Getting Data from old hard drive...Help?

[psycow87]

So a few months ago my computer crapped out on me ( I've been told it's probably the motherboard or the power supply, but I don't know much about hardware...) Unfortunately, in my great wisdom, I never backed up any of my stuff onto flash drives or cds, etc, so I've lost a lot of data that I would absolutely HATE to lose (photos from my trip to Spain and a Civ III mod that I had been working on for, like, three years...) Is there any way to get that data back? If so how? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.


As a side note, this is the first time I've ever ventured out of the Civ III C&C forum. What an adventure!

 

[Knight-Dragon]

If you have another PC, you can always swipe your hard disk over to that one and access the info stored on the hard disk fr there, provided your old hard disk is still working.

BTW, welcome to the rest of the forums.

 

[psycow87]

How hard is that to do? I do have a new computer, but its a laptop... Will that matter? Thanks for the help!

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Well, I don't know much about the innards of a notebook, so maybe someone else can reply...

 

[Abaddon]

You can get cases for your old harddrive which will turn it into a external drive, connectable via USB.

Simply then hook to lappy, and it will treat it like a very large USB pen!

 

[GoodGame]

You can even clone an installation of windows from the old hard drive to the new hard drive. If it wasn't the hard drive that failed on your old computer, then the old data should be ok. If the hard drive is relatively new, you might even install it in a replacement computer.
Edit: since you already got a new comp that is a laptop, you'll need to get an external cage for your old hard drive. Be sure to get one that has an adapter that your laptop supports (e.g. USB 2.0, Firewire, etc...)

E.g. http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=92&Tpk=external enclosure

Happy hunting. I recommend Thermaltake brand, myself.

 

[psycow87]

Great! Thanks everyone, I'll give it a shot this weekend, and hopefully don't destroy anything...

 

[lndm]

Considering you're using a laptop, it might be cheaper and/or easier to take the drive to a shop and have them put your stuff on a DVD. You could also find a friend with a desktop who's willing to let you put it in their system.

 

[psycow87]

OK, I've got my hard drive in one of those external case thingies and when I plug it into the usb on my laptop, it says that I need to format it. But doesnt that clear all of the info off of it? That kinda defeats my purpose...

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yeah, it does clear it.

I remember on my old Window 98, when I got floppy disks that weren't preformatted, it asked me to format them. probably the same thing is happening to you. I think my external portable HDD manual thingy also mentions formatting it.

EDIT: I googled it, it says a lot of external HDDs need to be formatted. For some reason, it seems your OS doesn't recognize the data on it.

ANOTHER EDIT: This person has a similar issue.

YET ANOTHER EDIT: Google is your friend

 

[psycow87]

Ah, crap. I just wasted $40, tore my old comp. up and still can't get my stuff. Well at least I know what a hard drive looks like now...

EDIT: Whoops, I didn't see your edit... I'll check it out, hopefully I can figure this mess out. Thanks!

 

[lndm]

Your problem seems to be that the cradle is configured to look at the drive in the wrong way (addressing), or the computer to the cradle.

You must not do anything with it in that configuration or you will likely lose your stuff. Configure the cradle/drive until you can read it.

Alternately there may be an incompatibility between the drive and the cradle.

 

[GoodGame]

Don't Format the drive. There is a way to get the drive to be seen by XP. I have to look it up first, cuz its not on the top of my head.

EDIT: Part of the problem may also be how the jumpers are set on the hard-drive, as well as the make of the drive. How is it set---master, cable select, etc.. and who made the drive?

EDIT: Also, can you see the hard drive under System-Device manager-Disk drives? You may not see it under My Computer, but you might see it under Device manager.

EDIT: Also try this, just to see if you can see the hard drive listed:

How to use Disk Management
To start Disk Management:
Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the view that you want to use.
NOTE: Microsoft recommends that you create a full back up of your disk contents before you make any changes to your disks or volumes.

Don't format, so you don't loose data. This is just to see if the drive is there, but having a problem.

 

[psycow87]

Part of the problem may also be how the jumpers are set on the hard-drive, as well as the make of the drive. How is it set---master, cable select, etc.. and who made the drive?

