Windows 7: 2 TB sata external HD usb broke off

The usb port got disconnected from the board. Minutes before this the drive was working fine. Took the case off and tried the drive in an external dock, also tried plugging it into the computer using sata cables. Both times the computer said installing new driver software sucessful but the drive never popped up. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

Hello and welcome injmalk just out of interest how was the drive showing up in Computer before the connector broke?

Now you could try to see if it is listed in DISKPART

Go to Strat type in cmd
it will open a window that requires you to Open or run as admin > run as admin > OK
you will get a window that opens in black and white type in diskpart lower case will do > hit OK / Enter
you will end up with a screen that has DISKPART in it > type in list disk > hit Enter and you will end up with a list of the drives you have connected up - see pic.
Grab a snip and let us see what you have .

thx for the quick reply It would be a lifesaver to get these files recovered... The drive was showing up as a normal external hard drive would before the connecter broke. Not sure if that answers your question. I tried looking into it with paragon drive manager but Im afraid anything I will do will format it and delete all the files. I uploaded the photo you requested plus another one when In paragon. It seems to show the drive as all unallocated free space which doesnt make sense to me considering I didnt format or do anything to it.

imgur: the simple image sharer
imgur: the simple image sharer

Now before we do anything you say you plugged it into a dock - is that a machine dock? or one of those USB connectible devices?

Also there isn't much in the way of machine specs is this a desktop I take it?

it was a usb connected dock.. But what I was showing there the drive was hooked up through sata cables to a desktop running windows 7 home

That was what I was going to suggest next if the dock was an external of some type.

Hum what I don't get is why it is showing up in DISKPART and not in Computer.

Well lest try another tack downoad and install - it's free and alwasy a real handy tool to have Partition Wizard

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition. < download the free version when installed run it and see what we can come up with.

Now to save yourself taking photos may I suggest you use "snip" it is a feature of Windows so no worries there. I always use it - click Start type in snip > it will give you a blue "window" in that column > right click on it > pin to taskbar.

To use it click on the icon the screen will go milky white place your cursor on the top left hand side of the screen snip you want to take and hold down the left click button drag the cursor across to highlight (it becomes a clear view > when done release the button click on File > save as > name it and select the destination ( I usually use desktop easy to find and clear).

Now when you come to post a reply go to Manage Attachments (little blue box below the reply window click on it > Browse > pick desktop if that is where you have saved the snip > click on the snip > then Upload. the reference will clear when done and then you can post the reply and the snip will come through as my DISKPART did. Sounds complicated but us it often enough and it is real easy and saves you having to upload photos.

injmalk: please update your system specs (use the Easy Specs in my signature or type as much information in by hand) guessing at your system components doesn't help solve the issue on your machine.

Also please post a screenshot of your disk management (rt click computer -> manage -> Disk Management

John gave you one way to capture a window using the snipping tool. Here's another:
the keyboard combination: alt+-fn+prtsc "prints" an image of the window with focus (the active window) in the clipboard.

Type Paint in the start menu search box and then enter.
Paste (Ctrl+V) the "printed" window image into Paint, save it and attach the image using the paper clip on the post menu bar.

Thanks

John: the diskpart shows the 2GB drive formated as GPT and the other drives with 0 free space. That's why I asked to see the disk management.

Ok updated my system specs using easy specs and downloaded the free disc management software. The software I was using before was booted from a cd maybe that is why the info was showing up different. Attached is the disc management screenshot

injmalk: thank you for the information and updating your specs.

John: I think you're on the right track with PartWiz, I only jumped in ask for the DskMgMnt - and that looks "better" than the disk part info (note your disk part also shows zeros for free space - odd. maybe if you select a part?). I wonder if the Gpt format comes into play - I know very little about Gpt. I think you can convert between MBR and Gpt, but you lose data. The 2 Gb shows as unallocated in DiskMgmnt - so try PartWiz or TestDisk.

and do what with partwiz? I am currently searching for hidden partitions is there anything else I should be doing?