How to restore data off of drive that doesn't show up in my computer?

Question

Hi. I have a 60GB laptop hard drive that I've taken out of the laptop and connected via USB. This drive will no longer show up in my computer, but is still recognized under device manager and also in select data recovery programs. No matter what I do or what programs I try (programs that are actually able to detect the presence of the drive), I can't seem to recover any of my data.

All I would like to do is to be able to recover my photos from off of that drive. Does anyone have any suggestions? I've tried many many different programs and with no success.

Depending on which program I use, sometimes I get a read error, other times I get an error stating that there is no partition. Please help. Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello:



I'm not exactly sure if you connected it properly with the device.. Did you match up the type (IDE or SATA)? I would suggest you use a device known as an IDE/SATA to USB Adapter (google 'BT-300 topmicrousa"). This device can help you access the files directly. Just get into the hard drive, navigate to the files, copy and paste or drag and drop.



Best of luck.

Answer 2

Assign it a drive letter in the Disk Manager. You can get to the Disk Manager by typing 'diskmgmt.msc' in the Run bar. If you cannot assign it a drive letter in the desk manager because you cannot find the partitions or the disk manager cannot read them, then you will be unable to see the drive normally and will have to manage it entirely with recovery tools.

Answer 3

U must try sum other software also sometimes there are situations where a particular software doesn't work but other can recover ur data intact. I hav personally used one such gud software u can also get it free from http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Kernel-FAT-and-NTFS.shtml

There in no need to worry in the situation as, you might be worrying about the data is the data safe or not the data is safe even if it is formatted the data is there in the hard drive and its not been deleted. you just need to read the software manual and see data being recovered.

Answer 4

You can try Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software.

http://www.partitionrecovery-software.com

http://www.file-data-recovery.com

Answer 5

I would try booting with a Linux disk first. Windows can be stubborn about mounting a drive that Linux will mount.



If that doesn't work - and the drive is recognizable in the BIOS - use TestDisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk to recover the partition itself, then use PhotoRec http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec to recover the files.



If the BIOS doesn't recognize the drive the computer won't be able to use it.