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Hard drive Quagmire

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  • Storage
  • Hard Drives
  • External Hard Drive
Last response: in Storage
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October 8, 2014 6:28:15 AM

Computer specs
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item...

So I accidentally plugged the wrong adapter into a USB splitter and burned 3 external hard drives. I removed them from their cases and placed them into the computer’s drive bay, and I realized that I am now way over my head.

Here’s some background information about the problem:

I recently made the switch back to PC, so the drives I am trying to recover are formatted HFS; My comp’ has 6 drive bays but only 2 SATA ports, and I am unsure how many power cables; When I plugged in one of the drives I accidentally hit the initialize button, but I am relatively certain I didn’t format it. I haven’t plugged in any of the other drives for physical reasons, and emotional reasons.

Things I have done to try and resolve the problem:

I'm running HFS for Windows, and I have previously been able to use the drives when plugged into a UBS port. I can see the drive in the disk manager, however it identifies as “Unallocated” and it has no letter assigned to it. I have used “easeUS data recovery wizard” (not knowing an equivalent to MAC DATA RECOVERY 4) and it recognized the drive as unallocated however it doesn’t recognize any info on it. Across the 3 drives I have about 5 terabytes of information; I don’t have the budget for 5 terabytes worth of data recovery. (also, it would be a nightmare to re-catalogue.)

Questions.

1. What can I do to recover the data on the Unallocated HSF drive plugged into my pc?
2. What should I buy, in terms of hardware; to bring the other drives online?
a. I read about PCI cards not being the best option to take advantage of the transfer speeds. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264376-28-sata-contro...
b. Also a reminder, I might need to power my drives so what should I buy do so?

More about : hard drive quagmire

October 8, 2014 6:51:35 AM

14333583,0,1779356 said:
Computer specs
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item...

So I accidentally plugged the wrong adapter into a USB splitter and burned 3 external hard drives. I removed them from their cases and placed them into the computer’s drive bay, and I realized that I am now way over my head.

Solution: Buy another external hard drive, remove the new drive from case and replace with one of the drives. If no formatting took place you should be able to read. All you've done was burned the power supply's for the externals.
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October 8, 2014 6:52:16 AM

First see if you can find an HFS driver for your specific version of Windows. If so, you may be able to use them as is. Search "hfs driver windows"

You didn't say if you needed them all online at the same time. If so, there are a lot of options such as NAS, etc.

If, however, you want them all inside the case it sounds like you will need a new motherboard with enough SATA ports.

If you don't need them all online at the same time look into the Vantec EZ-Swap removable drive enclosures or something similar for each drive. I think they also have a four drive case with removable trays for each drive.
search "Vantec EZ-Swap"

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October 9, 2014 8:53:42 AM

thx1138v2 said:
First see if you can find an HFS driver for your specific version of Windows. If so, you may be able to use them as is. Search "hfs driver windows"

You didn't say if you needed them all online at the same time. If so, there are a lot of options such as NAS, etc.

If, however, you want them all inside the case it sounds like you will need a new motherboard with enough SATA ports.

If you don't need them all online at the same time look into the Vantec EZ-Swap removable drive enclosures or something similar for each drive. I think they also have a four drive case with removable trays for each drive.
search "Vantec EZ-Swap"




Thanks for the answer, I forgot to add I'm running paragon on my PC.
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October 9, 2014 11:23:42 AM

First of all, if you plugged in the wrong voltage it's very possible that the PCB's are cooked on the hard drives and may need to be replaced (not a simple process). Also depending on the type of external drives that they were, the data may be encrypted. If they were Western Digital MyBook or Passport drives then they are automatically encrypted regardless of whether or not you set a password in the smartware.

Honestly, you might need pro recovery. There are companies that can get the data back at a relatively reasonable price. Just don't go with a place like DriveSavers or Ontrack (will cost a fortune).

Try one of these companies:

Canada - www.recoveryforce.com
USA - www.data-medics.com
If you're in another country PM and I can suggest someone there.
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