Can't Access HD in Windows

Hello all,

I'm in the process of piecing together a computer for a friend. His current rig, like 3-4 years old, is showing its age. Plus, on top of that, his Hard Drive is really going up....or went up. :(

He was in the process of burning his pictures to some CDs when his computer more or less stopped responding. It wouldn't even boot into Safe Mode. So, desperate for a new setup, he brought everything to me.

I took his HD and put it in my system as a slave. While it's recognized in BIOS, Windows won't detect a thing. :confused: All I'm trying to do is get the pictures off the HD and then trash it - more or less.

Any thoughts on why Windows won't detect it?

I'm not sure if there's an oversight on my part of it it's just because it's going up, (or went up). Also, is there some sort of trick to revive a HD - even if just temporarily?

- Thanks for any help

Once a hard drive is no longer recognized in Windows, the possibility of recovering data is slim.

I use a program we got at work that can recover the raw data from a drive even if the BIOS won't see the drive.

You need to look in Disk Management (DISKMGMT.MSC). Disk Management is well hidden. The easiest way to get to it and other consoles is to right-click My Computer and select "Manage".

Here, you can import a drive, partition, format and reletter it. You *may* need to delete the partition and then recreate it, but just try assigning a letter.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_management.htm


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Dang. That's what I thought... :(

I heard somewhere, perhaps some technical urban legend, that you could put a HD in your freezer and then get it to work - temporarily. Yeah...I think I just showed my PC knowledge right there. :rolleyes:

The program you use, is it something available online that might have a trial? If not, I'll give him the bad news. But I think at this point, he wasn't expecting to be able to retrieve them anyway.

[faint voice overheard in the background] should have backed up your data [/faint voice].

People don't believe in antivirus programs and backups until they totally screw the pooch and lose everything. Learning by experience is really costly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BipolarBill

People don't believe in antivirus programs and backups until they totally screw the pooch and lose everything. Learning by experience is really costly.

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100% agree! When I got my first DVD Burner, I bought a spindle of 10 blank DVDs. I think I used something like 7 or 8 of them up the first night or so just backing some stuff up. In his case, it really sucks to loose data but especially pictures. Seeing as how there are companies out there that might be able to get this stuff off his HD, I'm just going to give him the HD back. If he gets the desire and has the funds, he can always try a last ditch effort to get his photos. Still, because he didn't take the time to back it up in the first place, he's going to have to go through all that hassle and money to get it now...if he wants it.

All that aside, I think we posted at roughly the same time before. But, I did do what you said with the Disk Management feature. Unfortunately, there's nothing there except my HD and my optical drives.

I gave it an honest effort. Sucks for him, but at least he learned an important lesson. (Worst thing is, this is the second time something like this happened. Dense? :cool: ).

Thanks though! :t

I can look at the drive and see if I can get the data off, but it will cost $30 per hour. If the data is too far gone, there is no charge.

The freezer thing is hit and miss, I have tried it twice. Once it worked, once it didnt. 50/50. Depends on the drives reason for failing im sure.

There are professional data recovery services out there. Try searching on "HDD data recovery service". I used one to recover a blown system drive about ten years ago and I got back 100% of my data.