Master Hard drive will not boot up or detect in bios or external USB

[markxmark]

The Hard drive is about 4+ years old, running win 7. used for Netflix, music and StarCraft 2.
Bios does not see the hard drive.
Bios does see a different HD when attached.
computer will boot up with different hard drive with different operating system using same sata and power cables.
Hard drive does spin with power.
when connecting hard drive to laptop using usb adapter and power supply. Device manager sees it as USB storage.
In "my computer" it does not see it using USB adapter.
under administrative tools / computer management / storage / disk management......... It see the HD as Disk 1, needs to be initialized before logical disk manger can access it. After hitting ok, the device is not ready pops up. right clicking on it, gives me (initialize disk, offline, properties, help)

I do need to access the HD to get a few documents.
Please help
Mark

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the TH community, Mark!

Due to the different LBA configuration of SATA internal HDDs, it's possible that you'd lose your files if you try to access it through the USB adapter. If you initialize it while plugged externally, you'd lose your files. I'd recommend you to try connecting it internally via SATA again, however, I'd try using a different SATA cable. If you have access to another computer, I'd also try plugging it there and see if it will get properly recognized. Have you tried different SATA ports on the motherboard as well, just in case?

Hope these help you. Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[markxmark]

Thank you SuperSoph_WD for your reply.
upon your advise...
I did try different SATA cables and different SATA ports. Still hard drive is not dectected in bios.
I also tried different desktop. the bios still does not recognize the hard drive.
There is not even a option for boot in safe mode.
Its almost like there is no MBR / GPT.
I believe that it might have corrupted sector.

Is there a programs out there, that can access the HD and retrieve Documents, Pictures or anything else that is important?

any help or advise is greatly appreciated.

Mark

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, Mark!

The best alternative for retrieving your data would be a professional data recovery company. The whole procedure is rarely 100 % successful, so if you have truly imporant files, I'd suggest you avoid any attempts by yourself. Unfortunately, if you cannot access it and see it anywhere (even in BIOS), I'm afraid you won't be able to fix it by yourself anyhow. 🙁
In the future, I'd advise you to always keep at least one other copy of your data stored on a different location/storage device. This is the best way to avoid the headaches of data loss.

Best of luck! Hope I was helpful.
SuperSoph_WD