Secondary IDE hdd now RAW and inaccessible

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courtney01

Gawd
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Nov 25, 2008
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The problematic hdd had acted as an internal secondary hdd in my build about 4 years ago. It's an IDE hdd with about 80GB capacity, and was connected to a mobo that had an IDE connector on it. I used it for 2 years, then it got disconnected and lay unused for the next 2 years.

Until this year, when I built a new computer. The new mobo does not have an IDE connector on it. So I bought an IDE to SATA adapter, attached it to the back of the old hdd and connected it to the new mobo. The adapter instructs to put the IDE hdd into Master mode.

The new mobo boots off a new SSD.


  • When I went to check My Computer in Windows 7, the secondary ide drive is visible, but it doesn't show a capacity bar at all.

  • When I double click the drive, it gives the error "X:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

  • When I right click the drive and go to properties, then tools and select "check now" under "error checking," it says "the disk check could not be performed because Windows can't access the disk."

  • When I check disk management, it is now in RAW format.

I did not format it.
It spins properly without any bad sounds, so there doesn't seem to be any mechanical failure.
I turned off the pc and disconnected the ide hdd.

I'm guessing my data is still there, but I'm somehow "locked out" from it because of the change to the new mobo. How can I recover the data on it? I have very important data on there I'd like to recover, so thanks everyone in advance.
 
Last edited:
I would put put it into a system with a IDE connector. Then copy the files to a SATA drive.

Lacking such a system I would buy an external IDE case and try to copy the data.
 
GeorgeHR said:
I would put put it into a system with a IDE connector. Then copy the files to a SATA drive.
Click to expand...

I'll try the system with an IDE connector.

Lacking such a system I would buy an external IDE case and try to copy the data.
Click to expand...

Is this different in nature than using the IDE to SATA adapter I attached to the hdd?
 
Recommended recovery steps:

1. Data recovery - Something like "GetData Recover My Files" (which is what I use - Works great). Not terribly expensive.
2. Run diags - Make sure it's not a bad drive. This can stress a problematic drive, so data recovery FIRST.
3.Chkdsk /r on the "RAW" partition - This will correct the filesystem problems, so long as it's not a failing / failed drive.
 
I'd try TestDisk (which is a data recovery program, not just a diagnostic like the really stupid name makes it sound).
 
Sorry, I updated my first post to correct some error messages that I got wrong. I was writing them off the top of my head earlier today, and I later found out they were incorrect.
 
GeorgeHR said:
I would put put it into a system with a IDE connector. Then copy the files to a SATA drive.
Click to expand...

Tried putting it into an older system with an IDE connector, but exact same results.

Wizzard said:
Recommended recovery steps:

1. Data recovery - Something like "GetData Recover My Files" (which is what I use - Works great). Not terribly expensive.
2. Run diags - Make sure it's not a bad drive. This can stress a problematic drive, so data recovery FIRST.
3.Chkdsk /r on the "RAW" partition - This will correct the filesystem problems, so long as it's not a failing / failed drive.
Click to expand...

1. Does that software have a pretty deep and accurate recovery method?
3. I tried "chkdsk x: /r", but I got "the type of the file system is NTFS. Unable to determine volume version and state. chkdsk aborted"


dandragonrage said:
I'd try TestDisk (which is a data recovery program, not just a diagnostic like the really stupid name makes it sound).
Click to expand...

I'm seeing several different disk recovery software suggestions here. How do I evaluate whether one data recovery software is better or worse than another?
 
OP, it happens. My last 80GB ide (Maxtor!) drive simply stopped reading data about 5 weeks ago.
 
xorbe said:
OP, it happens. My last 80GB ide (Maxtor!) drive simply stopped reading data about 5 weeks ago.
Click to expand...

I know and I agree, but it's too early to give up without having tried many options yet.

Given that the circumstances don't seem to point to any real failure, and that the drive was lying untouched for a few years after working perfectly the last time it was disconnected, it seems that the drive should be accessible through some way.
 
Probably the magnetic data on the platter has simply deteriorated with time, maybe some magic initialization cylinder is toast.
 
courtney01 said:
What's a magic initialization cylinder?
Click to expand...

Maybe someone more knowledgeable than I can speak authoritatively, but I am imagining some sort of sector boundaries, track positioning data, firmware or bad sector data, etc. I think some of the old drives used one platter surface for positioning data.
 
dandragonrage said:
I'd try TestDisk (which is a data recovery program, not just a diagnostic like the really stupid name makes it sound).
Click to expand...

I'm going to give this a shot. Is there a way I can backup the drive first in case the recovery process goes wrong? I can't access the drive so I'm not sure how to back it up.
 
The first stage is denial ...
1DWTIKG.gif
 
courtney01 said:
I'm going to give this a shot. Is there a way I can backup the drive first in case the recovery process goes wrong? I can't access the drive so I'm not sure how to back it up.
Click to expand...

You can try cloning it bit-for-bit with something like dd (a standard *nix utility). If that doesn't work then things are looking pretty slim.
 
dandragonrage said:
You can try cloning it bit-for-bit with something like dd (a standard *nix utility). If that doesn't work then things are looking pretty slim.
Click to expand...

Looking at the instructions, I think I'll risk not cloning it because it says if I don't know what I'm doing, I can risk erasing everything.

I tried TestDisk and here are the results.

hdd.png


hdd2.png
 
I can't see the pic you posted, but I have had good success with GetDataBack.

You will have to recover the found files to a different drive or else it will overwrite data on the drive you are recovering from, but that is standard practice.

I am guessing that it lost the partition information, which can possibly be fixed IF you know exactly the partition parameters. Much safer and easier to just recover the files and then toss the drive.. because if that happens once, it will happen again.
 
Well, you can see the partition table apparently. You may be able to dd the drive. Man up!

There's no way a 76GB drive has 2 partitions with 112M and 160M sectors. The table has overlapping entries. The 2nd entry is 76GB (160M sectors).
 
xorbe said:
Well, you can see the partition table apparently. You may be able to dd the drive. Man up!

There's no way a 76GB drive has 2 partitions with 112M and 160M sectors. The table has overlapping entries. The 2nd entry is 76GB (160M sectors).
Click to expand...

This is the instruction I followed http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

I made it to the section "Quick search for partitions" in the middle of the page, and when I pressed p, I got the "can't open filesystem" error message in the 2nd picture.

The reason there are 2 lines in the 1st picture is because at first when I followed the instructions normally, I got only the first line highlighted in green I think.

But after seeing the error, I tried to see if I could find the "deeper search" option that the tutorial mentions 2-steps later. I couldn't, but fortunately I accidentally pressed something that brought out the "deeper search" option. After I chose that, the 2nd line appeared.

I don't even really understand what I'm seeing in the pictures, and does the error message mean that my hdd is physically damaged?

cyclone3d said:
I can't see the pic you posted, but I have had good success with GetDataBack.

You will have to recover the found files to a different drive or else it will overwrite data on the drive you are recovering from, but that is standard practice.

I am guessing that it lost the partition information, which can possibly be fixed IF you know exactly the partition parameters. Much safer and easier to just recover the files and then toss the drive.. because if that happens once, it will happen again.
Click to expand...

Here are the links to the pictures. Hopefully they work.

http://s10.postimg.org/631tyh8wp/hdd.png
http://s9.postimg.org/lqd9j1gr3/hdd2.png
 
I think "deeper" installed a second entry because it thinks that's where the NTFS partition is.
 
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