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    Can't access data on a 7-year old hard drive

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by techman41973, Nov 22, 2011.

  1. techman41973

    techman41973 Notebook Consultant

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    A friend has a 7-year old desktop computer that just fried. He had 2 3.5" hard drives inside and want's to get the data off of the 2nd IDE drive that was set as a slave in his Desktop.

    So he bought an external hard drive enclosure and set the drive to Master mode (as instructed) by switching the location of the jumper. He then connected the drive inside the enclosure as instructed. But when connecting the USB enclosure (with drive) to a PC, the PC recognizes the USB enclosure interface, but the drive doesn't come up in Windows Explorer and he can't get access to his files.
    When he put a different hard drive in the enclosure, everything worked fine, so it's clear that there is something wrong with the hard drive - not the enclosure and USB interface.

    Is there anything I can do to get the data off of this IDE hard drive WITHOUT having him ship it to some expensive service that will read the data physically off of the platters? Or is it hopeless at this point
     
    techman41973, Nov 22, 2011
    #1
  2. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    He is using external power, correct, to power the drive?

    I would try to read it with no jumpers on it at all too. I don't think they're needed or even wanted in a USB enclosure.

    Good luck.
     
    tilleroftheearth, Nov 22, 2011
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  3. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

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    The best case scenario is that there is some incompatibility between that drive and the drive enclosure.

    Is that drive readable using ANY kind of connection method? Can he hook it up into another IDE drive enclosure, or directly to an IDE cable going to a computer, and read from that drive?

    If yes, then get a different drive enclosure (or take that opportunity when the drive is readable, and just get that data off that drive however you can).

    If no, check whether you can go into Computer Management --> Disk Management, and see the drive there?

    If no, or if the drive shows up as "Unpartitioned" or "Unallocated", then the drive is gone. That is not surprising for a 7-year old mechanical HDD.
     
    kent1146, Nov 22, 2011
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  4. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    Do you hear any clicking noises? If yes, you need physical damage cleanroom recovery (aka 1000+). If the drive does not click but locks up your computer, then it has a hosed file system and Windows locks up trying to read it, aka logical recovery (400-700, depending on the place you go to).

    Does it show up in disk management?
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Nov 23, 2011
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  5. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    please post the drive make/model here so we can help verify the correct jumper settings for the drive.

    what OS (and filesystem) was originally running the drive in question?
     
    newsposter, Nov 23, 2011
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  6. whitrzac

    whitrzac The orange end is cold...

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    If it clicks, you can try freezing it also...
     
    whitrzac, Nov 23, 2011
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  7. techman41973

    techman41973 Notebook Consultant

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    These are all great idea. Thanks
    I'm going to start by removing the jumper entirely
    and to also see if I can see the drive in the disk management utility for Windows 7.
     
    techman41973, Nov 23, 2011
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  8. User Retired 2

    User Retired 2 Notebook Nobel Laureate NBR Reviewer

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    If you've only plugged the enclosure into a single USB port then it's likely not going to give the drive enough power to spin it up, resulting in click-click noises when it tries. The fix is to use either a USB Y cable to draw power from 2xUSB ports or an external AC adapter.
     
    User Retired 2, Nov 23, 2011
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  9. techman41973

    techman41973 Notebook Consultant

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    I am certainly using an AC adapter, the drive spins fine

     
    techman41973, Nov 23, 2011
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  10. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    If the drive is spinning OK, then it's probably an incompatibility with the enclosure.
     
    saturnotaku, Nov 23, 2011
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  11. techman41973

    techman41973 Notebook Consultant

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    I tried two separate PATA/IDE enclosures. Same problem. Other drives I put inside these enclosures worked fine. I'm certain that the drive is PATA/IDE
    I will try tomorrow when my friend comes over to remove the jumper entirely and also to see if the drive comes up in disc management.
    There isn't much else I can do otherwise.
    Thanks
     
    techman41973, Nov 23, 2011
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  12. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    drive make/model......

    without the tech specs, any advice you get here will be uninformed speculation.
     
    newsposter, Nov 23, 2011
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  13. techman41973

    techman41973 Notebook Consultant

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    As soon as I get a hold of the drive again, I will post specs from the label
     
    techman41973, Nov 23, 2011
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  14. techman41973

    techman41973 Notebook Consultant

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    As advised here, I opened up the disk management utillity in Windows 7 - with the internal hard drive connected via a IDE/USB conversion box.
    Windows Disk Management has the drive listed as "Invalid" and "Dynamic".
    I'm wondering if there is a way to convert a dynamic drive back into a basic drive without data loss. I found a utility that says it can do this, but the function never appeared in the application.

    Here is the model information on the drive that I took off the label

    maxtor ST M3320620A
    P/N 9DP04G-326
    320GB PATA
    6A320Y0

    Thanks again to everyone for your help
     
    techman41973, Nov 26, 2011
    #14