Not your average formatting of a hard drive - Tricky one!

[hardyc24]

Hello. So this site has been mega useful... but suddenly I am a bit stumped!!

I am using Windows 7 (ugh!!) and my previous XP computer recently died due to power issue. Following advice from here I purchased an Anker USB to SATA converter cable so I could transfer the files on to my new laptop. I was having trouble finding the files and was advised to change the permissions or use recovery software.... this is where the problems started.

After changing the permissions, the hard drive wouldn't open at all. It now just says "local disc".

So now I have a hard drive that switches on perfectly fine... is recognised on "My Computer" (although it says "local disc" but does absolutely nothing! I double click on the E drive - it just freezes. I right click to format the drive - it does nothing. I try to format it on disk management - it doesn't show.

All I want to do is format the drive so I can then use recovery software on it to get the files off. Is this right?? Unless anyone has any better ideas?!?! Please help agghhh

 

[PizzaTheHutt]

You shouldn't format it if you want to keep ALL of the files on there. If you can, go into command prompt and run ChkDsk on the damaged drive.

 

[hardyc24]

Do you mind explaining how I do that?
Thanks

 

[PizzaTheHutt]

This should help: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/315265 Ignore that it's for XP as it works with all editions of windows.

 

[Math Geek]

ditto on the not formatting!!! most of the stuff will saty on the drive to be recovered but not all of it. remember that files can be spread out on different parts of the drive. so what is lost when formatting might be a small piece of a lot of different files rendering them all unusable. run the chkdisk and see what it says but don't format it.

 

[PizzaTheHutt]

My thoughts exactly! Better safe than sorry OP, maybe also consider looking at the SMART data to see if the drive has developed any bad sectors.

 

[Math Geek]

here is another thought. connect the hdd directly to the computer. often when i have issues it is helped by connecting directly to the pc and not using an adapter like you are.

not saying it WILL work but for me it has been very helpful when running into these kinds of issues. i would say this has helped with maybe 60% of these types of issues.better than nothing but worth the shot.

don't worry that it has windows and such on it, your pc will boot normal and just use this second drive as pure data and won't try to boot it.

 

[PizzaTheHutt]

Good point - just ensure that your BIOS boots off your main drive and not the faulty one or there is a chance your efforts can go horribly wrong 😀

 

[Math Geek]

i actually stopped using these adapters since it seemed like they were the issue more than half the time when it would not work. i just plug them in directly all the time now. i have an older amd system that has pata support for when these older drives show up in my shop. just found the adapters to be too buggy to count on. believe me i REALLY REALLY WANT THEM TO WORK as it would be so much easier but.....

 

[jollym124]

Do not mess yourself so much if you have not idea regarding the recovery. Initially as people already explained you not to format the drive otherwise recovery would not be possible. Secondly Yes go for the recovery software they help you finding your files.You can check Company like Stellar Data Recovery which deals in this. Rest the choice is yours.