External USB drive not recognized by Vista

G

Guest

I recently purchased an HP laptop running Vista Home Premium Edition to
replace a desktop machine running Windows XP that died of a motherboard
failure. Naturally I would like to recover the data from the old computer's
hard disk. I purchased an external drive enclosure (SYBA) with a USB
interface for this task. However I could not assign a drive letter for this
drive, nor could Vista recognize anything about the drive other than the
Device Manager recognized it correctly as a "Maxtor 6Y160P0 USB Device". I
gave the drive and enclosure to my brother-in-law who had an XP machine to
see if he could read it. Again, a drive letter could not be assigned. He
suggested that I run the Seagate/Maxtor drive diagnostics downloadable from
the Seagate website. Using SeaTools for Windows, I was able to run both the
short and long generic tests on the drive with the drive passing both tests.
My brother-in-law then said he had once read something about drives that are
bootable not being able to be read by XP or Vista when they are used as
external drives; unfortunately he could not remember where he had read this.
In fact, my old drive was the boot disk on my old computer, and it was
partitioned into four logical disks. He then suggested that I try
partitioning and recovery software on the drive.

I am hesitant to try such software until I can confirm that a drive with
boot sectors cannot be read as an external drive by Vista. Since there is
considerable valuable data and software on the old drive, I do not wish to
be tinkering with the drive without knowing more. I am open to suggestions
from the experts on this newsgroup as to where to go next. In case it is
needed I also have a USB-to-IDE cable to use in case the Syba enclosure
might be the problem. Suggestions on which recovery software tools are best
would also be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help. If replying directly, please delete the
eights from my email address. Having been on Usenet since 1983, I am well
aware of the "harvesting" of email addresses by spammers. In the "dark
ages" I could read every message in every newsgroup in less than two hours!

Barry (e-mail address removed)
 
R

Richard Urban

Hooking the drive up as a slave drive, and scanning it with recovery
software that is run from a boot disk (not from an installed operating
system) is not going to change the scanned drive in any way. You will just
see what files are recoverable by that particular recovery program. Then -
act accordingly!
 
P

Peter Foldes

You need to install that drive as a slave to your new drive .Using an outside enclosure with USB connection will not do for this. When installed as a slave (make sure jumpers are set correctly) you should be able to see the HD with the correct drive letter and then pull your data off from it
 
G

Guest

Peter Foldes said:
You need to install that drive as a slave to your new drive .Using an
outside enclosure with USB
connection will not do for this. When installed as a slave (make sure
jumpers are set correctly) you
should be able to see the HD with the correct drive letter and then pull
your data off from it
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help, Peter, and also Richard. Your reply also answered the
question I had with Richard's answer: what is meant by a slave drive. I
doubt if my laptop will hold the drive but I can add it to my
brother-in-laws XP machine. And as a final demonstration of my ignorance,
why must I boot from a boot disk and avoid an installed operating system
when running recovery software?

Finally, does Vista recognize the boot sector on the old drive and prevent
it from being assigned a logical drive letter, and does anyone recommend any
particular recovery software?

Barry L. Ornitz
 
R

Richard Urban

There is always a slim chance that hooking up the drive as a slave to a
functioning operating system "may" cause disk writes to the drive you are
trying to recover from. Will this over write that which you are trying to
recover? Why take the risk! If you create a boot floppy containing the
recovery program there is no risk whatsoever.
 
G

Guest

Richard Urban said:
There is always a slim chance that hooking up the drive as a slave to a
functioning operating system "may" cause disk writes to the drive you are
trying to recover from. Will this over write that which you are trying to
recover? Why take the risk! If you create a boot floppy containing the
recovery program there is no risk whatsoever.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Richard. This now makes sense.

Barry
 
E

ed315

NoSPAM said:
I recently purchased an HP laptop running Vista Home Premium Edition to
replace a desktop machine running Windows XP that died of a motherboard
failure. Naturally I would like to recover the data from the old computer's
hard disk. I purchased an external drive enclosure (SYBA) with a USB
interface for this task. However I could not assign a drive letter for this
drive, nor could Vista recognize anything about the drive other than the
Device Manager recognized it correctly as a "Maxtor 6Y160P0 USB Device". I
gave the drive and enclosure to my brother-in-law who had an XP machine to
see if he could read it. Again, a drive letter could not be assigned. He
suggested that I run the Seagate/Maxtor drive diagnostics downloadable from
the Seagate website. Using SeaTools for Windows, I was able to run both the
short and long generic tests on the drive with the drive passing both tests.
My brother-in-law then said he had once read something about drives that are
bootable not being able to be read by XP or Vista when they are used as
external drives; unfortunately he could not remember where he had read this.
In fact, my old drive was the boot disk on my old computer, and it was
partitioned into four logical disks. He then suggested that I try
partitioning and recovery software on the drive.

I am hesitant to try such software until I can confirm that a drive with
boot sectors cannot be read as an external drive by Vista. Since there is
considerable valuable data and software on the old drive, I do not wish to
be tinkering with the drive without knowing more. I am open to suggestions
from the experts on this newsgroup as to where to go next. In case it is
needed I also have a USB-to-IDE cable to use in case the Syba enclosure
might be the problem. Suggestions on which recovery software tools are best
would also be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help. If replying directly, please delete the
eights from my email address. Having been on Usenet since 1983, I am well
aware of the "harvesting" of email addresses by spammers. In the "dark
ages" I could read every message in every newsgroup in less than two hours!

Barry (e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
 
E

ed315

I found a solution to a similar problem somewhere else I do not recall .My
thanks to the original author anyway. Try this solution:
-Do not plug the hard drive to the front USBs but to the ones on the back
of your desktop.
Problem is ,the front USBs do not have enough power to actuate the drive.
I hope this works for you
 
M

Mick Murphy

Richard,

You have another Fake MVP here:

The name in Vista Forums: THE C. [MSFT Privacy and Disclosure]
Everywhere else: THE C. [MSFT MVP]
THE C. [MSFT MVP] wrote:

Here is a link that may help you with your old files. Link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421
Click to expand...

So on the newsgroups where you aren't moderated you pretend to be an MVP and
on the forums where you are moderated you pretend to work for Microsoft.
Very slick. Perhaps you should talk to your doctor about changing your
meds. The current level isn't working.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is THE C. information at Vista Newsgroups:
THE C. [MSFT MVP]
(e-mail address removed)
Recent Posts by this user
Member since: 11/29/2008

History Posts: 211 Users helped: 1
Questions answered: 1

________________________________________ ________________________________________
About me http://www.techgroupinc.com/uploads/files/hipaa-privacy-training.pdf
Posting Name: THE C. [MSFT MVP]
His Signature there at Vista Newsgroups:
Computer/Software Tech.

Make it a great day!

Charles Richmond


A reply when I accused him(FAKE MVP) in Vista Newsgroups:

By: THE C. [MSFT MVP]
In: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general



<SNIP> I am putting an end to it.

--
Mick Murphy


Sticky up for your girlfriend, Malkleah? You have nothing on The C. except
"stupidity!" Still waiting for the end to come from you, Micky! I gotta see
this.


The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/
*WARNING* Do NOT follow any advice given by the people listed below.
They do NOT have the expertise or knowledge to fix your issue. Do not
waste your time.
David H Lipman, Malke, PA Bear, Beauregard T. Shagnasty, Leythos, Mick Murphy.
 

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