- Aug 12, 2009
- 13
- 0
- 18,510
My daughters previously working Windows 7 laptop will not startup. She did not accidently delete any files or perform a reformat. Everything was fine and then it just wouldn’t start. My daughter’s in school, and has research work and notes on the drive that are important to her. So I’ve gone through the following steps:
1) Replaced both the laptop battery and also the A/C Adapter (since already had spares on hand). Let charge awhile – lights look right but nothing different happens.
2) Removed suspect SATA hard drive from laptop and mounted internally in an open Windows 7 desktop. The drive spins very quietly (can detect with finger tips), but Windows 7 explorer doesn’t see it.
3) Mounted the suspect SATA hard drive into USB rig and attached as an external USB drive to same desktop. Desktop always detected the USB being attached, and sometimes Windows 7 explorer showed a new drive, but usually didn’t. When it did, the drive would not expand to show any contained folders or files. Once it offered to reformat (I did NOT of course). “Properties” showed no size.
4) Attached the drive still setup in the same USB rig to a Windows 10 laptop. Windows 10 explorer detects and even correctly recognizes the drive itself. But will not expand to show contained folders or files, and “Properties” still shows no size.
From the ads, it seem most all “recovery” tools are solutions for an accidental deletion, reformatting, or premature removal of a USB device. I’m not so sure that a hardware created corruption requires the same solution. Can someone can suggest a good recovery software download that would be safe for me to try? I’d very much appreciate
1) Replaced both the laptop battery and also the A/C Adapter (since already had spares on hand). Let charge awhile – lights look right but nothing different happens.
2) Removed suspect SATA hard drive from laptop and mounted internally in an open Windows 7 desktop. The drive spins very quietly (can detect with finger tips), but Windows 7 explorer doesn’t see it.
3) Mounted the suspect SATA hard drive into USB rig and attached as an external USB drive to same desktop. Desktop always detected the USB being attached, and sometimes Windows 7 explorer showed a new drive, but usually didn’t. When it did, the drive would not expand to show any contained folders or files. Once it offered to reformat (I did NOT of course). “Properties” showed no size.
4) Attached the drive still setup in the same USB rig to a Windows 10 laptop. Windows 10 explorer detects and even correctly recognizes the drive itself. But will not expand to show contained folders or files, and “Properties” still shows no size.
From the ads, it seem most all “recovery” tools are solutions for an accidental deletion, reformatting, or premature removal of a USB device. I’m not so sure that a hardware created corruption requires the same solution. Can someone can suggest a good recovery software download that would be safe for me to try? I’d very much appreciate
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