[Paolo Rossi]

Hi, My Sony DVD recorder has for no apparent reason just said my HDD needs reformatting. Turning it off overnight didn't clear the command and as I have lots of films on there I wish to save I have removed the HDD and installed it in one of my pc caddies to see if I can recover anything before refomatting the drive.

It is a Western Digital WD1600AAJS-98PSAO but although it is recognised in my pc by My Computer and everything appears to be working ok it isn't being recognised in explorer - so obviously I can't read any of the files.

I downloaded a couple of utilities from the Western Digital site, digsetup11 and WinDLG and these immediately recognised the drive and gave it a PASS suggesting everything is ok.

I have tried rebooting and uninstalling and re-installing the HDD (including directly to the motherboard) and the caddy is properly connected (it reads my other hard drives ok).

If it is being recognised by My Computer why can't I get explorer to recognise it?

Hope you can help me with this one please.

Many thanks, Paolo

 

[dai]

try taking ownership
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308421

 

[Paolo Rossi]

Thanks - I did several searchs before posting but didn't come across this one. I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[Paolo Rossi]

Hi Dai,

I tried doing as you suggested but following the instructions I just could not get the right screen up as I am dealing with an entire HD and not a file or folder. When I click on the HD details nothng happens.

Is it me doing something wrong? If not are there any other suggestions other than just biting the bullet and reformatting?

Thanks, Paolo

 

[dai]

http://www.techsupportforum.com/f16...rtition-or-files-in-your-computer-194492.html

 

[Paolo Rossi]

Thanks Dai for getting back so soon.

I have 4 hard drives in my setup at any one time - 2 x IDEs which are screwed in and 2 x SATA drives which are in Icy Box caddy drawers in the tower. - I also have 3 external IDE drives in enclosures (2 Icy Box and 1 Gericom) which although always firewire/USB connected to the pc I only use as and when required. In addition I have two other SATA drives which are in the same type of Icy Box Caddy drawers as the 2 in my tower.

When I am video editing I change one of the Icy Box tower drives (the one with my regular XP drive) for my "editing" drive which has basically just XP and my editing software. I don't have too much on this drive as I am a bit concerned about screwing up any video projects I am working on. The other Icy Box tower drive is just extra storage for video projects.

Sorry for the long answer but I thought it may help you understand my system. I have occasionally (but quite rarely) lost the second Icy Box tower caddy hard drive in Explorer when I have changed the XP discs over but usually a reboot finds it again. When testing this Sony DVD recorder (SATA) hard drive I simply put it in the other (not system obviously) Icy Box tower caddy drawer. My computer didn't find it so I rebooted a couple of times before realising that it was found in My Computer but not showing up in Explorer.

As I mentioned earlier I did try a few Google searches but nothing came up with any answers.

I am puzzled to know why My Computer recognises it and the Western Digital software I downloaded instantly recognised it, checked it and gave it a clean bill of health - but Explorer doesn't want to know.

Any ideas will be gratefully received Dai, and thanks.

Paolo

 

[dai]

check the jumper on the back of the drive

 

[linderman]

I firmly believe your problem is one of partition or File allocation table >>>>>>. yeah, I know ........... sounds like gibersch

you need to download Getdataback they have an NTFS version and a Fat32 version ...... by any chance do you know which file system your problematic drive uses ?

if not

I would download the "trial" version of Getdataback its fairly cheap at $40.00 for the full version with "the fix"

the trial version operates exactly the same ........ if the trial version can "see" your data then it will recover your data ! to recover you will need to pay the $40.00 fee and receive a serial key code ........ its rather easy software to use ........thank god ....... such software used to be only for propeller heads!

here they are:

http://www.download.com/GetDataBack-for-NTFS/3000-2242_4-10061737.html?cdlPid=10911793

Fat32 version (try this one second)
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/GetDataBack-For-FAT.shtml


what you will need to do is copy the recovered drive contents of your problem child drive to another hard drive ......... once the recovery is completed

then wipe the drive with a zero filling utility such as killdisk (free) then I would use partition magic to repartition and format the drive ......... I never use windows partitioning and formatting tools for the same reason which you are now experiencing!

keep us posted and dont hesitate to ask questions ..........