Retrieving data from malfunctioning hd from old windows 7 pro machine,

[Quadzilla]

Hello everyone, I'm hoping one of you can help me retrieve data off a hard drive that came from an old Dell XPS and was running Windows 7 Pro. The PC was approximately 8 to 10 years old and was running great up until about a month ago. I ran regular backups but I admit, there are still some files I'd like to get off the hard drive if possible.

I'll give you as much info as I can but please be patient, I was diagnosed with something called siderosis about a year ago and so my memory is very poor. The problem I had with the PC started when I had to reboot it for some reason, when I did, instead of Windows restarting, the screen turned black displaying an error message " Bootmgr is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". Pressing those keys just brought me back to the same error message so I got my Windows 7 Pro install disk and inserted into the external DVD burner. FYI, a few months before the PCs built in DVD burner had stopped working. Also FYI, prior running the install disc, I went into the BIOS and made the external DVD burner the first boot device. Also FYI, no where in the Bios could I see my PCs internal hard drive listed.

I rebooted the machine and the Windows 7 Pro install disc started running but when I chose the repair option, it said the disc wasn't valid for the operating system on the PC and to use another disk. I did have a Windows 7 Home install disc so I'm assuming at one point I must have upgraded to Windows 7 Pro and that's why I was getting this message? Anyway, I ran the Windows 7 Home install disc instead, and selected the repair option but when the window that was supposed to list my operating system for me to select to repair, that part of the window was blank. There was no operating system or anything listed.

Being desperate, I selected the first repair option and clicked next and thank goodness, the menu with all the various repair options popped up. I clicked the startup repair and windows ran a quick program which ended with a message saying it was successful. There was a link to see what was done which I looked at, I don't recall all the text but there were about five or six different tests listed, the first few seem to have run fine, ending with code 00 and the last one listed said the partition table was missing a valid system partition and the repair done was a partition table repair and that the repair was successful.

I clicked finish and a message was displayed saying the machine might have to reboot twice in order to complete the repairs and so I let it run. I guess because the install disc was still in the drive, the install disk just ran again so out of curiosity, I clicked the repair option to see if the operating system would be displayed this time but it was not. So, I removed the install disc and rebooted the machine and this time, I got what looked like a bios menu asking me to choose a disk to boot from but this time, the PC's internal hard drive was the first one listed! WDCxxx, whatever it was I was psyched! I hit enter and sure enough Windows restarted after displaying the not shutting down properly message.

Considering the PCS age, I knew I could run into that problem again so I started backing up as much data as I could. The first thing I did was to run one of the backups I had set up to an external drive, this was mostly documents and pictures. There was still quite a bit of data in folders on my desktop that I wanted to back up but unfortunately, I was never able to get around to it as after a few more days, I got the same boot manager missing error message. I went through the same procedure to try and repair it and even got the same results including the final message that the partition table was successfully repaired. However, this time when I rebooted, Windows would never restart, I kept getting the Boot Manager missing error. I tried several times but could never get Windows back.

So, I ended up buying a new pc, a Dell XPS with Windows 10. My brother has a cable that can attach to a hard drive and a USB connector to attach to a PC to allow a person to access the data on that hard drive. Unfortunately, when he attached the cable to my old hard drive and the other end to my new pc, nothing happened, no new drives appeared. We tried the same thing on an old Dell 1525 laptop running Windows Vista, no new drives were recognized.

I don't know the brand name of this cable but I'm wondering if all those devices operate the same? I know some companies make similar devices but instead of a cable they offer an enclosure you put the hard drive in and hook it up to a PC with hopes of accessing the data on the hard drive, any idea if I'd have any better luck with one of those? any other ideas on getting access to the data on the hard drive? Some of the data it is fairly important, I suppose I'd be willing to spend around $100 to get access to the data.

The other question I had was about the original file backup I mentioned, can I use Windows 10 to restore that to my new pc? When I right click the file and click properties, it ask me " do you want to restore files from this backup?" & " how do I manage the disk space used by the backup?". When I click that second link, nothing happens. Will Windows 10 create the same folders and files that were on my old Windows 7 machine? Thanks in advance for any info you can provide!

 

[SIW2]

The PC was approximately 8 to 10 years old

Presumably it is a 3.5" mechanical disk

My brother has a cable that can attach to a hard drive and a USB connector to attach to a PC to allow a person to access the data on that hard drive

Those cables usually only work for the small 2.5" disks, they cant power a full size 3.5" disk.

