Recover Data from Boot Drive using External USB Enclosure

digitalcaptive · 02-17-2008, 05:38 AM

Yesterday my old desktop pc died while I was using it. I think the motherboard fried, because I heard/saw a loud "spark". Anyway, after that I couldn't turn the computer back on. Not that I cared because I'm not interested in repairing it.

I just need some data off of the old pc's boot drive. Simple enough, I thought. Just switch the jumpers on the HDD, make it a slave, and connect it to an external usb and copy the data right?

PROBLEM. The drive will "mount", but when I try to access it as a USB Mass Storage Device, I will get a prompt that the drive needs to be formatted. When I run chkdsk from dos on the HDD, I get the following:

"The Type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is System.

and then a whole bunch of "corrupt attribute list entries", etc."

I've been able to connect other hard drives from the computer using the external enclosure, I just can't this one to work.

What's going on here? What can I do to get access to the data?

It's a Samsung drive in NTFS and the OS that I had it on it was Windows XP Home...

The computer that I've attached the drive as a external HDD is running Windows XP Pro (with its C drive using the FAT32).

Thanks,
DC

**Deleted090308** · 02-17-2008, 10:13 AM

Hi, welcome to TSF.

The normal setting for an IDE drive mounted in an external enclosure is "master".

Download the Windows version of TestDisk.
( direct download link)
Unzip the downloaded file to your C: drive.
Open C:\testdisk-6.8\win > double click the "testdisk_win" icon.

The program runs in a command window and doesn't have to be installed.

Each of the steps (A, B, C etc) below corresponds to a new TestDisk window.
Use the keyboard's arrow keys to navigate.

A. At the first window, select “No Log” and press the <Enter> key.
B. Select which drive to analyse, choose “Proceed” and <Enter>.
C. Select partition type – Intel if it’s a PC then <Enter>.
D. Choose Advanced > press <Enter>.
E. Choose Boot > press <Enter>.

New window:
If the boot sector and the backup boot sector are identical >>
>> restart TestDisk and proceed with this: http://www.techsupportforum.com/cont...icles/149.html

If the boot sectors are not identical (or one of them is "not OK"):
Post a screenshot of the "boot window".

How to post a screenshot.

02-17-2008, 05:38 AM	#1 (permalink)
digitalcaptive Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1 OS: WinXP Pro	Recover Data from Boot Drive using External USB Enclosure Yesterday my old desktop pc died while I was using it. I think the motherboard fried, because I heard/saw a loud "spark". Anyway, after that I couldn't turn the computer back on. Not that I cared because I'm not interested in repairing it. I just need some data off of the old pc's boot drive. Simple enough, I thought. Just switch the jumpers on the HDD, make it a slave, and connect it to an external usb and copy the data right? PROBLEM. The drive will "mount", but when I try to access it as a USB Mass Storage Device, I will get a prompt that the drive needs to be formatted. When I run chkdsk from dos on the HDD, I get the following: "The Type of the file system is NTFS. Volume label is System. and then a whole bunch of "corrupt attribute list entries", etc." I've been able to connect other hard drives from the computer using the external enclosure, I just can't this one to work. What's going on here? What can I do to get access to the data? It's a Samsung drive in NTFS and the OS that I had it on it was Windows XP Home... The computer that I've attached the drive as a external HDD is running Windows XP Pro (with its C drive using the FAT32). Thanks, DC

02-17-2008, 10:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
Deleted090308 Not... Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 22,277 OS: Xp	Re: Recover Data from Boot Drive using External USB Enclosure Hi, welcome to TSF. The normal setting for an IDE drive mounted in an external enclosure is "master". Download the Windows version of TestDisk. ( direct download link) Unzip the downloaded file to your C: drive. Open C:\testdisk-6.8\win > double click the "testdisk_win" icon. The program runs in a command window and doesn't have to be installed. Each of the steps (A, B, C etc) below corresponds to a new TestDisk window. Use the keyboard's arrow keys to navigate. A. At the first window, select “No Log” and press the <Enter> key. B. Select which drive to analyse, choose “Proceed” and <Enter>. C. Select partition type – Intel if it’s a PC then <Enter>. D. Choose Advanced > press <Enter>. E. Choose Boot > press <Enter>. New window: If the boot sector and the backup boot sector are identical >> >> restart TestDisk and proceed with this: http://www.techsupportforum.com/cont...icles/149.html If the boot sectors are not identical (or one of them is "not OK"): Post a screenshot of the "boot window". How to post a screenshot. Last edited by Deleted090308; 02-17-2008 at 10:14 AM.