Hi,
It can read any connected hard drive - not only a system/OS HDD. What I'm proposing is to see if Linux can see the drive. Perhaps it can't but you have nothing to lose.
You install Peppermint 3 to a separate USB flash drive, then boot from that (make sure the faulty 2TB drive is connected to the computer). Then open the Peppermint 3 file browser and see if you can see the 2TB drive and its contents.
Regards,
Golden
Hi AaLF,
You said you were able to see your Western Digital 2TB drive in the Disk Management on another Windows 7 PC as "Unknown device, not initialised " ( At this moment, I don't know why your PC doesn't show anything while another PC can see something but I would brush it under the carpet now, and go by what is seen. That means henceforth you will stick to that PC or any other PC on which it appears so, for any actions you take on that HDD.)
1. Do take a screen capture on how it is seen in the Disk Management and post it. (Please make sure that all other external HDDs/pen drives are unplugged so that there will be no confusion.) Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
Then perhaps you will get suggestions on how to try and make it a known device. (It so happens that I may not know even simple things.)
2. Perform this small test just to see whether the HDD can be read. Download MBR Backup v2.0 MBR Backup 2.0 Released | TrojanHunter Blog Run it and see whether it could read the first sector of the drive.(Physical drive 0 will be the system drive, and Physical drive 1 will be your Western Digital internal drive - assuming that that PC has only one other internal system drive and your HDD is the second one) If you can see the first sector, save it.
3. Try to access the drive with the live Linux pen drive as suggested by many above and follow Golden's tutorial. That is always the first step in data recovery. With Golden's permission, I would suggest that you use Rufus - http://rufus.akeo.ie/ to create the bootable pen drive with the downloaded ISO, if you are comfortable with Windows GUI rather than LILO.
Less than that, even. I picked up mine on Amazon a couple years ago for $5 from a Hong Kong vendor and it still works.
Here's one for $7.05. Worth a try?
USB 2.0 to IDE / SATA Converter Cable
AaLF, when you plug in the drive, does it make any unusual sounds?
Here is the MBR attached.
1. You haven't uploaded the Disk Management screen capture.
2. I didn't want you to upload the .bin file. ( You were asked to save it, so that you can restore it later, if necessary.) I just wanted to know whether your HDD could be read. If MBR Backup could read it, you should have seen the first sector like in the following screenshot.
And I would have appreciated if you had taken this screenshot and uploaded it rather than the file. Anyway, if you had seen something like what was in the above screenshot, it confirms that your HDD could still be read.
3. That gives us a ray of hope that there is a distinct possibility of it being read by a live Linux pen drive. You have not indicated whether you have tried it or even contemplating to try it.
Aalf - please respond to the questions asked and indicate whether you have tried the suggestions, and the outcomes. You will find that the more detail you provide, the more willing others will be to help.
Regards,
Golden
Hi all. Thanks for sticking with me. Note - the MBRBackup only offers the Cdrive disk (physical drive 0 in the scroll menu at top.
No. The USB flash drive failed. Need to go & buy one today.
I suggest you do NOT do anything further until you have tried to read it with a Linux distro, as recommended by several people now.
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