Recover

[dbravo223]

I?ll try to explain this as simple as possible. My laptop screen messed up so I was no longer able to use it. I wanted to get my files from the hard drive. So I when and bought a USB 2.0 to 2.5 IDE HDD external case. I was able to access the hard drive but I could not see any of my files. Are my files lost or is there any software that can help me out. Hard drive came out of a Toshiba laptop. So I think it was formatted as NTFS. My system is formatted as NTFS so they are compatible right?

Any suggestion on how to handle this it will help full.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Does Windows give the drive a letter? Does it show that it is formatted as NTFS? (Don't format it at this point if it doesn't.) If it does show as formatted, try running the CHKDSK utility on the drive letter, but don't use the /F option until you see whether it finds problems and what they are.

Did you do something silly like using Encrypting File System on the laptop?

Could you plug a monitor into the laptop and see if you can get an image? Depending on the drivers you might automatically get a copy of the desktop, but probably not, but that would let you see if the drive is readable.

If you have to, there are software utilities that can scan the drive and try to recover files. Active Partition Recovery I think is one, Google can find others, and there are threads in these forums pretty often asking about recovering files (though the search function is broken so it's hard to find them).

 

[RebateMonger]

Is ownership your problem?

 

[corkyg]

Does your external case have a small hole for a power pin? Sometimes even 3.5" drives need a 5vdc external power source to run properly.

 

[funkymatt]

Use linux to recover your files 😛