after re-install of OS XP home. Toshiba storage device is not found 1

[Pippinlady]

I think the pc got the virus from internet explorer. Our subscription expired while on holiday and hubby may have used it before I renewed it, so I had to completely re-install the OS on my hubby's 390 emachine.
Now it does not find the Toshiba External hard drive 300 or 500 GB I think).
It has all his video edited films on it so we do need to get this working.

It does see the Sony DVD Writer which is external
Any advice please.

Wonder if it was switched off before being dismounted?
If so is there anything I can do to re-instate it.

Thanks





emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[vacunita]

Is the drive being picked up in the Drive Management console?

Right Click on My Computer and then Click on Manage.

Scroll down to Drive Management and see if its their.

It could something simple such as it was not given a drive letter by the OS.

If you can assign a drive letter to it.

If you can't you may need some data recovery software to get the files back from the drive.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[BadBigBen]

is it a USB drive?

if it is USB - unplug it, and plug it into another USB port... sometimes XP hick-ups if you leave the USB drive attached on an install...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Pippinlady]

Hi Vacunita I tried that earlier, didn't show up in the management tool. :-(

Bigbadben, had also already tried changing the usb access.
still nothing.
Can anyone recommend data recovery software please, that doesn't cost a fortune.

I I have a feeling it might have become corrupted due to not being dismounted at some point.
Darn it!!
More hassle.
Unless anyone else has some answers I can try before that.
Thanks to the above two people for taking the time to reply.


emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[vacunita]

I usually use GetDataBack by runtime.org. It does an outstanding job at recovering stuff but it ain't that cheap.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[goombawaho]

Um - GetDataBack is $79 US Dollars. That's cheap to me vs. sending a hard drive out to be recovered professionally (which is the only way to do it if the drive is really messed up i.e. clicking or whining).

Professional recovery through Gillware, which our company uses to send customer drives for recovery runs the customer about $500/$600 depending on some factors. That would be NOT CHEAP in my book.

 

[BadBigBen]

I agree with the guys, but just out of curiosity and possible to save a few bucks:

1. it is a USB drive (established)...

2. the drive is not recognized (established)...

3. is the Toshiba case being recognized at all? e.g. (as asked by Vacunita) does the Drive Management see the drive at all?

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[vacunita]

I'm going to have to echo Ben's question. Because if the drive is not being picked up at all in the Drive Management console then the data recovery app is not going to work.

Next step would be to try and open up the external casing for the drive and plug the drive directly into the inside of the PC.

Or maybe into another USB casing. That way we can know if the drive died or only the casing dies.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[goombawaho]

Yes agreed before doing anything drastic or expense:

Next step would be to try and open up the external casing for the drive and plug the drive directly into the inside of the PC

 

[Pippinlady]

Hi Guys, thanks for the suggestions.
At the moment I have it sitting in my freezer, which was a suggestion from a software engineer I know.
Didn't work the first time but he said it took four goes once for him to get a drive to re-awaken.
I don't hear any sounds at all when I try to start it up which suggests it is pretty dead.
Will give the freezer method another couple of goes before I open up the casing and try that one.
Greatly appreciated your suggestions and for the data recovery if we manage to get to that point.
thankfully Hubby has most of his videos on DVDs or video tape, but his latest one didn't get to that point and it was our last holiday,a Caribbean Cruise so would not like to lose it if possible.

best wishes
The Apple lady!!! LOL!

emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[BadBigBen]

I don't hear any sounds at all when I try to start it up which suggests it is pretty dead.

nope, that only establishes that the drive gets no power from the case, at this point... Have you tried what was suggested, to place the drive into the PC? there you will notice if it doesn't work (spin up) or not for sure...

At the moment I have it sitting in my freezer, which was a suggestion from a software engineer I know.

I hope he told you to pack it in a plastic bag!!! moisture can ruin the PCB on the drive, rendering it useless to all but the Recovery People who take BIG bucks...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[Pippinlady]

yes it was carefully wrapped and sealed and I was careful when I took it out.
didn't work again so now I will try taking it out of its casing and plugging directly into the pc.
will keep you posted.
Thanks


emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[goombawaho]

FYI - I watched a webinar from a data recovery company and they laughed when someone mentioned the old freezer trick. They definitely frowned on this unless it was your last idea before throwing the drive out. They warned of condensation on the inside of the drive.

 

[SimonDavies]

Can you hear the drive powering up at all when you plug in power\usb cables?

Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[Pippinlady]

UPDATE, good news so far.
I have now obtained an IDE cable stripped the box down, plugged it into the PC directly and IT WORKED. It was recognised as new hardware and I could see all the files.
So now I am going to buy a new Ext storage.
probably a Lacie as I have 2 of those and never had a problem..

but I would love to know what the problem may have been with the casing components.
if anyone can suggest anything I can do without compromising the drive now. I will only do that once I have transferred everything to the new drive.

Is there a way to do it directly otherwise the only way I can do it with 117GB of files is to copy them in batches to the pc then copy to the new drive as the pc's HD is not big enough.
The majority are backed up on DVD's but the new ones are not yet so they will be my priority.
Hubby just told me the new holiday files are only on the camera....DOH!!!
BUT they are corrupted so I am going to contact SONY to see if they can rescue them as we only bought the camera Nov 2008.



Happy days



emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[Pippinlady]

Hi Again, I plugged in the new 750Gb Lacie drive but strangely it is coming up as the D drive, I expected the old Toshiba to be that as I unplugged the CD ROM drive to utilise the space using an IDE cable to link the Toshiba to the PC directly.
BUT the Toshiba comes up as an 'F' drive, so I expected the LaCie to be 'G' at the least.
The Lacie is plugged into the USB port on the front of the PC.
I might try plugging it into one on the back to see if that makes a difference.

So now when hubby tries to move his files from the Toshiba to the LaCie he gets an error message 'NOT enough space'.
At first I wondered if it was something to do with the cache on the Lacie being 8mb but I am not sure that is the problem.

Or is it?

Would he need to move the files to the PC then to the LaCie?

Advice on this please as hubby is about to chuck it all out of the window.

Thanks



emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[Pippinlady]

Hubby uses Pinnacle Studio 7 to edit his files which we know is old but when he used the most uptodate version 10, he could not get on with it very well so he went back to V 7.

I have found that we can transfer some of the files. unfortunately I don't know what makes the difference e.g. .scn will move, so will those that have a CD icon, and others that don't have any extension, but different ones that also DO NOT have an extension will not, getting the not enough space message as before.

I am hoping this is enough information but let me know if you need anything else to assist us.
Hope you can understand this.

thank you so much for any help.




emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[Pippinlady]

Hah! found out how to discover the hidden extensions.
Seems like all the files that wouldn't transfer are .avi, which is strange as quite a few .avi files did transfer.

I am now completely puzzled.

Hoping for help soon.
thanks



emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!

 

[BadBigBen]

This could be due to the AVI corruption bug...

Run regedit and find the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler

Delete the “Default” value and close regedit. A reboot may be needed for it to work...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[Pippinlady]

Thank you BigBadBen, I will try that tomorrow when I have access to the pc again.
I did try 'properties'on each of the AVI files and found all those over 1000 KB were the ones that did not copy over.
Forgive my lack of knowledge on Windows related problems as I am so used to my iMac I forget how things work on XP.

best wishes



emachine 2.3 mhz 80 gb hdd 512 RAM Wireless connection thru Airport Express/Belkin F5D7000 card
Forgive my mistakes it's how I learn!