# computer guru's help needed



## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

ok so the problem is that I have a external hard drive that windows is not recognizing.

when you plug it in you get the normal sound for a device being connected but nothing in my computer and can hear the hard drive begin running

You can view it in Device manager but not disk management

If you go to device manager and go to the properties of the hard drive-volumes it has lines for the all the info, If you push populate these come up instead of the lines

Disk------------- Disk1
Type------------ unknown
Status---------- unreadible
Partition style- NA
capacity-------- 0MB

I did get it to act like it wanted to open but got a Code 1: not installed properly

Attached is a txt file from the results when i run program to tell me what all the usb ports are being used for

any help is greatly appreciated I have done everything I can find on google search with no luck. This is a 1TB hard drive that is almost full so its alot of data to loose.


FYI I will never buy a _Western Digital_ hard drive. Everything I found regarding my problems were 99% from WD HD.

again I know this is a long shot but its worth a shot


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## Metal Man (Dec 17, 2008)

Sorry bro i know just enough to get my self in trouble when it comes to computers LOL.

Just out of curiosity,have you tried plugging it up to a different USB port on your PC?


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

if i were you, this is what i would do.

remove the drive from the external enclosure. Its likely a IDE or SATA drive. 
both of which you can put in another machine and read the drive directly. 
a tb is a lot of data to loose. This might just happen. I've seen a lot of horror stories with these drives (external storage) in that despite having a regular file system (FAT32, NFTS, etc) the data isnt directly readable. I mean it is but it wont look like normal files. that's a possibility,

like i said, if i were you that would be my step 1.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Yeah a TB is a lot of data. That I really don't want to lose. So your saying take it out of the case and hard wire it in


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

there's no hard wiring.
the drive inside plugs up inside the case just as it would into another machine.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Should have been clearer that's what I meant 

just change it from using the USB to like the internal is hooked up, right?


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## Yesterday (Jan 2, 2009)

yeh --^


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## Yesterday (Jan 2, 2009)

if that works, and all checks out, there are other fairly cheap options available to keep it "external" without using the original usb connect


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

This sounds like something I don't really want to do. But I guess if I want to try to get the stuff off then ill have to. The drive is still under warrenty but they will only give a new one but not try to recover data


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## Big D (Jun 23, 2009)

If I read this correctly, you guys are telling him to do a direct connect (take it out of the case). The only problem with that is if he does that, he'll void the warranty. 

On the other hand, I'm sure the data is probably more valuable than the few hundred the drive cost.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Its definitely worth more than that in just the pictures from when my cousin was in Iraq and afghan. I'm gonna try some more tmrw and maybe talk to the computer store in town and see what they have to say. 

I tried it on windows 7 and it recognized it in drive manager but said it needs initialized and doesn't recognize how big it is.


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

I am a newbie to the forums but have been full time IT worker for the past 5 years. I would NOT bring it to any big box computer store they will try to sell you "data recovery services" that could be more destructive then helpful. Yes you best option is to take it out and put it in the computer or into another external case. This will determine if the problem lies with the external drive enclosure's disc controller or if it is the disk itself. I find there is about 1 in 5 chance that it is the enclosure, and if it is you will have all data back. If it is the drive itself I will go over data recovery when the time comes.


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

hey look another IT guy agrees with me.

what i suggested was normal everyday activity in the tech world.
It's really your only option - except big bux professional data repair. 
As he said above, avoid best buy geek squad and services like that.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

I appreciate all the help I'm gonna look into it today to see how the case opens hopefully it will come apart without having to break anything on it


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

success (well sort of) I got it apart and think I may know what the problem was the USB jack was loose and actually feel out while i was taking it apart. 

now what is the best wat to connect it to the computer?

I was hoping there is a connector that I can use without taking the cover off my modem


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

some have external sata port. my laptop does. but you'll still need power to the drive so find a pc, take off the side and stick it in. 
quick and simple


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Here is what I have. I think the thing im missing is power but i cant seem to find a plug that isnt already in use.


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

definitely sata drive. looks like u got everyting you need there.. power and sata cable


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

phreebsd said:


> definitely sata drive. looks like u got everyting you need there.. power and sata cable


make sure you dont put it in as the main drive. it needs to be a slave drive or a main on the other sata channel.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

no luck as of yet hooked it up and it doesnt recognize it at all. even less than it did with the usb.

I get this error when rebooting:

Drive 1 not found: serial ATA, SATA-2
strike F1 to continue F2 to run setup

any more tips or solutions. If not I guess i need some tips to recover any data if at all possible.


