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Need help getting data off a bad HD

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by adammace04

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I have 2 320 GB hard drives that are dead, but i need the data off of them. When i plug them into a different computer, the comp. recognizes them, but if i go to my computer to try to access the drive they're nowhere to be found. i checked the drivers and according to the hardware profiles, the drive is installed. If anyone can help me with this problem that would be great.

8 replies

by the scummy one

the partition or formatting of the drives.
I have found in these cases to plug them into a USB adapter and boot them to a Linux box, 9 out of 10 times I can recover the data.

by adammace04

thats exactly right. as it turns out the drives were formatted by a Linux OS. problem is, i have not linux box to plug the drives into.

by Former member

booting with a Linux live CD. I recommend either Backtrack 3 in forensics mode from a USB stick, or else Knoppix > 5.1

by ic-it

to try and assign a drive letter. One way to access DM - Right-click My Computer, Select Manage, if necessary expand Storage, Open Disk Management. Then Right-Click on the partition(s) and Assign a drive letter.

Question - What makes you believe the drives are dead?

by adammace04

Thanks for your input, I found a program that allows windows to read ex2 drives.

http://www.fs-driver.org/

one of the drives is toast and had valuable information on it so i'll be taking it to a lab

by drsmith

Knoppix Linux is a great CD / DVD based OS and you can actually Burn CD's while using it. it has saved me PAINSTAKING hours work of work. it takes a bit to get used to but i'm dying for the day that MS Windows puts in 4 desktops :).

i think Knoppix linux will probably work for your given solution download the newest version and its pretty much rest assured to work on the system. i've even used it on a 8 year old computer of a customer and was able to retrieve her information for her.

i think ALL IT professionals should atleast give it a shot before the old reformating happens.

by arunforall2003

if let say in other systems u can access the drive, but only cant in ur sys, first of all u have to check all the hardwares that r connected to ur system (like sound card, ethernet card, monitor card etc...) is sloted in properly. not the hardware profile. if 1 of the hardware is not connected proper, also can cause undetection. u better plug out all the hardwares inside ur cpu and replace back in good manner and try again. i think this information will be useful for u. tq.

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