Recover Date from Laptop Hard Drive..

kraizyswan

Honorable
Mar 26, 2013
46
0
10,530
Hello, I broke my Toshiba Laptop (L505-S5990).. so I took the Hard Drive out to recover my files.. I purchased a USB adapter on eBay (this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/370674469363)..

Just received it in the mail today, and I've tried connecting it to my old Desktop which is running XP, (my broken Toshiba had Win7, does that automatically mean it won't work?)

Well I also tried connecting it to my friends Laptop, which is running Win7.. both times I tried opening the drive ( E: ), it tells me that I must format it, which is not what I want to do!! ..I want to recover the files on that drive!!

..The only thing I can think of, is formatting it, then downloading some program to try to recover the files after they've been formatted.. (I've previously tried a program called "Recuva" to recover a video that I accidently erased from my Recycle Bin.. not sure if that would work on a formatted hard drive?)

PLEASE!!!! any help would be much appreciated.. I have pictures and videos on the hard drive I desperately would like to recover... thanks in advance for any help :/

[edit]: would purchasing an external enclosure make any difference? I assumed that a USB adapter and an enclosure were basically the same thing, just without the case.. (I apologize I'm not very tech-savvy, and would really like some advice!)
 
Solution
The external enclosure probably will not make a difference. I have used a USB cable on SATA drives and it worked the same as if they were in an enclosure. Have you tried attaching the drive before powering up the computer?

kraizyswan

Honorable
Mar 26, 2013
46
0
10,530
So I downloaded "Recuva" and I was able to find stuff I deleted, and a bunch of random facebook pictures and stuff that i'm assuming were like "temporary internet files" or whatever.. But I wasn't able to recover anything I needed, which is basically just all the folders I had on my desktop..... any suggestions?