Hard drive not showing up in explorer but does in computer management

[Onceler]

It shows up as an uninitialized drive in Storage under Computer Management even though I have used it a lot on this computer.
Are there some things I can do to bring it back? It has really important stuff on this drive, it holds all my daughter's recent videos and I have not backed it up recently.
Please give me some idea on how to fix this.
Thank you
I am running Windows 7 64bit

 

[glugglug]

Maybe some BIOS setting changed so the partition table is no longer being recognized?

Did you enable/disable AHCI recently or change the LBA settings in BIOS?

Maybe put the drive in an external enclosure and see if it is recognized that way?

 

[Onceler]

Maybe some BIOS setting changed so the partition table is no longer being recognized?

Did you enable/disable AHCI recently or change the LBA settings in BIOS?

Maybe put the drive in an external enclosure and see if it is recognized that way?

no I did not do anything to the BIOS, it just stopped appearing following a power failure.
I have not tried it in an external enclosure.

 

[code65536]

A disk showing as uninitialized means that the area of the drive containing the partition table (and even what kind of partitioning is in use--e.g., MBR or GPT) has become corrupted. Period. There is also the very likely possibility that other areas of the drive will be corrupted as well.

You will need some sort of recovery software (or recovery lab service) that can try to salvage from a loss of the partition table; there are lots of options out there, though I haven't used them so I can't give any recommendations. Good luck.


(Aside from backups, a good UPS battery backup is an often-overlooked component to keeping data safe; sudden power loss is a potentially dangerous thing for hard drives.)

 

[Onceler]

And the drive was bitlocker encrypted.
Does anyone know of software that can restore it?

 

[glugglug]

no I did not do anything to the BIOS, it just stopped appearing following a power failure.
I have not tried it in an external enclosure.

The motherboard batteries used to retain BIOS settings nowadays don't last, so settings will often get scrambled during a power failure. Try resetting to BIOS defaults.

 

[Elixer]

And the drive was bitlocker encrypted.
Does anyone know of software that can restore it?

Encrypted ? That is going to be harder.
I would first clone the drive 'as is', then use testdisk (free) and see what it can recover.
If it has important data on it, then send it to the pros.

BTW, why use bitlocker on the HD, if it only has your daughter's recent videos ?

 

[Onceler]

why encrypt? Because it also has files concerning my divorce on it.
I tried resetting the BIOS and reconfiguring it the drive shows up fine in the BIOS also I tried it as an external drive W7 installed the drivers for it then nothing happened.

 

[jkauff]

This may sound dumb, but it's happened to me. Is there a drive letter assigned to the drive? See if you can assign a drive letter in Disk Management.

 

[code65536]

This may sound dumb, but it's happened to me. Is there a drive letter assigned to the drive? See if you can assign a drive letter in Disk Management.

Not if it's "uninitialized"--that means the MBR/GPT is hosed.

 

[Onceler]

I have a new drive ordered and plan to clone the old one to it and try initializing the new one to see if that fixes it.
I don't have the money to spend for recovery pros.

 

[glugglug]

I have a new drive ordered and plan to clone the old one to it and try initializing the new one to see if that fixes it.
I don't have the money to spend for recovery pros.

Encrypted drive + bad partition map = recovery not possible.

Maybe, just maybe, if there is some utility to clone just the partition map from a default formatted drive without cloning the actual partition. Particularly if it was MBR partitioned, copying only the first 32KB off of an identically formatted drive might work. Enough to cover the partition map, but not go over the main partition. I think that would be possible with a linux boot CD, not sure on the command line that would be used.

Also, searching around a bit, maybe if you are lucky it isn't really a partition map problem, and is instead a TPM problem since you use BitLocker. Have you tried the Bitlocker Recovery console and Bitlocker repair tool? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928201

Does Disk Management show it as "Uninitialized" like Explorer says it is? Or does it show a "RAW" partition that doesn't appear to be formatted?

 

[Onceler]

bitlocker recovery tool requires a drive letter
no it is not RAW

 

[Onceler]

I tried cloning it using Clonezilla expert options. No success. It would quit as soon as it tried to read the MBR and exit.
Itried keeping the MBR the same as the source disk, then I tried the option to write another MBR on the destination disk. Neither worked.
Some ideas anyone?
Thank you

 

[code65536]

You need to do a sector-by-sector copy. I haven't used CloneZilla, so I don't know much about it. The one time I had to do a sector-by-sector copy of a failing disk, I used EaseUS Disk Copy (you need to use the bootable ISO), though in my case, the MBR wasn't hosed, so I don't know if EaseUS could handle this kind of scenario.

 

[jkauff]

EaseUS has a free tool that it claims can rebuild the partition table, fix the MBR, and recover the partition.

http://www.ptdd.com/partition-recovery/how-to-rebuild-partition-table.html

 

[sm625]

Install the drive into a windows xp machine.

 

[code65536]

Install the drive into a windows xp machine.

Last I checked, XP doesn't have magical pixie dust that can fix a broken MBR on a Bitlocker-encrypted drive.

 

[Onceler]

It is GPT not MBR

 

[glugglug]

It is GPT not MBR

That is a very good thing!

MBR has partition data in the first disk sector only.

GPT has a placeholder MBR first sector, then a primary GPT partition table in the next 16KB, and a BACKUP GPT partition table at the end of the disk.

I don't think Easus will recognize the NTFS partition since it is encrypted. But maybe it will make sense of either of the GPT partition maps to fix things. If not, the linux gdisk utility is supposed to be able to copy the backup GPT table to the primary: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/repairing.html

 

[Onceler]

Thank you all for helping. I still need to copy the hard drive in case I mess it up, any one know any utilities that can do this? Copy a hard drive bit for bit even with a damaged GPT?

 

[Elixer]

Thank you all for helping. I still need to copy the hard drive in case I mess it up, any one know any utilities that can do this? Copy a hard drive bit for bit even with a damaged GPT?

Hmm, if clonezilla failed, then I guess your only option is to boot into a linux distro (boot CD or USB), and use something like dd_rescue that will not abort on error.

Having said that, it is really troubling that it aborted on error, that suggests there is something wrong with the HD itself, and the more you play with it, the worse it can get, or just die on you.

 

[John Connor]

Thank you all for helping. I still need to copy the hard drive in case I mess it up, any one know any utilities that can do this? Copy a hard drive bit for bit even with a damaged GPT?

Try this. http://www.roadkil.net/program.php/P22/Raw%20Copy

Do you have a SATA to USB adapter? You'll need it.

 

[Onceler]

Whenever it is plugged in via SATA to USB it doesn't even show up in computer management/storage at all.

 

[Boondox]

The use of encryption just made your recovery efforts 100x worse. I know that diplomacy isn't my strong suit, but never, ever, keep legal documents on your PC. Get them in hard copy or make hard copies and store them in a safe. That way you are not going to be affected by fire, theft, or forces of Mother Nature.

I am starting to suspect that your hard drive controller board is defective. If that is the case, you can attempt to find a replacement that will work with the hard drive, or use a professional recovery service. You will have little choice in the matter.