Data Recovery from missing partition

I was given a laptop recently with the task of saving some files from the hard drive. The laptop won't boot, so I connected the drive to my computer via an eSATA dock. It shows up as RAW. When I run a partition repair tool, such as Partition Wizard, it correctly identifies the drive's capacity and amount of data. The drive is given a letter and shown that it is NTFS, however, when I try to access the drive from Explorer, I get the prompt to format it.

So, would something like Recuva work to access the files, or do I need something more "intense"?

Hi DeaconFrost,

Why not try TestDisk? It may be able to rewrite the partition table if it can find.
I have only run a mock trial here Regain a lost drive using Test Disk - An Illustrated Guide ( deleting the partition table from a working drive and then successfully rewriting it with TestDisk).

Did you run Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help?

Wow, plenty of suggestions! Thanks...I'm going to try some of them out and report back.

gregrocker said:

Did you run Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help?

I tried this method, and everything seems to go perfectly...but once I click the drive to open it after completion, I'm told it needs to be formatted. Recuva won't even detect the partition, either.

If PW wizard finds the missing partition, then it should allow you to recover it in the next step. Does it complete this step? I would try it with the installed program and boot disk.

If there is anything blocking it's recovery now, it should also prompt that it will be overwritten.

It completed the steps and acted as if it fixed the issue, yet when I'd try to access the partition, I wouldn't have any luck. I was trying using the installed program, with the drive connected by eSATA in a dock.

So far, PhotoRec is pulling their photos off.