USB Hard Drive

[Jfrizzle]

I know we all have more than likely experienced this problem some way or another but a member of staff has passed on a Western Digital USB Hard Drive which although is recognized by pc will not assign a drive letter to enable access to her files.
This is the second drive this has happened to of hers and the first she pretty much wrote off the work on it but is desperate for information of this one. Other than sending away to data recovery experts anyone have any hints or tips to help?

[ozzy]

Will the drive come out of the enclosure? if so you could try and put it into a computer as a slave and see if it is visible

[Nixphoe]

Did you check disk management? I've seen a usb hard drive put a drive letter to one that gets mapped by a network drive. Just change the drive letter in disk management and that fixed it.
Other than that, like ozzy said, you'll need to take the drive out and manually connect it to recover any data

[Chunky]

My usual answer: Spinrite

Home of Gibson Research Corporation



Chunks

[Jfrizzle]

I have removed the drive from the enclosure but it is neither sata or ide! i have nothing that would plug it into / onto a motherboard at all. Seems to be specially made in some way for Western Digital must say its the first one i've seen like this. Its pretty much just five pins showing with a mini usb socket

[CPLTD]

I have removed the drive from the enclosure but it is neither sata or ide! i have nothing that would plug it into / onto a motherboard at all. Seems to be specially made in some way for Western Digital must say its the first one i've seen like this. Its pretty much just five pins showing with a mini usb socket

neither SATA or IDE ? can you take a photo of it

[mac_shinobi]

I have removed the drive from the enclosure but it is neither sata or ide! i have nothing that would plug it into / onto a motherboard at all. Seems to be specially made in some way for Western Digital must say its the first one i've seen like this. Its pretty much just five pins showing with a mini usb socket

Sounds like you have taken the hard drive out and its still got the connector / convertor cable attached

[Jfrizzle]

No there is no adaptor attatch as such for me to remove! i'll post a pic of it as i'm rubbish at explaining these things
Oh and i'm trying spinrite right now and it tells me InitDiskError reading partition table drive 01 i'm gonna assume this is not a good thing!

[Chunky]

No there is no adaptor attatch as such for me to remove! i'll post a pic of it as i'm rubbish at explaining these things
Oh and i'm trying spinrite right now and it tells me InitDiskError reading partition table drive 01 i'm gonna assume this is not a good thing!

Keep us updated. (after running in current mode, try level 4 or 5)

Don't forget he offers the 100% money back guarantee, if you're not happy.

Chunks

[s88urd]

if you download a utility called stella phoenix, its a data recovry software and as part of the trial it will show you what can be recovered, from there onwards you can see if it is feesiable to pay for the full product.
I have had this working on USB drives which windows 'sees' but doesnt allocate necessary drive letters to

http://www.stellarinfo.com/

[elsiegee40]

Did you check disk management? I've seen a usb hard drive put a drive letter to one that gets mapped by a network drive. Just change the drive letter in disk management and that fixed it.
Other than that, like ozzy said, you'll need to take the drive out and manually connect it to recover any data

If drive letter assignment is a problem, USB drive letter manager - USBDLM might sort your problem

[Michael]

I would agree with previous comments, have a look under Disk Management (as an administrator) to see what's happening and whether the drive is being recognised.

Depending on the age of the drive it will be either IDE or SATA, but most probably with a special adapter attached to the front. Never quite understood why hardware manufacturers do this, nothing is actually gained.

Usually by unscrewing the small cage/bay the 2.5" hard drive is attached to will allow you to remove the adapter on the front revealing its real identity; IDE or SATA

[bossman]

@Jfrizzle:

I have 2 of these drives and they come with lifetime guarantee as long as they have been registered on the western digital site.
I would presume thay have been mishandled as I have had mine 5 years at least and they are still going strong.

I have used Ontrack easy recovery pro on HDDs in the past and it has given a good account of itself.

File Recovery Software - File Repair - Easy Recovery - Ontrack Data Recovery

Good luck