Failed usb drive blocking recovery programs from opening (Win7 Asus)

[boyfromtomorrow]

Hello all,

I've got a external usb drive which failed or got corrupted some time ago. I've been trying to figure out how to recover data from it in vain for months now and it's been a real headache.
You see, the problem is that I CAN access it with recovery programs like Recuva, EaseUS etc on my old Windows XP machine, but strangely NOT on my regular Windows 7 pc which is also my regular everyday laptop.

When I plug it into my Windows 7 laptop it behaves as follows:
with the drive plugged in data recovery programs simply refuse to open
as soon as I disconnect the drive, the program immediately pops open, as if by miracle
if I open the recovery program first and then plug in the drive, the program freezes or crashes
if I shut down the pc with the drive plugged in, it seems to just stay in the shutdown process forever, but when I plug out the drive it is suddenly able to complete shutdown

I have figured out that the drive is not loading up in Windows Disk Mangement. It literally just stays stuck on "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service" or"Loading Disk Configuration Information" forever. I have left it like that with no other programs open, came back several hours later to check and there was no change.

I've been searching for solution to this in various forums all over online for months now and to be honest, I'm pretty sure I've tried most steps but hoping there is still something.
Here's a summary of what I've tried so far:
Tried over 10 different recovery programs, none of them open on Win 7 pc with drive connected.
CHKDSK utility - did not work, no results, it didn't proceed
SFC utility no difference
Renamed drive letter - no difference
Bought new usb cable (gold-plated) - no difference
laptop battery was beginning to fail and thought the issue could be power-related so replcaced the battery - no difference
needless to say I've restarted the laptop serveral times - no difference
(almost forgot the killer step) I've even gone as far as restoring/resetting the laptop to factory state (did this more than once)! - no difference :-(
(I may have forgotten something here but I've tried almots all the commonly-mentioned solutions from the online forums on this topic)

Some extra information: it's a 500GB HDD "Core by CnMemory" usb (2.0) external drive but internally it's apparently a Toshiba MK5059GSXP SATA drive.
I wasn't able to find a speciific driver or repair tool, even after contacting Toshiba directly.
The drive was formatted FAT32 before it failed. It now seems to be RAW, though before this gets flagged, this in itself should not be the reason it is blocking on my Win 7 machine because it can be opened by reovery programs on my old Win XP machine.
I tested the disk in CrystakDiskInfo which threw up a poor rating, and repored many "bad sectors" which is a strong indicator the drive is damaged, but again since it's not freezing on my Win XP, this alone should not be the reason for it causing programs to block on my Win 7 machine.
I am aware that if the disk is damaged (quite likely) then I might be causing further damage by plugging it in and trying out all these steps, and I am OK with that!

I have been able to recover some files from the drive with progams on my Windows XP, so thverifies that it can work. But that's very old pc, whose hardrive is full, and it has other issues too, it's basically semi-dead as it is and it just would not been feasible to restore the whole 500GB onto there. And connecting another external hard drive, and transferring the recovered data to that would just be too awkward, annoying and painstaking. I don't want to go down that route. Finally, sending the drive to a physical repair/reover service is financially out of the question for me.
I must stress that I literally just wanted to make it so that I can recover the drive to my Win 7 pc. Since it's doable in theory (shown by my Win XP pc) it should also be doable in reality.

So long story short, the question is why am I able recover data from this failed hard drive on my Win XP pc but not on my Win 7 pc?
And how do I get that resolved?

Would greatly appreciate any advice or tips!

Cheers
D

 

[Snick]

HI boyfromtomorrow,

Welcome to Sevenforums!
From your post
It literally just stays stuck on "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service" or"Loading Disk Configuration Information" forever.

Are you implying you tried opening the USB drive in win7 XP Mode?
If not have you tried that? Just a thought, haven't tried it myself.
How to Use XP Mode in Windows 7

 

[boyfromtomorrow]

HI boyfromtomorrow,

Welcome to Sevenforums!
From your post
It literally just stays stuck on "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service" or"Loading Disk Configuration Information" forever.

