can't access desktop h/d

ok, now this h/d is a few years old, i'm not sure if it's good or not, but i can hear it spin in my external h/d enclosure (i remember back then, i couldn't boot the comp with it in either the master/slave combo, or cs). i wound up replacing the h/d, however i never threw it out. just recently i'm trying to access the drive (external enclosure), but i can't seem to. i've also tried using pc inspector "file recovery", but can't. what do you all think? i can see the drive in computer management --> "disk management", but i can't make it as active. i thought i had read a thread here about deleting the other partition that is there, but i'm unsure. in device manger it says it's working properly.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10511748@N06/2524087257/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10511748@N06/2524910116/

in the "disk management" pic, the drive i'm trying to access is "disk 2" formatted as fat 32. as i mentioned prior, i have no idea what that 16 mbyte "unallocated" is. oh, the os i'm using now is xp. thx, sos

 

If it is disk 2, it is active. But if your computer can't boot from USB, you won't be able to boot from it while it is in an external USB enclosure.
Can you open the drive in windows explorer?

 

doh (stupid me), i didn't notice it was active (i had to go back and look at my own screenshot i posted)!! :confused anyway, it's not listed in "my computer", and i can't access it anyway that i've tried. the only recovery s/w i've tried is "pc inspector". so, i don't know what's up (it very well could be fried), but unsure. if it were bad (i know there are alot of variables), would i see it like, that?

edit - i'm not trying to boot from it, i'm just trying to access the data that is on there (i believe it's mostly joke stuff, but don't remember, as i haven't been on that drive in over 2 years or so). - thx, sos

 

ok, i'm still having problems, with this and i haven't played with it in a while. i'm pretty sure the drive is good (i was able to partition, and save data to the 16mbyte that is shown as unallocated, and it is stable), so does anybody have any idea on s/w that might work, to actually get at the data? i do have knoppix, but i don't know what to do on there. i have ubcd, on a disk, and am gonna try and see if anything on there will work. thx, sos

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/TestDisk_&_PhotoRec_d5561.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Data_Recovery_d5336.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Partition_Find_&_Mount_d5740.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Partition_Saving_d5753.html
Try one of those.... the last one may allow you to copy the data to another drive that's healthy, and you can then rescue the data from there. Have you tried using the drive manufacturer's diagnostic/repair tool? The Hitachi fitness test works with all brands (not only Hitachi/IBM) and if problems are found, it offers to repair corrupt sectors. Have you run Windows chkdsk on the drive? If the drive assigned a drive letter, you can run chkdsk on it. Depending on the value of the data (probably not great because you lived w/o it for 2 years) you can always buy an app that will get the data: I've had good results with Easy Recovery Pro from Ontrack Software, and the folks that make the Active@BootDisc have a great product based on the Vista PE. The Active@ disc is available as a 10 day trial; I'm not sure if there's limited functionality or what, but here's a link: http://ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm You obviously want the 120mb version based on WinPE. If you read further down the page at that link, there's something about getting a free registration key.... I don't know, check it out! Even if the Active@ disc doesn't help in this particular situation, you'll find it invaluable in other situations.

[dlb]

 

Oh yeah.... the Hitachi diagnostic/repair tool is available right here at Major Geeks:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/IBM_-_Hitachi_Drive_Fitness_Test_d2828.html
That download is for an ISO image to create a bootable CD; a floppy version is available here:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/downloads/dft32_v413_b00.EXE

 

thx dlb, the thing is that it never gets assigned a letter, so it doesn't show in my computer. i can't mark the partition as active. the only thing i can do, is to delete the partition. so, this is why i'm trying to get at the data. there might be a program or two that i've paid for, but as i mentioned, i don't remember what all i have on there, besides music, and joke stuff. - sos

 

ok, well i d/l'd and ran the drive fitness test, and it passed the advanced test. i tried to run one of the programs you listed below (floppy version), but i couldn't figure it out, and it also said that it couldn't copy the partition, as it's a non-windows partition (something like that).

fyi, i had taken the h/d out of the external h/d enclosure, installed it on my other comp, and set it as a slave (for the tests above, and below).

now, i put the knoppix cd back in, and played around with it a bit, and i can access that partition. is there a way to copy the data from there, and/or delete files/folders, to make my search easier? i'll play around with some of the other programs later on, as i have time. thx, sos

edit - some of the data i'm seeing is from 11/2000 - 11/2004.

 

n/m, i figured out how to copy my data over (about 1.5 hours ago), and how to delete stuff from the old h/d. for anyone else out there following along, you have to "right click" the drive(s), and change the "read/write" mode, then you are allowed to edit the drives, i'm guessing by default it is set at "read only" mode (at least this is what i have found in my case).

at 1st i was using my thumbdrive to back up the data to, and that's where i figured out the read/write mode, as well, as unmounting the drive. - thx, sos

fyi, the 1st song that i heard, from what i i recovered was "green jelly - three little pigs"!!