How To Easily Check If Data On Hdd?

Mac20nine · Apr 16, 2020

I have a good 500GB HDD I thought had W7 and programs. Connected externally via usb to a laptop but drive does not list in Disk Management (W7). Tried booting it as the only HDD in a test bed and drive is recognized but no F8 Adv Startup options (Bios sees it). At some point I read 'not initialized', maybe connected to the test bed.

What's the easiest program for usb that will tell me if any OS & data are on the drive? All my diagnostics are on disc. Additionally, the only usb drives I have to use are pretty small: about 1GB and 256MB.

Thanks,

Mac

plodr · Apr 17, 2020

Connected externally via usb to a laptop
Click to expand...

If the 500GB drive is from a desktop computer and you connected it by a non-powered adapter, there is not enough power to allow the drive to spin up.
You need a powered IDE/SATA to USB adapter.

Tried booting it as the only HDD in a test bed and drive is recognized but no F8 Adv Startup options
Click to expand...

You are taking a drive configured with hardware from one computer and expecting it to boot up on a computer with different hardware. That rarely works.

The best thing to do is boot from a linux USB stick, plug in the external 500GB drive, after buying a powered adapter, mounting it in linux and getting files you might need from it.

foogoo · Apr 19, 2020

Using HexDen (HxD) you can look at the actual disk. https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hxd.html
Some idea of what you're looking at ..https://www.ntfs.com/ntfs-partition-boot-sector.htm

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How To Easily Check If Data On Hdd?

Mac20nine Private E-2

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