Bios nor Windows sees my data hard drive

**Sadoj** · June 27th, 2010, 06:21 PM

I know this is has been addressed before; however, the responses did not solve my issue. I will include more detail about my issue in hopes of a better diagnoses.

I accidentally changed my external Data hard drive from NTFS to HFS when prompted, while connecting via USB to a macbook. Now I can no longer see the hard drive via USB or direct connection to my PC.

I took it out it's case and noticed it has an IDE connection for a motherboard that only has SATA connections. I purchased an IDE to SATA Adapter and installed it into my computer.......nothing. The BIOS and Windows still does not see this drive. I had the same problem on an older computer that had IDE and SATA connections.

I am aware I have two separate issues. In order to correct the file structure issue I have to gain access to the drive.

This is a Data Drive of which I am trying to recover important data.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Information:

The hard drive powers up both in the external case and with the adapter.

OS:
1. Windows 7 Professional x64 (with all updates)

Mother Board:
1. ASRock 880G Extreme 3 (with latest bios)
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

BIOS:
1. BIOS is set to IDE mode

Hard Drive:
1. Western Digital WD2000JB-00GVA0
(single or master pin setting)

Adapter:
ULTRA SATA to IDE 100/133 Adapter #ULT40322

**Ferrit** · June 27th, 2010, 08:35 PM

Frankly I would be sending the drive to a data recovery company that specializes in this.
From what you have done so far, I would stop immediately.

**Niclo Iste** · June 28th, 2010, 08:06 AM

I agree with Ferrit. If you are trying to get data off of this drive the more you mess with things the higher your chance of damaging or losing information. Unless you know how to do data recovery correctly I would suggest following his advice and send it to a data recovery facility.

**CeeBee** · June 28th, 2010, 11:33 AM

What the other 2 have said. Send it to a data recovery company. Be prepared to shell out some $2000.

**Sadoj** · June 30th, 2010, 01:06 AM

Gentlemen:

Thanks for your suggestions. I have the need but not the budget for a Recovery Service.

I did however manage to get the computer to see the unallocated data drive and am now formulating a plan to recover the data.

What I can't seem to figure out is how to clone an unallocated drive?

**Sadoj** · June 30th, 2010, 03:00 AM

I have solved my problem!!

I had to exchange the SATA to IDE adapter for an IDE PCI Controller. After updating both the BIOS and Driver of the Controller, my computer's BIOS and Windows 7 was able to see the drive. I then used TestDisk to recover the partition (it saw the remnants of the original NTFS partition). I had been dreading this task for some time. It seemed so daunting; however, it was quick and somewhat painless. Thank you all for your help.

**Niclo Iste** · June 30th, 2010, 08:40 AM

The reason you can't clone an unallocated drive is the fact that most if not all cloning software sees unallocated as "clean" or empty and therefore have nothing to clone. Older versions of some programs will clone whatever you tell them to however I wouldn't trust that they will get what you want if the item is unallocated.

I do not suggest trying what I am stating next as it may put data at risk.

Older programs like ghost 4.0 will clone indiscriminately whatever it's told to. In fact if I recall versions 5 and 6 may also do so. Most cloners from 2000 and earlier weren't as hands free as the ones we have now so they allowed you to do whatever. Provided you knew what you were doing. This can allow you to totally destroy a drive so there is a lot of risk if you set the wrong settings or clone the wrong drive.

**Sadoj** · June 30th, 2010, 08:32 PM

Niclo Iste:

Thanks for the "Cloning" follow up. I was curious about that. Every cloning program I tried would not allow me to clone the unallocated drive even though there was data on it. I'm just very relieved that I was able to solve my problem thanks to TestDisk.