External HD

Hi


Sadly as if I read correctly you cannot access the data on that drive yours, due to corruption of some sort? if getting the licence keys is what your after so some applications then in the main they should be on the original CD/DVD or the case/insert to the software hopefully, as if you couldnt access the drive from boot the software I would have suggested in Belarc or Everest will not pick up licence keys off a secondary HDD.

To recover any serial keys if the software allows this then you would need to be able to boot to that HDD.


But as to your other question then yes its possible if the drive does not have a hardare fault then you canformat it to clear it of all data and then use it again, if it was internal drive and you wish to make it an external then many external enclosures are available to buy to convert the internal drive to external.


You could use a Linux live CD to boot to to try and access your data on that drive but all you will get is data and any installers, as full installed applications will not copy and recover ok, they need to be re-installed on new PC, from scratch, but if I read right you may not have the licence keys or original downloads to do this and cannot help with recovering them, but if you have reciepts of proof of purchace then retailers of said software "may" help.