I have no drive installed. I took out the 160gb Seagate drive and have connected it to my desktop running XP via a usb 2.0 Sata cable with power. It show up in My Computer with a drive letter but shows the size as 59mb and none of my files or folders are showing. It shows up in Disk Management as two partitions one 9.7gb healthy and active though no drive letter and 139.3gb just healthy with a drive letter.
Can anyone advise if I'm missing something, all I want is to access the folders and get my data
Many thanks

[Advertisements]

Hi NOTEVER

Couple of things for you to try recovery software http://www.snapfiles...tarecovery.HTML try Recuva first as it has a good success rate, if no joy try Puppy Linux "how to" below;


===================
***Required Hardware***
CD Burner (CDRW) Drive,
Blank CD,
Extra Storage Device (USB Flash Drive, External Hard Drive)
===================

1. Save these files to your Desktop/Burn Your Live CD:

• Download Latest Puppy Linux ISO (i.e.: lupu-520.iso)
  Download BurnCDCC ISO Burning Software
  
  
• Open BurnCDCC with Windows Explorer
• Extract All files to a location you can remember
• Double Click BurnCDCC
• Click Browse and navigate to the Puppy Linux ISO file you just downloaded
• Open/Double Click that file
  IMPORTANT: Adjust the speed bar to CD: 4x DVD: 1x
• Click Start
• Your CD Burner Tray will open automatically
• Insert a blank CD and close the tray
• Click OK

Puppy Linux Live CD will now be created
2. Set your boot priority in the BIOS to CD-ROM first, Hard Drive Second

• Start the computer/press the power button
• Immediately start tapping the appropriate key to enter the BIOS, aka "Setup"
  (Usually shown during the "Dell" screen, or "Gateway" Screen)
• Once in the BIOS, under Advanced BIOS Options change boot priority to:
  CD-ROM 1st, Hard Drive 2nd
• Open your ROM drive and insert the disk
• Press F10 to save and exit
• Agree with "Y" to continue
• Your computer will restart and boot from the Puppy Linux Live CD
  
  

3. Recover Your Data

• Once Puppy Linux has loaded, it is actually running in your computer's Memory (RAM). You will see a fully functioning Graphical User Interface similar to what you normally call "your computer". Internet access may or may not be available depending on your machine, so it is recommended you print these instructions before beginning. Also, double clicking is not needed in Puppy. To expand, or open folders/icons, just click once. Puppy is very light on resources, so you will quickly notice it is much speedier than you are used to. This is normal. Ready? Let's get started.
  
  3a. Mount Drives
• Click the Mount Icon located at the top left of your desktop.
• A Window will open. By default, the "drive" tab will be forward/highlighted. Click on Mount for your hard drive.
• Assuming you only have one hard drive and/or partition, there may be only one selection to mount.
• USB Flash Drives usually automatically mount upon boot, but click the "usbdrv" tab and make sure it is mounted.
• If using an external hard drive for the data recovery, do this under the "drive" tab. Mount it now.

3b. Transfer Files.

• At the bottom left of your desktop a list of all hard drives/partitions, USB Drives, and Optical Drives are listed with a familiar looking hard drive icon.
• Open your old hard drive i.e. sda1
• Next, open your USB Flash Drive or External Drive. i.e. sdc or sdb1
• If you open the wrong drive, simply X out at the top right corner of the window that opens. (Just like in Windows)
• From your old hard drive, drag and drop whatever files/folders you wish to transfer to your USB Drive's Window.

For The Novice: The common path to your pictures, music, video, and documents folders is: Documents and Settings >> All Users (or each idividual name of each user. CHECK All Names!) >> Documents >> You will now see My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos.

Remember to only click once! No double clicking! Once you drag and drop your first folder, you will notice a small menu will appear giving you the option to move or copy. Choose COPY each time you drag and drop.

YOU ARE DONE!!! Simply click Menu >> Mouse Over Shutdown >> Reboot/Turn Off Computer. Be sure to plug your USB Drive into another working windows machine to verify all data is there and transferred without corruption. Congratulations!





If you're doing this to recovery from a virus or malware infection, (or even if you're not), DO NOT copy executable files (.exe, .scr. etc...) if any of these files are infected you could be copying the corruption over to any new device/computer. just copy documents, pictures, music, or videos.

Good luck with it and let us know how you get on.

[phillpower2]

Hi NOTEVER

Couple of things for you to try recovery software http://www.snapfiles...tarecovery.HTML try Recuva first as it has a good success rate, if no joy try Puppy Linux "how to" below;


===================
***Required Hardware***
CD Burner (CDRW) Drive,
Blank CD,
Extra Storage Device (USB Flash Drive, External Hard Drive)
===================

1. Save these files to your Desktop/Burn Your Live CD:

• Download Latest Puppy Linux ISO (i.e.: lupu-520.iso)
  Download BurnCDCC ISO Burning Software
  
  
• Open BurnCDCC with Windows Explorer
• Extract All files to a location you can remember
• Double Click BurnCDCC
• Click Browse and navigate to the Puppy Linux ISO file you just downloaded
• Open/Double Click that file
  IMPORTANT: Adjust the speed bar to CD: 4x DVD: 1x
• Click Start
• Your CD Burner Tray will open automatically
• Insert a blank CD and close the tray
• Click OK

Puppy Linux Live CD will now be created
2. Set your boot priority in the BIOS to CD-ROM first, Hard Drive Second

