I am interested in what to do at this point. I would like to retrieve the data on my external hard drive if possible and would like any suggestions. As far as I understand it, you have to be able to READ the disk letter to be able to do anything in any disk recovery type program, correct?
ok. So I have tried all the basic things :
a.) tried different usb ports.
b.) tried it on several different pc's
c.) tried taking it out of the external enclosure and plugged directly into the power from my desktop's motherboard, (however it is an older ATA and my current desktop does not have any ATA data ports (just power) so I still have it connected through the ATA-->USB plug)
In cmd/diskpart typing listdisk shows 3 drives. '0' being my os main drive, '1' my secondary, and '2' (the external usb). Disk '2' lists size=0 free while the other drives show their size. (and are working). So I realize it cannot read it for some reason.
Pressing windowkey + x then selecting 'Disk Management' i get an initialize disk dialog box which says :
"You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.
Select Disks:
[x] Disk 2
Use the following partition style for the selected disks:
( ) MBR
( ) GPT
Note : The GPT partition style is not recognized by all previous versions of windows.
[ O K ] [ C A N C E L ]"
Upon selecting GPT it says 'The device is not convertible because the size is less than the minimum required size.'
Selecting MBR says 'The device is not ready.'
sooo... it cannot access the drive, but it still sees it? What do I do at this point to try to recover the data? I recall reading that you can do a bootable third party program which will still read the drive and can clone it bit by bit to a fresh formatted drive without needing to load an os, and that it takes a long time, days, etc. What is the next step to try? appreciate any ideas, thanks.
ok. So I have tried all the basic things :
a.) tried different usb ports.
b.) tried it on several different pc's
c.) tried taking it out of the external enclosure and plugged directly into the power from my desktop's motherboard, (however it is an older ATA and my current desktop does not have any ATA data ports (just power) so I still have it connected through the ATA-->USB plug)
In cmd/diskpart typing listdisk shows 3 drives. '0' being my os main drive, '1' my secondary, and '2' (the external usb). Disk '2' lists size=0 free while the other drives show their size. (and are working). So I realize it cannot read it for some reason.
Pressing windowkey + x then selecting 'Disk Management' i get an initialize disk dialog box which says :
"You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.
Select Disks:
[x] Disk 2
Use the following partition style for the selected disks:
( ) MBR
( ) GPT
Note : The GPT partition style is not recognized by all previous versions of windows.
[ O K ] [ C A N C E L ]"
Upon selecting GPT it says 'The device is not convertible because the size is less than the minimum required size.'
Selecting MBR says 'The device is not ready.'
sooo... it cannot access the drive, but it still sees it? What do I do at this point to try to recover the data? I recall reading that you can do a bootable third party program which will still read the drive and can clone it bit by bit to a fresh formatted drive without needing to load an os, and that it takes a long time, days, etc. What is the next step to try? appreciate any ideas, thanks.
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