external USB HD problem

razzy8

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Mar 6, 2006
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Hi,

I'm new here so please be patient with my ignorance...I tried searching for the answer to this question but wasn't able to find the WHOLE answer:

I had a terrible thing happen yesterday! My motherboard died on ME :cry: A friend of mine thought it might be the moffets...I don't know why since I wasn't overclocking anything...anyway, that not the question :?

I had 4 HD in that computer: 80GB Maxtor, 120GB WD, 160GB WD, 200GB WD. A couple of them had partitions on them. WINXP-NTSC. Here is my problem:

I bought an external USB HD case and have been trying to access the data on the HD through my older IBM laptop (only has USB 1.1). I have updated the BIOS on the laptop but I still can't seem to see the contents of the drive.

I am able to see the drive but I can't view the contents. I have used Partition Magic and seem to be able to view the partition, but don't want to wreck the partition table and loose the data.

Question #1: Is there a way to see partitioned drives that were created on another system with USB external drive enclosure? Is there a compatibility issue with USB 1.1 and NTSC partitions?

Question #2: Can partition magic re-create the partitions without loosing the data? If so, how?

Thanks very much for your help
 

Sonic_Reducer

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Feb 20, 2006
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ok probably your oparating system on the laptop is win 98 and that system can't read nstc partitions or then there's a problem with the interface on the box maybe the drive isn't installed correctly usualy they have to on master settings on those external boxes.
 

ecosoft

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Jun 23, 2004
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Is your laptop NT/W2K/XP? If not, NTFS partitions cannot be "seen", nor manipulated.

PartitionMagic (Symantec) is a slick tool, BUT if you are also using Symantec's GoBack you will totally dork your system (GoBack will overwrite new PM partitions) If however you are not using GoBack PM does permit creating new partitions from existing freespace and then moving data to the newly created partition. I don't know how that would work in the case of not being able to see the data initially ... my bet is you'd be dorked again.

If its not life 'n death, just wait until you get your primary system up again.
 

razzy8

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Mar 6, 2006
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ecsoft & Sonic_Reducer,

thanks for your quick reply...no, the laptop is also winxp.

OK...well I think I solved the problem.

I set the dip switches on the HD in the external USB case to CS and my laptop is able to read them now. I had them set to MASTER and they didn't work. All seems to be ok now, but I'm still not sure why (as S_R suggested) it didn't work as MASTER.

Anyway, I can at least access the data...but OMG is USB 1.1 ever SLOW!!

Thanks for your help :)