Recovering from a USB box

W

Widerick

Member
Hi Guys,
I recently bought a new computer (Inspiron 530) and installed xp pro sp3 on it. From my old computer I scavenged the old Harddrive, put it in a USB powered box, and have been trying to recover files and such from my old drive to my new. The original drive was also xp pro sp3. My computer correctly id's the drive in the box but has been addament in not allowing me access to the file structure or to see anything on the original drive. Would you know of any way I can get this to open so i can copy the drive and then turn it into a remote backup unit.
 
Widerick, welcome to NST

Right click Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management. Right click the partition from the drive you want to get data from -> "Change Drive Letter & Paths...". Assign it a drive letter than hit ok. Right click again and click "Open".
 
usb box

I tried it as you stated and the only thing it will let me do to that disk is to delete partition or request help. The other drive(c) will let me do all the steps, should I choose to, that you specified. Both disks show up as online-etc. They only differ in the mgt box as to size and one being recognized as a usb. The usb one will not let me assign a drive letter or in any way read it short of destroying it do you have a way around this? By the way thank you for your previous reply.
 
Are we dealing with a linux or os x partition here? Windows only recognizes FAT32, NTFS, and CDFS volumes natively. If case you can boot from a live linux disc like Ubuntu to mount and read the data. Otherwise, it seems unlikely you'll be able to recover data, however you may use TestDisk or Restoration to try to recover the files/partitions. For Restoration you'll need to quick format and than use it, but only try that as a last resort to recover the data. This is why its a good idea to backup your important files on a regular basis.
 
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He said it's an old XP system Jus.
Widerick, can you use flash-drives and other USB devices OK.
There's not some USB option disabled in your BIOS is there ?
A USB HDD should be visible and accessible just like your internal disks.
Alternatively, are you connecting it directly to a port on the PC, not through a hub ?
Sometimes hubs can have insufficient power to run multiple high-load devices.
 
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Hi Guys,
No I can access my thumb usb drive in easy fashion and it is plugged directly into computer so no external hub is involved.
 
My Freecom ext HDD is USB, but it needs its own transformer for the power supply. I'm just wondering whether a USB socket has sufficient power for a full size HDD. I'm sure HDDs need a 12v power supply and USB only supplies 5v.
 
It doesn't, as you stated USB supplies 5vs max, though an exception would be if you use a "portable" external usb drive, being most of them can power themselves off the bus.

Widerick, last thing I reckon before trying the recovery tools mentioned above would be going into device manager, uninstalling the drive, unplugging it, and than rebooting the computer. Plugging it back in should than act as if you were putting it in for the first time again. On the usb to SATA/IDE adapter I've got I only managed to get it working by powering on the drive and than plugging into usb, not the other way around.
 
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