• Start the computer/press the power button
• Immediately start tapping the appropriate key to enter the BIOS, aka "Setup"
  (Usually shown during the "Dell" screen, or "Gateway" Screen)
• Once in the BIOS, under Advanced BIOS Options change boot priority to:
  CD-ROM 1st, Hard Drive 2nd
• Open your ROM drive and insert the disk
• Press F10 to save and exit
• Agree with "Y" to continue
• Your computer will restart and boot from the Puppy Linux Live CD
  
  

3. Recover Your Data

• Once Puppy Linux has loaded, it is actually running in your computer's Memory (RAM). You will see a fully functioning Graphical User Interface similar to what you normally call "your computer". Internet access may or may not be available depending on your machine, so it is recommended you print these instructions before beginning. Also, double clicking is not needed in Puppy. To expand, or open folders/icons, just click once. Puppy is very light on resources, so you will quickly notice it is much speedier than you are used to. This is normal. Ready? Let's get started.
  
  3a. Mount Drives
• Click the Mount Icon located at the top left of your desktop.
• A Window will open. By default, the "drive" tab will be forward/highlighted. Click on Mount for your hard drive.
• Assuming you only have one hard drive and/or partition, there may be only one selection to mount.
• USB Flash Drives usually automatically mount upon boot, but click the "usbdrv" tab and make sure it is mounted.
• If using an external hard drive for the data recovery, do this under the "drive" tab. Mount it now.

3b. Transfer Files.

• At the bottom left of your desktop a list of all hard drives/partitions, USB Drives, and Optical Drives are listed with a familiar looking hard drive icon.
• Open your old hard drive i.e. sda1
• Next, open your USB Flash Drive or External Drive. i.e. sdc or sdb1
• If you open the wrong drive, simply X out at the top right corner of the window that opens. (Just like in Windows)
• From your old hard drive, drag and drop whatever files/folders you wish to transfer to your USB Drive's Window.

For The Novice: The common path to your pictures, music, video, and documents folders is: Documents and Settings >> All Users (or each idividual name of each user. CHECK All Names!) >> Documents >> You will now see My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos.

Remember to only click once! No double clicking! Once you drag and drop your first folder, you will notice a small menu will appear giving you the option to move or copy. Choose COPY each time you drag and drop.

YOU ARE DONE!!! Simply click Menu >> Mouse Over Shutdown >> Reboot/Turn Off Computer. Be sure to plug your USB Drive into another working windows machine to verify all data is there and transferred without corruption. Congratulations!





If you're doing this to recovery from a virus or malware infection, (or even if you're not), DO NOT copy executable files (.exe, .scr. etc...) if any of these files are infected you could be copying the corruption over to any new device/computer. just copy documents, pictures, music, or videos.

Good luck with it and let us know how you get on.

[RKinner]

If the hard drive is sick and it's a Seagate you can try Seagate's Seatools.

http://www.seagate.c...000dd04090aRCRD

Run their extended test which will probably take overnight or longer. Once it finishes, if you are lucky it will tell you the drive has errors and ask you if you want to try and fix them. Say Yes.

[NOTEVER]

Thanks so much to you both for your help. The Seagate tool just would not run kept coming up with a microsoft error message so gave up on that. Tried the Puppy route and the drive eventually showed up ready to mount. Some errors when saving the data but hopefully should get the majority of stuff. A big thank you again

A friend has a laptop Toshiba HDD2H55 drive with all her photos on and its just over 2 years old but it has stopped dead. I connected it up to mount but no matter what order I connected it nothing shows in Puppy. The drive doesn't spin, no vibrations at all so I'm guessing its dead. Be grateful for any suggestions or tips on getting it to show. (Tried the freezer tip but still nothing)
Cheers

[phillpower2]

Hi NOTEVER

Glad to hear that you have have managed to retrieve some of your data and hopefully you will be able to retrieve it all, please do not attempt any further testing of the HDD until you have secured all of your data as the testing will stress the HDD and it may fail completely.

We can look at the other HDD when the present issue is resolved so as to avoid any confusion.

[NOTEVER]

All done with all data recovered thanks so much for all your help.

Can I now ask about the Toshiba drive. Still no luck using Puppy nothing I've tried seems to work.
Cheers

[phillpower2]

All done with all data recovered thanks so much for all your help.
Glad to hear it and you are welcome

Can I now ask about the Toshiba drive. Still no luck using Puppy nothing I've tried seems to work.
Cheers
What you describe in your post #4 may suggest that the HDD is mechanically/electrically dead, possibly a bad PCB which would unfortunately means that to have any chance of securing the data would require a financial outlay, however first you could try the HDD in another notebook or HDD enclosure to see if the HDD is ok and the problem lays elsewhere.

Before you do any of the above can I first ask 1: Is the HDD detected in the BIOS 2: Was the drive making any strange noises such as clicking or performing badly/slowly at any time before this happened?

There is a Toshiba HDD diagnostic tool but like before I do not suggest it is used until the data is secured.

[NOTEVER]

I have tried it in a different laptop, then in an enclosure and also via a usb/sata cable but nothing. Not showing in BIOS and no noticeable problems prior to this
Cheers

[phillpower2]

This does sound like the PCB is bad and the only options are to have it replaced http://www.harddrive...pcb-repair.html or use a data recovery service http://www.salvagedata.com/ both are expensive and results are not 100% guaranteed, sorry but I cannot suggest anything further.

[NOTEVER]

Thanks again, at least I know. Extremely grateful for all your help
Cheers

[phillpower2]

You are welcome and I am sorry I am not able to suggest anything further.