Solve : Recovering a hard drive?

1.	Solve : Recovering a hard drive?
Answer» My Dell Studio 15 stopped working a few months ago. I haven't had time to try to FIX for it, and didn't want to shell out 300$ to simply get it fixed so I thought I'd try and try myself. All I'm trying to do is recover the contents of the hard drive. I bought this enclosure: http://www.crazysales.com.au/ritmo-2-5-inch-usb-2-0-sata-esata-hard-disk-hdd-mesh-enclosure-in-black_p5457.html And managed to remove the hard drive from the Dell and place it in that enclosure. I connected that to my current laptop and the hard drive shows up on the laptop. Two hard drive files specifically; one is called RECOVERY (F:) and the other is Local Disk (G:). I can look through (F:) but there isn't much to see. I can't go into (G:) THOUGH, Windows just freezes when I try to do so. How do I go about recovering files from (G:)? I've heard things like "slaving" it or something, I'm not sure what it is, but then I've also heard SATA drives (which I think this Dell's HDD is) don't require to be slaved. Are there any good, preferably free, programs available? Or is there anything else I can do? Quote from: squib23 on December 07, 2010, 05:16:25 AM ...And managed to remove the hard drive from the Dell and place it in that enclosure. I connected that to my current laptop and the hard drive shows up on the laptop. Two hard drive files specifically; one is called RECOVERY (F:) and the other is Local Disk (G:). I can look through (F:) but there isn't much to see. I can't go into (G:) though, Windows just freezes when I try to do so. How do I go about recovering files from (G:)? I've heard things like "slaving" it or something, I'm not sure what it is, but then I've also heard SATA drives (which I think this Dell's HDD is) don't require to be slaved... RECOVERY (F:) is the Dell Restore Partition: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm (G:) Partition is your old "C"-partition. Since Windows freezes when accessing, it appears the file system is corrupted. In My Computer, right-click "G", select TOOLS, Check for Errors. I've heard things like "slaving" it or something - refers to adding a 2nd hard drive via IDE (or PATA), where one drive is Master & the other is Slave. With newer computers that use SATA, there is no master/slave arrangement. Since you have a laptop, USB is the option, but the term "slaving" is still used. The old drive is probably still good.If windows is crashing when you try to access the files you may want to try another OS (if what suggested above doesn't work). Try downloading and burning a copy of Ubuntu and run the live disk. You could be able to see the old and new drives and copy from one to another. It's not a sure thing this would work but it may. Just DO NOT install Ubuntu but "try" it. Good luck. Quote from: joe3fl on December 08, 2010, 07:05:28 AM If windows is crashing when you try to access the files you may want to try another OS (if what suggested above doesn't work). Try downloading and burning a copy of Ubuntu and run the live disk. You could be able to see the old and new drives and copy from one to another. It's not a sure thing this would work but it may. Just DO NOT install Ubuntu but "try" it. Good luck. It will definitely work since he running a MODERN OS...PRESUMING XP or higher. Are you working on a fresh OS?

Answer»

My Dell Studio 15 stopped working a few months ago. I haven't had time to try to FIX for it, and didn't want to shell out 300$ to simply get it fixed so I thought I'd try and try myself. All I'm trying to do is recover the contents of the hard drive.

I bought this enclosure:
http://www.crazysales.com.au/ritmo-2-5-inch-usb-2-0-sata-esata-hard-disk-hdd-mesh-enclosure-in-black_p5457.html

And managed to remove the hard drive from the Dell and place it in that enclosure. I connected that to my current laptop and the hard drive shows up on the laptop. Two hard drive files specifically; one is called RECOVERY (F:) and the other is Local Disk (G:). I can look through (F:) but there isn't much to see. I can't go into (G:) THOUGH, Windows just freezes when I try to do so. How do I go about recovering files from (G:)? I've heard things like "slaving" it or something, I'm not sure what it is, but then I've also heard SATA drives (which I think this Dell's HDD is) don't require to be slaved.

Are there any good, preferably free, programs available? Or is there anything else I can do? Quote from: squib23 on December 07, 2010, 05:16:25 AM

...And managed to remove the hard drive from the Dell and place it in that enclosure. I connected that to my current laptop and the hard drive shows up on the laptop. Two hard drive files specifically; one is called RECOVERY (F:) and the other is Local Disk (G:). I can look through (F:) but there isn't much to see. I can't go into (G:) though, Windows just freezes when I try to do so. How do I go about recovering files from (G:)? I've heard things like "slaving" it or something, I'm not sure what it is, but then I've also heard SATA drives (which I think this Dell's HDD is) don't require to be slaved...

RECOVERY (F:) is the Dell Restore Partition: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm
(G:) Partition is your old "C"-partition. Since Windows freezes when accessing, it appears the file system is corrupted. In My Computer, right-click "G", select TOOLS, Check for Errors.
I've heard things like "slaving" it or something - refers to adding a 2nd hard drive via IDE (or PATA), where one drive is Master & the other is Slave. With newer computers that use SATA, there is no master/slave arrangement. Since you have a laptop, USB is the option, but the term "slaving" is still used.
The old drive is probably still good.If windows is crashing when you try to access the files you may want to try another OS (if what suggested above doesn't work). Try downloading and burning a copy of Ubuntu and run the live disk. You could be able to see the old and new drives and copy from one to another. It's not a sure thing this would work but it may. Just DO NOT install Ubuntu but "try" it. Good luck. Quote from: joe3fl on December 08, 2010, 07:05:28 AM

If windows is crashing when you try to access the files you may want to try another OS (if what suggested above doesn't work). Try downloading and burning a copy of Ubuntu and run the live disk. You could be able to see the old and new drives and copy from one to another. It's not a sure thing this would work but it may. Just DO NOT install Ubuntu but "try" it. Good luck.

It will definitely work since he running a MODERN OS...PRESUMING XP or higher.

Are you working on a fresh OS?

Solve : Recovering a hard drive?

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