Solved Data Recovery - HDD will not initialize

[TBQH]

Hello forum people!

Firstly thank you for taking the time to assist!
I'm recovering some data for a friend. He has the old PATA WD 500gig HDD and I have it connected through a USB adapter. I am pretty sure the HDD is a storage drive from a Windows XP computer.

The HDD in Disk Management is unknown, not initialized, has the down arrow icon over the HDD icon. When I right click the options I get are - Initialize, offline, properties, help. . When I click Initialize it says "incorrect function".

Suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Golden]

If you do initialize it, there is a good chance the data will be lost. Can you view any of the data using a live Linux distribution?

Try this, and see if the drive can be accessed:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ate-live-cd-dvd-usb-use-emergency-backup.html

 

[whs]

I would second Golden's suggestion to use Linux for the job. Try the flash drive version in the tutorial (#3). It is the easiest. That will allow you to copy the data to another disk - if the disk works.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/287439-emergency-kit-save-your-files-dead-os.html

 

[TBQH]

Well, that worked quite nicely. Thank you very much.

I iso'd peppermint on a usb and started it up and there was the drive. Very smooth and easy.

Consider this solved!

 

[whs]

Glad to hear that. Never tried Peppermint myself, but that's good to know.

 

[Golden]