32 bit Hard drive on a 64 bit os?

Brorin · Jan 6, 2014

Hello

I have an external hard drive that was originally used on a 32 windows vista machine. That computer crashed and I tried to connect the external hd to my 64 bit windows 7 machine only to find that I cannot access the files. I have gotten error messages that say there is no partition available and that I have to reformat the drive. I do not want to lose the files on this drive. Is there any possible way to access my files on this hard drive now connected to a 64 bit os? Will I need to connect it to another vista machine? I have looked all over the internet and have came up empty handed so far.

Thanks in advance!

elmo2006 · Jan 6, 2014

Brorin :

You can try to boot with a live cd or try the drive in another system. With a live cd, you boot the system using this disk then mount the drive in question and then hopefully once mounted, you should be able to peruse the drive and migrate the contents to another drive.

laviniuc · Jan 6, 2014

it doesn't matter what version the os are/were. sounds like the hdd was damaged when the old pc crashed. try to recover it with recuva. there is a option in the advanced tab somewhere to recover from uninitialized drives or smth like that.

if it doesn't work you should take it to a repair shop maybe they can recover the data...

ronintexas · Jan 6, 2014

The partition/format of the drive on Vista 32-bit vs. Windows 7 64-bit isn't any different (FAT, FAT32, NTFS).

1) Does the BIOS detect the drive?
2) Does disk manager detect the drive?

Brorin · Jan 6, 2014

"unable to determine file system type" was the error I got when I tried to run recuva on the external hd.

Brorin · Jan 6, 2014

ronintexas :

Yes the disk manager recognizes the drive as drive F. It says that 0% of the drive has been used and when I double click on the drive it asks me to format the drive before I can use it. It worked just fine on my laptop when I backed up my files to it.

ronintexas · Jan 6, 2014

Can you still read it on the laptop?

Brorin · Jan 6, 2014

ronintexas :

Unfortunately the laptop has died at this point and will not come on...I'm going to try connecting it to a 32 bit os and see if there is some type of problem with the os im currently hooking it up to.

ronintexas · Jan 6, 2014

I have found that some system may require drivers to recognize the drives. It is always a possibility that if it was connected while the laptop died, there could be problems as well. Is there a model # on the drive?

popatim · Jan 6, 2014

Was the drive connected or in use when the old laptop died?

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32 bit Hard drive on a 64 bit os?

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