- Nov 20, 2006
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Moving a hard drive to a new external USB enclosure can be very hazardous to data. Today, I moved a one TB SATA HD to a new enclosure with a better built-in fan, an enclosure made by the same OEM, MassCool. Thinking all was well, I simply applied power to the new enclosure to test performance, and found I had no drive at all showing under Windows file manager.
Naturally, I took a deep breath, and wondered what could be wrong. Had the HD crashed? So, I did a check with MiniTools Partition Manager, and found the HD among the active devices it found. But there was no partition-- and for me, that was the worst news, since all my important system images of other computers resided on that drive.
At this point, I had to reconcile myself to the fact I had lost all the images, since recovering even most of the DVD-sized segments of each image set was not enough. Most restore processes abort automatically if part of the restore file set is missing or damaged.
So, now I ask you-- is there a reliable rule on when it is safe to move HDs between different USB enclosures? Sometimes? All the time? Never?
Understanding that the HD controller is the issue, I had guessed my MassCool controller for the original USB2.0 enclosure would not be that different than the MassCool controller of the new USB3.0 enclosure. Clearly, I was wrong, but what made the experience even more frustrating is I have written no new data to the HD in either enclosure since I discovered the problem. I should have been able simply to return the HD to its original USB2.0 enclosure, and have the controller find all its marks, just as it left them. But when I tried that, the HD did not appear under Windows File Manager.
Only two questions remain-- (1) What went wrong? Is this issue explained in any article or document? (2) Could I still recover all the data,.at this point, provided I have not written to the HD? The MassCool external USB enclosure models involved are MassCool UHB302 UPS for the USB2.0 enclosure, and MassCool UHB300 U3 for the USB3.0 enclosure.
Naturally, I took a deep breath, and wondered what could be wrong. Had the HD crashed? So, I did a check with MiniTools Partition Manager, and found the HD among the active devices it found. But there was no partition-- and for me, that was the worst news, since all my important system images of other computers resided on that drive.
At this point, I had to reconcile myself to the fact I had lost all the images, since recovering even most of the DVD-sized segments of each image set was not enough. Most restore processes abort automatically if part of the restore file set is missing or damaged.
So, now I ask you-- is there a reliable rule on when it is safe to move HDs between different USB enclosures? Sometimes? All the time? Never?
Understanding that the HD controller is the issue, I had guessed my MassCool controller for the original USB2.0 enclosure would not be that different than the MassCool controller of the new USB3.0 enclosure. Clearly, I was wrong, but what made the experience even more frustrating is I have written no new data to the HD in either enclosure since I discovered the problem. I should have been able simply to return the HD to its original USB2.0 enclosure, and have the controller find all its marks, just as it left them. But when I tried that, the HD did not appear under Windows File Manager.
Only two questions remain-- (1) What went wrong? Is this issue explained in any article or document? (2) Could I still recover all the data,.at this point, provided I have not written to the HD? The MassCool external USB enclosure models involved are MassCool UHB302 UPS for the USB2.0 enclosure, and MassCool UHB300 U3 for the USB3.0 enclosure.
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