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External HDD "Disk Not Formatted"

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4 replies

by ernsting

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I have a hdd taken from a dead laptop. I am trying to reover the data from the hard drive by attaching a USB to IDE cable. When attached to my desktop computer, it sees the laptop's hard drive in "My Computer" but when I try to explore the drive I get an error box "Disk Not formatted" "Do you want to formatt?" Of course I click NO.

Why does it say not formatted? It shows up in Disk Management, but with no info in the File System Column, status is healthy.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

4 replies

by rob miners

big is the drive? It may require power.

I have found that the little adapter that connects the HD to IDE with Power works better with larger drives.

by ernsting

Problem solved. I got another usb to ide connection via a "hard drive" enclosure and instantly the hard drive was readable.

So I got a bad and cheap USB to IDE cabel and it obviously didn't work.

It works great now connected via USB and I'm able to retrieve the "lost" files:)

Thanks for the suggestion on power anyway!

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