how do I recover data from a non responsive hard drive?

Yes the active flag in the first partition has to be removed first. I think I had stated that before after viewing the screenshot of Disk Management.Definitely we are losing track because of involvement in many threads .

Having said that, the opening screen of PW, does show all partitions in tact. So partition table has not been lost and so PW will not write the partition table since it is already present.

So when Canuck comes back, we shall ask him to cancel quick scan, go to main screen and remove the active flag from the first partition and apply.

The other partitions which lie in the extended are raw. Will those turn good when active flag is removed? Let us see.

If it does not rebuild MBR in Partition Wizard.

I think quite an workout lies ahead.

Instructions to Canuk67: Whenever you see this

1. Boot into Partition Wizard.

2. On the main screen, right click on the first 48.3GB partition in Disk 2 > Modify > Set Inactive ( Excercise care. Do not do anything on Disk 1 , which is your System drive.)

3. Check it shows in Pending operations in the left Pane.

4. Go to the Top Menu Bar and click on Apply.

When the operation completes, close PW and reboot.

I think your computer will boot fast now.

If that is achieved, we will do any further actions on your computer. You can keep aside the PW bootable pen drive.

The screenshot below just for illustration: Take only what matters.

okay, I'll try this now, but first I will post the screen caps from my last attempt, just in case it gives any info that might be useful....

jumanji said:

Instructions to Canuk67: Whenever you see this

1. Boot into Partition Wizard.

2. On the main screen, right click on the first 48.3GB partition in Disk 2 > Modify > Set Inactive ( Excercise care. Do not do anything on Disk 1 , which is your System drive.)

3. Check it shows in Pending operations in the left Pane.

4. Go to the Top Menu Bar and click on Apply.

When the operation completes, close PW and reboot.

I think your computer will boot fast now.

If that is achieved, we will do any further actions on your computer. You can keep aside the PW bootable pen drive.

The screenshot below just for illustration: Take only what matters.

here are my screen caps, step by step, BEFORE right clicking on the first partition in my second drive and making it inactive.

continued....

I can access what's in my dead drive as seen in the last cap, however, some of the folders have names that I did not give them, or are folders that I did not create and don't recognize...

Not to worry. We know that all your data is there. Some of those folders are System folders which you normally do not see and some left by check disk.