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Question

Hard Drive

Jan 19, 2013 3:03PM PST

My hard drive crashed so I installed it into another computer to retrieve my photos and documents but the computer didn't recognize the driver. What do I do now?

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
More details please.
Jan 20, 2013 12:52AM PST

Make, model, age, does it spin?

You left out all the fine details so the replies are likely going to answer it's dead and gone.
Bob

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Answer
How did you connect it?
Jan 19, 2013 7:27PM PST

How did you connect it? Because if you tried to just boot the old OS off that drive in another computer, it will fail pretty spectacularly. However, if you put it into an external enclosure, or even set it up as a secondary non-boot drive, it should work just fine. At least with a few exceptions like trying to use an NTFS formatted drive on an older Win9x computer, but I see no details one way or the other about the two computers in question, error messages, or anything else to go on, so having to make a few best guesses.

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Answer
Even if connected the right way ...
Jan 19, 2013 9:21PM PST

it's possible it's just broken down and kaput. Then all you have is the latest backup of your photos and documents.

Kees

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Hard Drive
Jan 20, 2013 1:52AM PST

It's a Seagate Baracuda around 6 yrs. old and it sounds like it's spinning, I have it installed as an external drive on a computer with windows 8. It doesn't show up in the Bios and in "Computer".

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(NT) Does it show up in Disc Management?
Jan 20, 2013 2:24AM PST
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Hard Drive
Jan 20, 2013 3:07AM PST

No it doesn't show up in Disc Management.

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Don't want to give up yet.
Jan 20, 2013 3:11AM PST

But I can't find the model in this discussion. I see the make and model line name but the lack of detail means I can't comment in depth.

If this is all that we know I suggest you get a quote from http://www.drivesavers.com

If there is more detail, just add it.
Bob

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Model
Jan 20, 2013 7:20AM PST

It's a Seagate Baracuda 7200 ST3320620AS Hard Drive

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Good. Now the fine points.
Jan 20, 2013 7:29AM PST
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/sata/100402371a.pdf

Skip down to paragraph 3.2 and I see we can "Limit data transfer rate to1.5 Gbits per second".

Since we are in data recovery mode we do that!

Also I see this is a 320GB drive which "XP" will not understand at all until later service packs. That issue is well discussed and you would NEVER attach this to an older XP install because it could trash the drive's contents.

I'd boot up UBUNTU from USB stick or other media to see if I can see this drive.

Also, since this is SATA you must be familiar with the host machine. Some PCs disable the other SATA ports and for XP users they usually turn on IDE emulation because let's face it. XP is a terror to install with full SATA support.
Bob
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UBUNTU
Jan 21, 2013 10:38AM PST

What is UBUNTU?

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Ubuntu is a Linux based OS you can boot
Jan 21, 2013 10:48AM PST

Ubuntu is a Linux based OS you can boot from a DVD and in about 3 minutes have a Windows-like desktop when you need it to access your system when it won't boot. It can be downloaded from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop . You can get an ISO from there and burn it to a CD or DVD. If you need something to burn the disc, you can download the free Imgburn from http://www.imgburn.com . Ubuntu will boot from a CD in about 5 min., a DVD in about 3, and a flash drive (2 GB or larger) in about 2 min. It's a very handy tool because you can almost always use it to save your data when/if your system won't boot. Best of all it's totally free and easy to get and make the bootable disc.