Anyone know what's a good utility (under Windoze XP) to read an external hard drive that just got flaky? It won't mount.

Last time this happened (on a different drive) I was able to use a linux computer & mount the drive using NTFS-3G which worked just fine. This time I don't have a linux computer available...

XP-pro-SP3
drive in question is NTFS

 

Hrrrrm. I wish I could help, there are a few commercially available apps that you could try. I know your on Winblowz, but for Mac there is an app called Disk Warrior and it may have a Windows counterpart. I would go to a computer store and tell them the problem. I certainly don't want to push you towards a data recovery company, but depending on the importance of the files, you may have to do that.

Hopefully, its just a loose cable inside the harddrive enclosure. My laptop harddrive cable comes loose once in a while and it acts like the harddrive died.

 

Yeah, I'm gonna look at that first. It's an external USB compact drive (little drive like what's inside a laptop). I'm looking for the cheap way out, because the data loss isn't all that bad (few hundred ripped music CDs). It would just take me awhile to rebuild that collection for my mp3 player.

 

Data recovery apps are not cheap, and it will only work if your drive has logic problem, if it is mechanical your out of luck. Does it make any kind of clicking or abnormal sound? If you were to get the app, and it were to run successfully, your going to have to rename and reorganize every file. If you really need it and can't afford the app, I can get it for you for free, just a download away.

 

Yeah, I might take you up on that. I haven't opened the case yet to check for loose wires. The pilot-light comes on, but it sounds like it doesn't start spinning up. The drive never shows up in disk manager, so somehow it's not doing the very first logical handshake with the computer.

 

Sounds like a logic and not mechanical problem so you may be in luck! I'll get on looking for the best recovery app. If it's really big I'll have to mail you a DVD, but I should be able to upload it to you. If it only a couple hundred megs I'll upload it to rapidshare, or if I can get my FTP server up and running again you can DL it directly from me.

 

I'm having trouble finding a guaranteed working, and easy to install data recovery app. I can't test it my self to make sure it works, so I want to be certain it is working. Also cracking and installing cracked apps can be a bit complicated so I'm trying to find something simple, but haven't found anythign yet. There are plenty of options for data recovery though. Just so you know, after recovery each and every file on your drive will be in one big folder, with random names. So you will have to go through each file, identify it and rename it. Which is a serious hassle for a music collection.

 

OK, don't worry. I appreciate the help.

 

OK, now it's a moot point. I found the external drive was still under warranty, so it's already GONE. Got a brand new one. Now I have to re-rip my collection of CDs.

 

That's good, if you have all the CDs then it would be easier to rip a ton of CDs than to go through all the files with random names and identify them with the data recovery apps.