Recovering files from an external harddrive.

[NapoleonDynamite]

Hello,

I was after some advice on where to go next. I have a friend, who had an issue with her external harddrive. For whatever reason (unknown) she advised she could no longer browse the external drive.

I've plugged the device into my computer and Windows 7 is showing the entire space to be "Unallocated". I have tried a number of recovery tools, but all of them are essentially looking for a drive letter.

Are there any free tools anyone could recommend that can assist me without the need to assign a drive letter?

Thanks.

 

[treefrog07]

Have you tried removing the HDD from the enclosure and installing to your or your friend's computer? Sometimes the circuit boards in the enclosure die.

 

[NapoleonDynamite]

Have you tried removing the HDD from the enclosure and installing to your or your friend's computer? Sometimes the circuit boards in the enclosure die.

Unfortunately I'd prefer to avoid that as it is in what appears to be a permanent casing (Iomega). I don't really want to destroy the casing if I can avoid it!

Any other recommendations?

 

[gb777]

Hello,

I just got done recovering files from a 250g drive I had connected externally. For some reason it became hidden (I have another post here about it). The data was still there. I ran a test of 10g using Ontrack's data recovery and it only brought back garbage. I used my old trusted R-Studio from 2002 and it brought everything back like a charm. Recovery tools usually don't care what drive you're using. It finds all your drives and either identifies it by it's model number ie WDxxx or assigns it a drive number.

Unfortunately since the drive was connected via USB, it took 8 hrs to scan the entire drive. BTW, R-STudio also brings back deleted files and partial files as well but marks them. I wanted to recover 130g of the data and that took 4 hrs. Also, you need to have a drive where you can recover the files to. You can restore individual files also.

Sorry, can't help you with a free one.

 

[swpps]

Try freeware recuva

It works efficiently if you deleted your files by mistake and don't have new files saved.

 

[sdses1]

Recover deleted files can be done with recovery software. If you stop saving your files or photos to your external drive, your external drive files can be restored.

 

[billllkk]

The first thing you need to do is immediately stop using the external drive and stop saving more data to it, as this will largely decrease chances of data recovery. Also remember to save recover items to another disk instead of the source external drive in case of data overwritten. BTW, try freeware recuva,it is the most useful data recover software I have ever used. Here is the webside http://www.recovery-programs.com/windows-data-recovery.html