I don't really know what master/cable select/etc means... I removed the hard drive from my old PC (a 3-5ish year old Compaq Presario with Windows XP), put it into an external case (I was pretty proud of this accomplishment ), and connected it by USB to my laptop, a HP with Windows Vista. When I plugged it in, it installed the drivers and then told me that in order for me to use it, I need to format it. Of course formatting completely defeats the purpose of this little adventure, so now I'm simply frustrated and confused.

To answer your questions, I believe the hard drive was made by Samsung, and yes, I can see it both in My Computer and the Device Manager. (Thats how I confirmed that its made by Samsung: the Device Manager said something to the effect of "Samsung USB device" or something like that.

 

[lndm]

What you're saying is suggesting the computer to cradle interface may be fine. Your problem may be the the cradle to drive interface. This means you should look in the cradle manual at the section about configuring it for the drive, and configuring the drive for it.

 

[GoodGame]

Yeah that really suggests their may be a simple problem with setting the drive jumpers, or a freak model incompatibility between the controller in the enclosure and the hard-drive.

Over here: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=105&orderNum=23
& Download the jumper_en.doc Jumper settings for the Samsung, illustrated.
Like Indm says, check the enclosure instructions for proper jumper setting.

But question is the drive Pata/IDE? Or is it SATA? Ive been assuming it was IDE since it's old, but that may be a bad assumption.

PATA/IDE


SATA

 

[psycow87]

It's PATA/IDE. Some guy at Best Buy told me that since the comp. had a 64-bit processor, it also would have had a SATA hard drive. Fortunately, I don't trust a single thing that comes out of the mouths of salespeople there, so I checked into it, and lo and behold he was wrong.
As far as the "manual" for the enclosure goes, it is one small piece of paper with a few steps on it: 1)open enclosure, 2) insert and connect hard drive, 3) screw enclosure shut, 4) connect to pc via USB. Thats pretty much it. I bought lego kits when I was a kid that had better documentation than this thing. I may check out the manufacturers website tomorrow/ later today( it' 1:00ish in the morning here), but for now, I'm going to bed, because I have Spanish Lit. in 7 hours, and I'm incredibly sleepy...

 

[GoodGame]

It's PATA/IDE. Some guy at Best Buy told me that since the comp. had a 64-bit processor, it also would have had a SATA hard drive. Fortunately, I don't trust a single thing that comes out of the mouths of salespeople there, so I checked into it, and lo and behold he was wrong.
As far as the "manual" for the enclosure goes, it is one small piece of paper with a few steps on it: 1)open enclosure, 2) insert and connect hard drive, 3) screw enclosure shut, 4) connect to pc via USB. Thats pretty much it. I bought lego kits when I was a kid that had better documentation than this thing. I may check out the manufacturers website tomorrow/ later today( it' 1:00ish in the morning here), but for now, I'm going to bed, because I have Spanish Lit. in 7 hours, and I'm incredibly sleepy...

Geeksquad := Fail! I still remember paying $300 at BB for XP: PRO.

BB > Circuit city though.

It's not unreasonable to make the assumption that you mobo would have SATA if it had a newer processor, but usually one IDE is still present, at least on custom mobos.


Oh and one other thought. Is the enclosed hard drive given a fresh logical letter? E.g. if your laptop is probably at C:, does the enclosure show up as D:? It might be that you just need to go into Disk Management (I said how earlier) and change the logical letter to D:. (right click on the drive in Disk Management and the option to change the drive letter should show).

If that doesn't improve things what you ought to do:
1. double check that both the power line and the IDE cable in the enclosure are secure, and same for the USB cable (or wahtever) it uses to connect to the comp.

2. I take it that it didn't come with a installation disk, so no drivers? Usually there aren't any, but double check the box and the enclosure maker's website.

3. While there see if they have any notes regarding your particular hard drive. Especially jumper settings. If nothing else, return the enclosure for a better one (or at your own risk) try various jumper setting based on the download I posted earlier. Master, Slave, cable-select, whatever. The hard drive sticker should also have a diagram to help with figuring out the jumpers.

But anyway, I just realized you said you can see the enclosed drive in My Computer? D'Oh. If you have room, just copy the files you absolutely need to save to your laptop's c:drive. Then format the enclosure. It really shouldn't need that, since the enclosed hard drive should be observable. But if Windows says that what it wants, then it might save troubleshooting time.