You might be able to access the sick disk if you use a proper enclosure with a power supply, which can be had quite cheaply

Alternatively you could attach the sick disk internally to a spare sata data and power connector on a machine which has a functioning operating system on a different disk..

I dont know which xps you have just bought. If it is a desktop, there must be spare sata connectors on the motherboard. You can attach the old sick disk to your new machine internally and hope you can access it when you boot into win10 on the new machine.

Otherwise, sending disks off to specialist recovery firm can be very expensive, there is place in Canada that does it for $400 , I dont know if that offer is still on.

 

[file3456]

If the hard drive looks like this, then it'll need a cable with a power adapter like this. From Amazon. From eBay.

The key thing here that they fail to show in the images is the needed power adapter which is included. The power adapter is used for 5.25" disks. A 2.5" disk doesn't need one as the USB power is used. A 5.25" disk uses 5v and 12v where's a 2.5" disk just uses 5v - same as USB power. According to the power adapter image on eBay, the power adapter is UL listed. Meaning the company took the extra step (and money) to have Underwriters Laboratories test their product for safety compliance and what not. Many, and I mean MANY companies on Amazon don't do this. This extra step is just one indicator to me the product isn't cheap crap and will blow up your house. I mean cause a fire. At least the risk is mitigated... There's other certifications in the U.S. as well. Like NEMA and what not for surge protectors and backup batteries (UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply).


Are the enclosures the same as the adapters? Yes. You're pretty much buying the addition of a nice little box for your HDD. Well, maybe some enclosure products have some different circuity on the order of quality components, but many may not.

As to your initial issue. The boot manger going bad all the time to me sounds like the HDD has died, and with it other data could be corrupt, not just the boot manager. And the more you use the drive the worse it can get. If you used the proper HDD adapter and the drive wasn't identified, the drive is just borked. There are some really nerdy things that can be done, but you risk data loss. Your only option at this point would be a professional trustworthy and reputable data recovery service.

If you can get that drive to ID in a computer, I'd run HDD Raw Copy Tool. That little piece of magnificence will clone the drive in a raw state sector by sector as an image file. An image file that can be written back to another hard drive with HDD Raw Copy Tool or read with IMDisk or other software that can open IMG image files... I use this software in a live boot disk called Hirens for my cloning needs. I don't use some propriety cloning backup program. I boot Hirens with Ventoy on a USB drive. Best part about HDD Raw Copy Tool is that it'll clone an encrypted disk without issue since it's sector by sector. I used to use Clonzilla for encrypted HDD clones prior to this.

What software did you use to make backups?


PS:

HDD Raw Copy Tool will clone SD cards or other flash based mediums like a thumb drive. My SD card for a camcorder doesn't respond too well when pulling gigabytes worth of data off it in Windows Explorer copy/paste. But if I use HDD Raw Copy Tool and clone the SD card as an IMG file, I can now open that IMG file in ImDisk and see all my videos from the SD card. And I now have a backup... I'm now wondering if TeraCopy would have worked, but using that program in the past seems to have maybe messed with explorer.

 

[Quadzilla]

Thanks, here's the drive model number, & more questions

Thank you both for the replies, you've been very helpful. FYI, the cable that my brother had did have two USB connectors and He put them both into the laptop and PC we tried to use to retrieve the data, does that mean his adapter is one of the morePowerful ones you mentioned? Also, for whatever it's worth, the model number of the drive that failed is WDC WD10EZEX-07M2NA0,Or at least that's what popped up on the menu when the PC and rebooted after I removed the windows 7 install disc,I was so damn excited, I took a picture on it, menu reaD " please select boot device:" in that hard drive was the first thing listed.Also, Simpilot, I just used the windows 7 built in backup software. The back up software left a file named " XPS" with no extension.On the drive where I saved a to. I just noticed, when I right click that file, its size shows as zero bytes, is that normal?I haven't tried the actual restore process yet, just trying to get as much info before I do it so I don't screw it up. Thanks again.

 

[SIW2]

the cable that my brother had did have two USB connectors and He put them both into the laptop and PC

They have a separate power adapter that plugs into a wall socket.

The back up software left a file named " XPS"

It creates a folder called WindowsImageBackup. The image file has a .vhd extension.

 

[samuria]

If you get the disk connected ok then you wont be able to get the files as you will get access denied you will have to take ownership of folders as they will be owned by the admin of the other pc

 

[Mike Lynch]

If the disk in question is still installed in the pc or can be reinstalled, with an external drive attached, why not run Windows Easy File Transfer?
It should copy all the files your interested in to the external drive.
Just a guess / suggestion.