Trying to recover a disk and need some help

JohnnyOldBoy

JohnnyOldBoy

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I have broken Samsung notebook, won't boot.

I took the disk out and connected it to my big PC, using a spare electrical and sata conntor, hoping to copy the photographs to the big PC.

The big PC can see the Samsung disk in the device manager but not in My Computer. The disk in the big PC is c:/ and I guess the Samsung disk is c:/ as well. Is this the reason it does not appear in My Computer ? Can I rename it somehow ?

I tried using the Samsung disk to boot big PC and it did not work.

Any ideas or suggestions ?
 
Change the jumpers on th hard drive to slave and not master.

Disconnect the main PC hard drive old hard drive will still boot less all the drivers then save to USB.

Buy a portable HD caddy and plug in via USB.

Either one of them should work.
 
dsb79 said:
Change the jumpers on th hard drive to slave and not master.

Disconnect the main PC hard drive old hard drive will still boot less all the drivers then save to USB.

Buy a portable HD caddy and plug in via USB.

Either one of them should work.
Click to expand...

dsb79, when I tried to boot the big pc using the Samsung disc it froze and asked me to insert a boot disk. I don't have one of those.

I will look in the caddy solution
John
 
Have done this many times

Just pop a laptop (Pata or Sata) hard disk into an external USB drive caddy and it can normally be read.
No need to worry about master, slave, jumpers or anything like that.
If drive is suspect, pop it in a polythene bag and then into freezer for a couple of hours. It usually works for about 30 mins afterwards till it warms up.
Myke
 
Myke Rocks said:
Just pop a laptop (Pata or Sata) hard disk into an external USB drive caddy and it can normally be read.
No need to worry about master, slave, jumpers or anything like that.
If drive is suspect, pop it in a polythene bag and then into freezer for a couple of hours. It usually works for about 30 mins afterwards till it warms up.
Myke
Click to expand...

Myke, I am going to try that now.
 
There wouldn't be drive select pins on a Sata drive. (only PATA). Is it on a different SATA lead?

It probably wont boot as it also has a Master Boot record on the drive and is causing issues. Assuming it isn't locked to hardware by some means you should be able to see if the low level parts of the drive are working by doing the following.

1. Load up Hardware Configuration tool (Computer manager) under Control panel -> Admin tools
2. Find the drives section and see if it is registered there, it may show a number of partitions (some will be recovery etc), The biggest one is the one where your data should be
3. Select that partition and then go to properties, check that it has been issued a drive letter (so you can view it in My Computer).
 
DollyRocket said:
There wouldn't be drive select pins on a Sata drive. (only PATA). Is it on a different SATA lead?

It probably wont boot as it also has a Master Boot record on the drive and is causing issues. Assuming it isn't locked to hardware by some means you should be able to see if the low level parts of the drive are working by doing the following.

1. Load up Hardware Configuration tool (Computer manager) under Control panel -> Admin tools
2. Find the drives section and see if it is registered there, it may show a number of partitions (some will be recovery etc), The biggest one is the one where your data should be
3. Select that partition and then go to properties, check that it has been issued a drive letter (so you can view it in My Computer).
Click to expand...

DollyRocket do you mean Device Manager ? I am on Windows 7
 
JohnnyOldBoy said:
DollyRocket do you mean Device Manager ? I am on Windows 7
Click to expand...

From Control Panel/System and Security/Administrative Tools - go into Computer Management.

Select/Expand Storage/Disk Management

Is there something other than "Disk 0" shown - if so, does it have a "Drive Letter" - if not - Right Mouse Click on the (e.g.) Disk 1 Partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths - give it a drive letter e.g. (M: ) - then it should appear in Windows/File Explorer and you should be able to access M:\Users\blah\Pictures etc
 
Myke Rocks said:
Just pop a laptop (Pata or Sata) hard disk into an external USB drive caddy and it can normally be read.
Click to expand...
Done this few times too, get USB caddy off ebay for around £5. Handy to have and you can use it as external HD if you have spare drive lying around
 
Clive said:
From Control Panel/System and Security/Administrative Tools - go into Computer Management.

Select/Expand Storage/Disk Management

Is there something other than "Disk 0" shown - if so, does it have a "Drive Letter" - if not - Right Mouse Click on the (e.g.) Disk 1 Partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths - give it a drive letter e.g. (M: ) - then it should appear in Windows/File Explorer and you should be able to access M:\Users\blah\Pictures etc
Click to expand...

Thanks Clive. Tried this and found the disk has nothing on it. I selected the disk and the option to Change Drive Letter and Paths was not available. I guess the disk is knackered.

Thanks any way.
 
If you can see the drive in windows, and the drives now empty, That does not mean the drives knackered.

I would say get you hands on some UNDELETE software, and at least examine the drive before you write it off.

Heres a link to one, (Please note ive note tested this, and you use at your own risk) http://download.cnet.com/FreeUndelete/3000-2248_4-10495642.html

Im sure if you hunt, you will find other freebies that will do the same job.

Al
 
Doesn't linux get around the problem, to a degree?

I've only tried it once, years ago, but managed to 'see' some lost directories with a Ubuntu bootable cd.

I don't know enough about it to recommend it, but I'm sure others will know :nenau
 
Fanum said:
Doesn't linux get around the problem, to a degree?

I've only tried it once, years ago, but managed to 'see' some lost directories with a Ubuntu bootable cd.
Click to expand...
Yes I've done this too installing Ubuntu as a dual boot with a Windows installation that had gone bad. All the directories were there and could see all files... music, photos etc.
Tried it again recently using Ubuntu live CD but couldn't mount USB drive to get the files off, but once again everything was there. In the second case couldn't install Ubuntu as dual boot as installation wouldn't partition the drive (think because swap file is at end of partition...) But it would be worth a go as last resort - you may be lucky.
You can run Ubuntu from CD drive after burning image from download.
 
Just check;

Popell said:
I guess that the MasterBootRecord (MBR) is corrupt.
I would search on something to rebuild the MBR:nenau
Click to expand...
Is the hard drive a Western Digital?
Maybe I have just been unlucky, but the 5 western Digital drives I have bought all failed with Master Boot Record Failures.
Nowadays I buy Samsung. Never had a failure.
Myke
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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