BleepingComputer.com: Recovering Data SATA Drive

I am using a just purchase SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter to connect to a Desktop running Windows 7. The first time I hooked it up the drive was recognized by the system and said it was installed correctly. However in Windows Explorer I could not find it and it made the computer run extremely slow and sluggish. It's hard to exaggerate how sluggish it was. As soon as I unplug the USB connector the computer works fine. I need data off this drive. Any ideas ??

EDIT: Merged with other post, same topic ~ Hamluis.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 02 April 2010 - 02:31 PM

I'm trying to recover data from a laptop SATA drive via USB. The drive when connected makes my computer work sluggishly, and I can't seem to find the drive to navigate to. I'm a brand new Windows 7 user, so maybe I'm going to the wrong place but Windows key-E always did the trick before. I can go to Device Manager and see the drive there but I can't find any way to navigate to it to recover my files. It does the same thing with an old IDE drive. Please help these files are very important and I could shoot myself )almost) for being stupid enough not to back them up.

EDIT: Moved to External Hardware from Win 7 ~ Hamluis.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 02 April 2010 - 11:40 AM

Have you added a drive letter in Disk Management? Without a drive letter, it will not show up in My Computer (you can "hide" a hard drive by removing it's drive letter, as well).

I went there and could not find the option. However It did show a storage device and I right clicked it and it told me to initialize it, so I did and got back Device Not Ready. Windows makes a sound every time I plug and unplug it so it's doing something with it at least. Did the same thing to another drive. I can feel/hear the drive spin up.

Hmm...not sure what's wrong, but it doesn't seem related to Windows 7. Could be BIOS, hardware, etc...any number of things.

I'll have this moved to the Hardware sub-forum where you'll be able to receive better assistance.

This post has been edited by keyboardNinja: 02 April 2010 - 10:26 AM

Just a clarification...you did format this USB drive, after initializing it?

Windows cannot see a drive which is not formated, other than via Device Manager.

Louis

it's not a USB drive per se, it's a SATA laptop drive that I'm connecting via one of the USB ports on the PC

Can you post a screenshot (with the drive connected) from Disk Management?

You've connected a SATA laptop hard drive, via USB cable, to a system.

The drive showed up in Disk Management as not initialized...which is a bad sign.

Either the cable you used...or the drive...is faulty...that's my opinion, right now..

A screenshot will help us to offer better ideas.

Louis

IF you're sure this drive is "safe" have you tried temporarily disabling the anti-virus?

Windows 7 has changed the file searching and begins indexing a drive as soon as it's attached. It could also be that the antivirus is scanning the drive when it's attached.

I did exactly the same thing when I installed 7 on a new drive, but I'd connected the drive before I installed the virus software.

I'm just wondering if you've got other apps here doing their own thing. iTunes will start scanning for music. A lot of apps scan for photos. AV software scans for viruses. OS scans for lost sectors. Explorer indexes. Sometime after the release of Windows 8 you'll be ready to run it.

Disable some of your resident apps and see if it runs any better.

AND - is your adapter and everything USB 2? If a driver or hardware is still in USB 1 mode, you'll never be able to run an external drive through it.

Well...it seems that it may be a Win 7 issue, http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...57-d7897e42549d.

I don't see anything conclusive amongst all this, other than the fact that a number of different persons with possibly different issues...all report difficulties with external drives.

Louis

Not sure if this is relevant here or not but have you tried a different USB port? I have machine that when I plug an external drive in to a front panel USB port I get a message that the "driver can not be installed" but when I plug it into a rear USB port, it works fine. All other peripherals I've plugged into the front panel work fine, it's just this one external drive that won't work.

Will post a screen shot later, since I'm at work now (Happy Easter !!!). I did swap USB ports and it seemed to take away the sluggishness but still the same basic indications. I'm going to ask around here and see if I can get a coworker to either loan me a known good drive to hook up or take my drive and adapter and try it on their own computer. I'll let you know how it goes.

This post has been edited by cwbys4evr: 04 April 2010 - 05:52 AM

OK, here is an update: I plugged my laptaop sata drive into the internals of the computer, making it a second drive. The computer recognized the driver and installed it. Now when I navigate to it, Windows 7 tells me I need to format it in order to use it. All fine and good except I need DATA from that drive !! Is there some kind of work around ???

If Win 7 is telling you that the drive needs to be formatted...with a RAW file system...I would say that your file system on said drive or the drive itself has problems preventing normal access.

That being the case, data-recovery software would be my suggestion.

Data recovery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_recovery

Ways To Recover Your Data - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic111937.html. Scroll down to #9.

Louis