(uncommon?) problem with external hard drive

Hello,

I am having problem which I cannot seem to find any information about anywhere,

I have an external hard drive attached to my computer. The drive is removed from a previous laptop, which stopped working. It has four sectors on it: OEM reserved, Boot, Local disk, and one more partition (which I made when using it in the old laptop).

Now, when I attach this drive as an external: I can enter the boot sector, and I can enter the other partition (through windows explorer). These partitions work just fine, and I have been able to recover data from the extra partition I created, (OEM doesn't show but it's not supposed to), however, the Local Disk one I cannot access at all (this is where the OS is/was stored when I used the laptop and has files I wish to recover).

If I try to right click and access properties, it just gets stuck and stops my computer working - everything dramatically slows down, and programs cease to function. So, I think this section on the drive alone is broken, I cannot explore it or do anything with it really. File recovery programs can't interact with it at all, and I cannot access disk management while the drive is attached.

Essentially, I just want to find some way to recover the files off of this partition/repair the drive, whatever will help. I have heard of things such as opening the drive or replacing the PCB, would this be an idea worth exploring?

Thank you very much for any advice you can offer,

Use these tools to check your drive. SeaTools | Seagate
Ultimate Boot CD - Overview
Toshiba Support
Downloads | HGST Storage
Samsung

Thank you for reply, but I don't know how I would use these - as I say, when the drive is connected, it stops the computer function, so I can't really run software or tests etc on it.

The drive simply being attached leads to adverse effects.

Use option two in the link below. You won't have any problem.
SeaTools for DOS and Windows - How to Use

Details needed to use Ultimate Bootcd.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=13

msalton1 said:

You may also want to run chkdsk. use the /f and /r switches (chkdsk /f /r)

And as far as opening the HD, that would be counter-productive.

I can't run chkdsk, because when the disk is attached I cant do anything. It just stalls completely.

Have you tried this...

Imrankhan said:

Use option two in the link below. You won't have any problem.
SeaTools for DOS and Windows - How to Use

Details needed to use Ultimate Bootcd.
Ultimate Boot CD ? View forum - UBCD V5 Tutorials & How-Tos

Thank you very much - I've attempted that, followed all the steps, but it just stalls at 'FreeDOS' on a black screen with a blinking cursor. It won't boot the SeaTools program at all.

GUI(Graphic User Interface). He is just mentioning Warning message. Does it appear. When it shows FreeDOS, wait for it to load the Warning message.
If it doesn't load,
Maybe problem with Bootable USB Creation.
FreeDOS should load flawlessly, If properly created bootable device is selected.

I'm really not sure. The USB stick works fine usually. Could it possibly need to be formatted in a certain way? I.e FAT vs. NTFS?