Are you implying you tried opening the USB drive in win7 XP Mode?
If not have you tried that? Just a thought, haven't tried it myself.
How to Use XP Mode in Windows 7

Hi Snick,

Thanks for response and greeting

Hmmm I confused about why my message might have "implied" that (?) but no that's not what I mean. Not sure why you thought though.
Maybe I'm reading you wrong...are you referring to the XP machine that I mentioned?
If so, that's an actual other physical pc laptop. My Win 7 system is a different physical machine.

But to answer your question anyway, I tried to open some of the recovery programs in Windows XP compatibiliy mode, but either the versions of the programs I was trying only went back as far as Vista compatability, or if they did have XP it just didn't work.

Thanks

Is that what you meant with XP moder, or something else?

 

[Snick]

boyfromtomorrow

Connecting to Virtual Disk Service, is what takes place within Disk Management (not quite the same as Win XP mode). Your computer has to support virtualization to use Win XP mode, thus the tool on the linked page to ascertain/determine whether or not your Win7 machine is capable of that function. Most newer machines running Windows 7 are capable of that. I was suggesting that you try Win XP mode on your Win7 machine to see if you can open your USB drive as you stated happens on your Win XP machine.

Let me try to explain. Windows Operating Systems have always had backwards compatibility. Programs and applications that won't run or open in Win7 that ran or opened in previous versions, i.e. Vista, Win 2000, Win Me, Win XP. The current Operating System, Windows 7 had the option of running or opening a program, file, folder, USB Drive in backwards compatibility mode. When, for example, you said you can open the USB on your Win XP machine not Win7, compatibility mode, specifically Win XP may permit you to open your USB drive. That is, a virtual machine is created that emulates XP, that is it acts as if you are running Win XP from within the Win 7 OS.

The Help Desk Geek website provides explanations and screenshots or snippets to walk you through the process.

As I said, it was a suggestion that may provide a solution to opening your USB drive on your Win7 machine. Worth a try in my opinion.

Snick

 

[boyfromtomorrow]

boyfromtomorrow

Connecting to Virtual Disk Service, is what takes place within Disk Management (not quite the same as Win XP mode). Your computer has to support virtualization to use Win XP mode, thus the tool on the linked page to ascertain/determine whether or not your Win7 machine is capable of that function. Most newer machines running Windows 7 are capable of that. I was suggesting that you try Win XP mode on your Win7 machine to see if you can open your USB drive as you stated happens on your Win XP machine.

Let me try to explain. Windows Operating Systems have always had backwards compatibility. Programs and applications that won't run or open in Win7 that ran or opened in previous versions, i.e. Vista, Win 2000, Win Me, Win XP. The current Operating System, Windows 7 had the option of running or opening a program, file, folder, USB Drive in backwards compatibility mode. When, for example, you said you can open the USB on your Win XP machine not Win7, compatibility mode, specifically Win XP may permit you to open your USB drive. That is, a virtual machine is created that emulates XP, that is it acts as if you are running Win XP from within the Win 7 OS.

The Help Desk Geek website provides explanations and screenshots or snippets to walk you through the process.

As I said, it was a suggestion that may provide a solution to opening your USB drive on your Win7 machine. Worth a try in my opinion.

Snick

Hey Snick,

I think this may be a case of "crossed wires"

I know that Connecting to Virtual Disk Service is something that takes places in Disk Management.
I was simply stating as a standalone point of note that I've seen that this process is not succeeding on my Win 7 machine. That's all. I thought that info itself might shed some light on what's going on.
Because I know that in a way indirectly the goal is to get all the drives (including the problematic one) fully loaded up in there. If I could do that, then the problem would be solved.
In any case, by mentioning that, I wasn't referring to XP mode (or even XP itself). I'm not sure how that managed to come across but it was not at all what I meant or even was thinking of while writing that part.
(Sorry if I've somehow misunderstood you here though)

Anyway, re XP mode itself I in fact didn't know about it at all, so thank you very much for the explanation and the handy link and guide!
I've given it a go, but it didn't work. The compatibilty tool would not give me an actual result, but I went ahead with installing the rest and finally when I tried to run actual XP mode, got a message saying my version of Windows is not compatible.
I'll try again but it doesn't look good. I was hopeful though, as it could have worked great. Damn

Thanks for your advice!