New
#11
That is correct. If you can't read it, you can't get the data off of it.
That is a smart idea - do a backup of the drive, then try various data recovery techniques on the drive. But if the drive doesn't show up, your backup software won't be able to get a backup of it. Perhaps there is some backup software that could see the drive and do a backup of it; if so, then that would be your best shot for getting the data off of the drive, that is, unless you want to pay a professional data recovery company to get the data off of the drive.
I have heard of people who use GPARTED (a Linux partitioning tool) and Partition Magic as backup tools -- they save a copy of the partition while in GPARTED or Partition Magic. If you are very careful, and you can avoid hosing or deleting the partition while in GPARTED or Partition Magic, that might be something to try...IF GPARTED or Partition Magic can see the drive.
A "bare-metal" backup program I have heard about is called "Redo Backup and Recovery" (http://redobackup.org). A bare-metal backup might be just the thing that is needed for your drive.
I have heard good things about the Terabyte imaging program (TeraByte Unlimited :: Boot Manager :: Partition Manager :: Drive Image :: Disk Copy :: Drive Wipe :: Hard Drive Utilities). They offer a 30-day free trial.
My suggestion is that you start with Redo Backup and Recovery. I've never used it, but my thought is that a bare-metal backup, independent of the OS, might be just what you need in this case in order to get the data off of the drive.