Solved good HDD showing up as RAW asking for format via USB cradle

[Prozak]

I have a laptop that boots up to windows 7 pro 64 just fine. I went to copy some files to another windows 7 pro 64 machine. I took the HDD out of the laptop and connected it to my external caddy on my desktop. The drive shows up as a healthy drive, but in RAW format. Its asking me to format it.

Why is this happening? I looked around for answers and saw something about permissions, but I don't have the security tab to even change the permissions of the drive.

any help would be appreciated.

 

[Mark Phelps]

IN my own experience, a formatted drive suddenly showing up as RAW indicates some kind of hardware failures on that drive. I've had that happen to me three times (all on different drives), the latest being last week -- and in all three cases, the drives were failing. The latest one crashed suddenly and could not be recovered short of commercial data recovery.

My own suggestion is to download and install RecoverMyFiles, run it, and see if it can find any folders or files on that drive. IF it does, then consider buying a license and using that product to recover what you can from the drive.

You could also do the same with the new Minitool Data Recovery app.

Both of these are free to install and try -- to see how well they work -- but both require purchase of a license to do the actual data recovery.

If neither of these work, your drive is likely to be trashed -- as was the case with mine.

 

[Kaktussoft]

I have a laptop that boots up to windows 7 pro 64 just fine. I went to copy some files to another windows 7 pro 64 machine. I took the HDD out of the laptop and connected it to my external caddy on my desktop. The drive shows up as a healthy drive, but in RAW format. Its asking me to format it.

Why is this happening? I looked around for answers and saw something about permissions, but I don't have the security tab to even change the permissions of the drive.

any help would be appreciated.

Post screenshot of disk managenment please

 

[whs]

What happens if you put it back into the laptop.

There are certainly better ways to copy some files.

 

[Slartybart]

After you post the Disk mngmt screen shot requested by Kaktussoft

Download and install the free Minitool Partition Wizard (PW) Home edition
Launch PW and post the main window screen shot showing the questionable drive.
See: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[Prozak]

What happens if you put it back into the laptop.

There are certainly better ways to copy some files.

it works fine when back in the laptop. the drive is in perfect working order. Yes I realize there are better ways to copy files, but im baffled as to why I cant see the files on another computer with the same exact OS.

here is a screen shot of disk management

 

[Prozak]

After you post the Disk mngmt screen shot requested by Kaktussoft

Download and install the free Minitool Partition Wizard (PW) Home edition
Launch PW and post the main window screen shot showing the questionable drive.
See: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

here it is in partition wizard

 

[Kaktussoft]

Disk management shows whole disk as 1 partition. It calls it E and is RAW.
PW shows 2 partitions!!! 1 unformatted 11.72GB and 1 "other" siezed 454.04GB.

Both screen taken on same machine within win7?

Is it really 1 partition or 2 (check on other machine)?

 

[Prozak]

Yes those screen shots were taken from the same machine. My Desktop.


These following screen shots are from the LAPTOP drive when placed back into the laptop. The drive is working fine, and it actually shows 3 partitions....

 

[Kaktussoft]

I see a usb stick and a hard drive in the latest screenshot. Where is the external disk ... size about 465GB ??

 

[Prozak]

I see a usb stick and a hard drive in the latest screenshot. Where is the external disk ... size about 465GB ??

that's the external disk back in the original laptop.... Sorry for the confusion, have to read carefully to follow my madness.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

What kind of USB enclosure you are using ? (make and model).

 

[whs]

If I were you, I would leave the disk in the laptop. You may risk losing the whole thing if you keep mucking around with it.

 

[Slartybart]

This is a very interesting thread.

The drive appears fine in it's proper location, the laptop.

When it is in a USB enclosure the USB adapter is used to connect it to the Desktop the entire disk appears as RAW in Disk Mgmt, but PW shows two parts; 11.72 GB unallocated, and 454.04 GB Type: Other

Both the Desktop and Laptop are Lenovo machines and the respective Disk0 have the identical layout (system, OS, Recovery) except for the slight variances in size.

System and Recovery parts
Looking at the PW screen shots, when the drive in enclosed is connected using the USB adapter it seems as though the System and Recovery parts are presented together in the unallocated part. When the drive is in the Laptop, the parts are presented normally.

No solution in this post, just thinking out loud.

 

[Prozak]

What kind of USB enclosure you are using ? (make and model).

its a Tripp-lite USB to SATA/IDE adapter, model U238-000. Its just a cheap tool ive been using for years to recover data. I haven't tried connecting it to the motherboard directly, but I suppose I could try that.

and to the comment about mucking around with it ? I'm a network technician and have been for 15 years. Moving a hard drive around is not going to ruin it. Why I'm doing this is not important. I'm just looking for the reason & solution. I need to get this to work to test something else.

 

[Slartybart]

... I haven't tried connecting it to the motherboard directly, but I suppose I could try that.
...

That would provide more information
- please post both Disk Mgmt & PW screen shots if you decide to connect it directly to a port in the Desktop

Have you used the enclosure adapter and this particular drive together successfully in the past?

Thanks,

Bill
.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

its a Tripp-lite USB to SATA/IDE adapter, model U238-000. Its just a cheap tool ive been using for years to recover data.

Have you tried another HDD as a test ?. May be the converter just gone bad. Since you are a networking pro, i assume you won't have difficulty to get another HDD for testing.

 

[Prozak]

So I connected the HDD directly to the motherboard, and what do you know? It worked perfectly, making the USB adapter the culprit. Time for a new one. Thanks for the help.

 

[Slartybart]

Good news Prozak.

Shop for a new one very carefully. There are a lot of threads about this same type of behavior, all with different enclosures, adapters - and different drives

Unfortunately, I don't have a good recommendation. The issue seems to be represented fairly evenly across the board.

Pleas update the thread with what you get and if it works or doesn't work (that will help making a recommendation). If it doesn't work, I'm sure you'll try another brand / type.

Thanks,

Bill
.