Cannot read old hard drive from usb


  1. Posts : 6
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
       #1

    Cannot read old hard drive from usb


    I've just installed a new hard drive and installed windows and when I try to connect my old one via a usb enclosure it won't read the main partition. It reads the recovery partition fine but when accessing the main partition it keeps asking me whether I want to format the drive or not and shows up to have 0 bytes out of 0 bytes. (obviously I'm not going to format it) I know the drive is still working and not corrupted as when I replace it back into my laptop it works fine again. The drive is a 500GB sata 2 if that helpsAnybody any ideas on how I can read it? I don't understand how it can read the recovery partition but not the main one.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #2

    Hello.


    See if the HDD/partition shows up in diskpart from an elevated command window type the following commands followed by <enter> after each and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.



    diskpart

    list disk # # your disk #

    list partition #
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 6
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    All 3 partitions showing up
    Partition 1 OEM 100mb
    Partition 2 Primary 14gb
    Partition 3 Primary 451gb

    also checked disk management and all 3 are shown there too. But why does it want me to reformat the 3rd on windows explorer?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #4

    Just out of curiosity, post a snip of Windows disk management.



      My Computer


  5. Posts : 6
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Here
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Cannot read old hard drive from usb-disk-management.gif  
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #6

    If there is a Windows install there have you tried booting the HDD in the BIOS at startup?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 6
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
    Thread Starter
       #7

    There's no windows installation files on if that's what you mean but I have tried booting it up just to run windows by usb and it still won't work. I have another usb enclosure and it doesn't seem to work in that one either. It still works if its plugged directly into my laptop though. I'm wondering if maybe there's some driver or software that I need to install for it or if its somehow locked to only being able to read from inside my laptop. (don't know if that's possible) The bios certainly doesn't have any lock on it. And then the only other thing I can think of is that both the usb enclosures aren't good enough to run it but they should as it said up to 750GB on them when I bought them.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #8

    James56 said:
    There's no windows installation files on if that's what you mean but I have tried booting it up just to run windows by usb and it still won't work. I have another usb enclosure and it doesn't seem to work in that one either. It still works if its plugged directly into my laptop though. I'm wondering if maybe there's some driver or software that I need to install for it or if its somehow locked to only being able to read from inside my laptop. (don't know if that's possible) The bios certainly doesn't have any lock on it. And then the only other thing I can think of is that both the usb enclosures aren't good enough to run it but they should as it said up to 750GB on them when I bought them.

    That's a possibility, at least you have a way to access the data.

    Have you looked in Windows Device Manager to see if there's anything there?
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 6
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
    Thread Starter
       #9

    yea it shows as usb mass storage device. Tried reinstalling and updating the drivers but still no luck. Might have to look into buying a more expensive enclosure.
      My Computer


 

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