Desktop not working: I need my hard drive back!

How big is the pen drive?
It just said fail? no other error?
Could you check in the event log? Please post any events pertinent to the Rufus pen drive creation.

So there's nothing on the pen drive... what did you expect when you tried to boot... magic?
Sorry, I'm glad you have a healthy sense of humor.

What happened between the iso is in the USB and nothing is on the USB now? How did you know there was something on the USB? I'm guessing, and it is only a guess that when Rufus failed, it cleaned the drive - don't know why it would, but it's only a guess.

Let's try this, step by step.... screen shot by screen shot but 1st, how big is the pen drive

I'd like to see the initial Rufus screen, then the Rufus screen with the Lucid Puppy .iso selected
Before you hit start.

Funny farm, here I come!

Nate, I was having a little fun during our shared frustration. "what did you expect - magic" was not really sarcastic, but an attempt to lighten up this issue. It is easy to see how that was misread.

My apologies if you became offended, I did state that you had a healthy sense of humor - maybe that too was read the wrong way.

The rest of the post were serious questions (except the funny farm - again a failed attempt to lighten things up)

Forget Mcgluke and diskpart.

Bill

Okay, I booted the USB, and it did work. However, I didn't see anything that was my old HD (it was turned on when it booted, and I never unplugged or disconnected the enclosure since last night)). I saw a bunch of other stuff, and my current HD, but nothing that indicated nor did I find anything that could lead me to the old one (the 3-4 that had HD logos, one was my current one, but the others didn't lead me anywhere that was my data). Plus, unless it was based on the updates that occurred when I booted, when I restarted it back up, it was a bit slow and I was about to panic until the desktop finally came. Don't know if that means anything, but yeah it did work, but I didn't see anything that was my old HD.

EDIT: Okay, even asking what was missing and what I might've missed concerning the USB, I want to try the Photorec/Testdisk next. Now I know instructions were posted, but I still wanted to ask from you, could you type in your own words your own direct instructions in how to use that?

Nate, glad to hear you got the USB Lucid Puppy to boot.

You were following a path using Lucid Puppy and I don't think that path was exhausted. I explained the steps I thought you should take and the order they should be taken.

You hit a snag and had to change gears once with PW, but once it was proven that the disk could be read, you went forward to the next step. Another snag creating the Lucid Puppy pen drive and you resolved that somehow.

It would be great if you posted how you solved the initial USB issue also. Other members might benefit from your experience. This is what I mean about feedback from your side - members need hard data to solve technical issues.

You managed to boot into Linux and then posted that you didn't see anything related to your data. There are Linux commands that might not have been executed. I don't know your level of computer experience. You may well have done everything correctly, but all you told me is you didn't find anything..., nothing that indicated...

I can't help much if you don't post information. Screenshots are best.

Now you tell me that you want to stop mid stream and try Photorec. That was the step after Linux, if needed.
I don't know what you did in Linux. I didn't write anything to help you with it, but was about to complete some instructions.

I'm willing to write those instructions, but I'm not willing to chase a number of possible tools at one time (you also mentioned easeus in one post).

I don't want to waste my time writing those instructions if you don't want to stay on this path. There is an existing thread, but the drive references are backwards (internal vs external). So there isn't any confusion, I'll rewrite them to fit the situation on your machine.

I don't want to waste your time switching gears and that's not how I troubleshoot.

I do want you to get your data back.

It's late here, I going to bed. I'll see what you've posted in the morning.

Slartybart said:

It would be great if you posted how you solved the initial USB issue also. Other members might benefit from your experience. This is what I mean about feedback from your side - members need hard data to solve technical issues.

No they won't, it was stupid. When I did Rufus, and selected the iso, the iso was in the usb already, and it wasn't suppose to be. It was suppose to be somewhere else so Rufus could put it in the USB. See how stupid that was?

Slartybart said:

You managed to boot into Linux and then posted that you didn't see anything related to your data. There are Linux commands that might not have been executed. I don't know your level of computer experience. You may well have done everything correctly, but all you told me is you didn't find anything..., nothing that indicated... I can't help much if you don't post information. Screenshots are best.

I don't know much, if not anything about Linux, and I did follow the instructions; it is just that, if there are any other information about this, they weren't there originally, or given how simple it sounded, I didn't realize until I got there that I would need more help. Screenshots is understandable if I can, and I think I could with this.

Basically, I saw folders with only one that referred to the new machine's HD, but nothing on the old one. The others that had HD logos didn't take me anywhere; they showed folders, but like I said, didn't give me signs that would lead me to the old HD. I don't know where to go to find it if it's not on the main screen. I'll try again, and post screen shots as an update to this post. But if you don't see that by morning, either I tried but couldn't, or didn't want to as the slow loading on normal mode still bothers me.

Okay, it was the updates that made the loading slow before. So that's okay, lol

Here are the images, and I hope the size is big enough for you to see everything. I double checked as I did this, and the same thing: I cannot find a way to my old HD, as the only one I can go to is my new machine. And keep in mind, while I did this twice to get there, the enclosure was on before I booted with the USB. BTW, even on my new machine, when I click pictures for example, I don't see the files. I would assume you need to if you were to transfer them to the new machine; is that a clue to something?

Nate,

You wouldn't believe how many people do that - it's not stupid, and it really might help another member.

Thanks for the image - it tells me a bit about why you can't see your data. Clever of you to take a photo, there is a screen capture but it's not as intuitive as with Windows (plus I don't have handy instructions pre-canned).

I still haven't slept, so I'll keep this brief. There are two issues
1) Lucid Puppy doesn't recognize the external drive. This is most likely due to USB 3.0.
Try connecting the external drive to a USB 2.0 port on your machine.
Connect the ext HD to the USB 2.0 port after Linux boots.
You'll have to look at your PC manual to determine which port(s) are 2.0

2) In Linux, the partition has to be mounted. It looks as though you figured that out - the green dots indicate a mounted partition.

Here's my system in Linux - no partitions are mounted in the image below (no green dots)

You said that you already identified your internal hard drive (most likely the 2nd leftmost partition - but be sure).
I'll venture a guess that your data will be on the 3rd external partition once you get it listed using a USB 2.0 port.

If you can see your data at this point, you're almost home. If you're still having difficulty, post another camera shot (left side only). I'll be looking for something closer to the image I posted, but yours should have green dots. You can always click on the mount icon at the top of the screen to figure out what is and what is not mounted.

Never disconnect a drive when partitions are mounted.
Always unmount partitons on a drive BEFORE disconnecting the drive.
-> Similar to Windows "Safely eject".

I'll stop back in a few hours to see how it's going.

Bill
.

I'll write the rest of the instructions after a few hours shuteye.