New Help Recovering Data From Old IDE Drives

I installed a new sata 1T hhd on a friend's computer ... I was unable to get any of the data from the IDE drives onto the new drive. For some reason the computer would crash. I was using a PCIe to IDE adapter to hook up the drives. The computer didn't see them at first, and when it finally did, I couldn't access the files. The computer would crash and how to do repairs when I tried to open the files on one. On the other, the drive has become corrupt. Windows could see it but wanted to format it before opening it. I MUST get the data from those drives.

I purchase this adapter in the hope of recovering the data that way. I got it today and hooked it up. I plugged it into the USB port on the mobo and I have the P/S hooked up to the IDE drive. I am running Windows 7 64bit. Apparently there are two drivers needed. It installed the ÜSB Mass Storage Device" but it didn't install a driver for a ST31001 1 A USB Device. I got a message "device unplugged"... I don't understand that because it is plugged in.
:confused How do I get the driver that is needed? How do I get the adapter to work properly??
Losing this data is not an option. Please help me with this if you know how. Thanks for reading my post.

 

Does the IDE drive have Windows (7 or above) installed on it? Get a Linux live CD and boot from it, it will bypass any Windows security when copying the files.
IDK why it would crash.. might have some other issues there...maybe just the PCI adapter.
http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
http://www.pclinuxos.com/get-pclinuxos/lxde/

Have the USB adapter plugged in and powered up, boot from one of those CDs, select Live / Demo, then try to open the drives and copy the data.

If you still get the message the drive is not formatted, I have something for that on my other PC, might get back to you on that.

 

I have the Linix Live ... I used that but when it booted up the only thing it showed is the 1T sata drive with the OS. It doesn't show the IDE drive that is hooked up through the USB adapter. The IDE drives do not have windows installed on them. The computer locks up and crashes because it doesn't have the ST31001 1A USB Device driver windows wants and so far I haven't been able to locate one.:confused

 

What is the computer or MOBO you're using here?

Try Linux and the PCI - IDE card?
Most of the USB to IDE/Sata adapters I have ever used with Win 7 never needed a driver installed, the OS had it.
When you plug the drives into the IDE card are you fixing the jumpers?

As for the drive that 'needs to be formatted' look at this
http://www.partitionwizard.com/help/change-partition-type-id.html
Last time I had a drive do that the ID was wrong, changing it with minitool fixed it.

 

Okay this what I did ... I took the USB IDE adapter and hooked it up to my computer. It worked fine ... I have no idea what it works on mine and not my friends. I was able to copy the data off one of the drives by using teamviewer. The other IDE drive with more data was a problem. I had to use a recovery tool.

Anyone know how to use the active partition recovery tool? It was able to show me the lost files and partitions, but when I tried to do a recovery ... under the recover volume in place tab ...

"Not ready for recovery ...
Reason: Disk has not been initialized. Either MBR is missing or corrupted on the disk.
Action:You can try to fix MBR (execute related command from Partition menu). It will erase existing partition records (if any), however you can scan, detect and recover lost partitions later on."

I don' see anything in the tool that will do that. I tried a couple of other tools (BCD and bootice) and I don't see a way to fix the MBR on what windows is calling the H drive.

I'm trying to do a recover volume in place recovery because I don't have a drive to store the data on. That option gives me the option of recovery.

 

I checked the support section of the active website and it states that there is a fix MBR command under tools, but there is nothing like that listed in the version I have which is 14.1.9. I don't understand that.:confused

 

Well sir ... I ordered a USB flash drive and I am now able to recover the data using the Active Partition Recovery tool. The data is now being transferred to the new hard drive.

Still having glitches with the computer locking up sometimes. I checked to see if I could update the bios, but when I tried it stated the 64 bit Win7 was not compatible, which couldn't be true since I got the file from the Gigabyte website for the GA-M68MT-S2 REV:3.1 mobo with 64 bit for the OS. I installed all the drivers with the exception of the audio driver. At least when it does lock up and I have to reboot it, the OS isn't damage and not prompting to repair.