Recover data from a USB drive

Hi,

I have a problem trying to restore data from a 750 GB WD drive installed in
a USB/SATA enclosure.

The drive worked fine in my previous notebook (which died) running Vista
Business, but didn't appear in another XP machine. I don't know why.

However, when I connected it to my new notebook running Vista Home Plus,
under Disk Management it appeared as Invalid (not foreign or any other
details). I tried to convert it to a Basic disk ignoring the message that it
would delete data. Now the disk reports the correct size but appears not to
recognize the data that was on it. The only option given is to initialize
it. Surely that would completely wipe my data.

My question is: have I lost my data for good, or is there a conceivable way
to recover this disk, preferably through USB?


Thanks Thomas.

Thompson Tuckworth wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have a problem trying to restore data from a 750 GB WD drive installed
> in a USB/SATA enclosure.
>
> The drive worked fine in my previous notebook (which died) running Vista
> Business, but didn't appear in another XP machine. I don't know why.
>
> However, when I connected it to my new notebook running Vista Home Plus,
> under Disk Management it appeared as Invalid (not foreign or any other
> details). I tried to convert it to a Basic disk ignoring the message that
> it would delete data. Now the disk reports the correct size but appears
> not to recognize the data that was on it. The only option given is to
> initialize it. Surely that would completely wipe my data.
>
> My question is: have I lost my data for good, or is there a conceivable
> way to recover this disk, preferably through USB?

You probably already lost your data when you ignored the warning while
converting to a Basic Disk.

You can try running data recovery software on the drive. If you a) don't
have the skills; b) the recovery data software doesn't work; c) the data is
too crucial to even take the chance of losing - send the drive to a
professional data recovery company like Drive Savers (my preference) or
Seagate Data Recovery. General prices run from $500USD on up. Drive Savers
recovered all the data on a failed laptop drive for one of my clients and
it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the money; only you know what your
data is worth. I understand that some insurance companies are now covering
data recovery charges so check with yours.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

General information about data recovery:

If you think the drive is physically healthy, it may be possible to retrieve
the data by software methods. DO NOTHING FURTHER ON THE DRIVE. The data is
still on the hard drive but if you overwrite it, it will be extremely
difficult or impossible to recover it. If you use data recovery software,
install it on another machine and either use it from that operating system
or create a bootable cd/floppy and work with that. If you don't have the
skill and/or equipment to do these procedures and the data is crucial, take
the machine to a professional computer repair shop that has experience in
doing data recovery. This will not be your local version of BigStoreUSA.
In-shop data recovery is usually not exactly cheap (for ex., my charges are
generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs less than sending the drive
to a company like Drive Savers. You need to make the determination of the
value of your data and decide what to do.

Here are some links to various programs. I use Easy Recovery Pro, but it is
expensive. People whom I respect have recommended R-Studio and Restoration.
YMMV.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software ?Undelete? -
http://www.undelete.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
File Scavenger - http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!