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

SATA has no master/slave relationship. it should just work on the chain. just like USB chains.
sounds like the drive tanked.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Me too! My cousin has his hopes up that he'll be able to get the stuff off. any tips on trying to recover anything.

since the drive is unrecognizable is there any chance to get anything back? im thinking of slim to none but maybe there is more to it than I know


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## chrish051873 (Aug 12, 2009)

they do have some recovery software such as 
--*EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard
--**GetData Recover My Files Professional Edition
--* *Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery 4.1.0.1

just a thoughti have tried some of these before....but so you know the more things you try the more of a chance you have to not recover anything

shoot me a pm if you wanna try one of these programs..i may still have it or can get it
*


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Just to check all my bases again before I try any data recovery software. when plugging it up outside of the case with sata instead of usb, how many connectors should have been connected to it?


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

2.
One SATA connector and one power connector.


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

It looks like you disconnected the computers hard drive to connect your external drive. Both need to be connected for it to boot. If you only have one connector on the serial data cable the blue cable from the pic you might need to go buy another one. The other option is to boot from an external device such as a cd-rom. I would suggest using "UBCD 4 win".


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

i like hiren's boot cd


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

That might have been problem I couldn't find another power wire so I only had one hooked(up my internal drive). 

Where would I find this boot cd?


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

I havn't used hiren's before but it looks like you don't have to assemble and burn it like you do ubcd so i think I might switch my recommendation.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

I only have 1 blue cable available. And the other that has 4 wires has 2 on it. One for internal and one for the drive I'm trying to fix.


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

www.hirensbootcd.net


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

Another possible option is to use a different external case if you have more then one external drive.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

I don't have another case so with the boot cd I can unplug my internal and hook up the external and it will boot up like normal and SHOULD read the drive?


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

Correct. You will also need something that you can move the data onto so that you will still have access to it when you put your computer back together. This will though confirm that it is the enclosure that was bad and not the drive. If that is the situation and you do not need the data immediately you can buy a new external enclosure online for fairly cheap.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

after downloading the boot cd how do i use it?

burn to a cd/dvd and insert it when it says insert boot cd or whatever error it says


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

Yep. You might need to select boot options. This is usually done by pressing f12 at the bios screen and then select boot from cd-rom.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

I have another smaller external hard drive and also a flash drive. Can I load the boot cd files to it and proceed as previously stated


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

Sort of, you would have to format the flash drive and follow the tutorial on setting up a bootable usb drive. And then you would still need a mother board that would support it. None of which is easy for the novice computer user. I would suggest burning the iso image file to the cd-rom and just booting from a cd. You can do this with most disc burning programs such as Nero if you don't have one and need a free one. I have had good success with Imgburn. Also plug in the external drive and have it powered up when you boot from the cd so that you can copy the files to it.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

also which files is it I need. ISO?


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

The iso file is an image file that tells the cd burning program exactly what to do. So you don't just copy the file to the cd you need to open the iso in a cd burning program.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

I fugured it out it actually had a command file that burned needed info to cd 

But everything loaded fine and booted up but still no hard drive in my comp. I have it hooked up just like the internal was. So I'm guessing I'm about to get bad news.


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

I would double check to make sure all the cables or secure to both drive and motherboard and try the recovery tools on hiren's boot cd.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Which recovery tools would be the better ones to try


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

I would try recuva first. I have also use get data back with success.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

I actually downloaded it earlier and actually found a file on my hard drive I had lost years ago because i deleted it.

should I chose the option I dont know when it ask where to search since It doesnt recognize where the drive is located at


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

If you cant see the drive at all the program wont know where to look for lost files. In this case I would try the program called partition find and mount. My suggestion is to just play around and try them unless your drive is getting really hot or making weird sounds it is not likely to get any worse off from running any of the programs.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

It runs like a new drive now just isnt recognized. No weird noises or anything like that operates real smooth. smoother than the one in my computer now.

I think the problem came about when he let a buddy copy everything from it. It was almost full so it may have gotten to hot because they left it while it was doing its thing and didnt check on it until it got done. Thats when it started doing this after he unplugged from his comp.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

worked on it some more tonight and all the programs seem to want me to point it to the directory (E but I cant do that because its not showing up. The usb will allow it to show up but not in "my computer". Even when plugged up in place of my internal I get absolutely no response or acknowledgment that its plugged in. 

any other tips or tricks?

Im about to just give up on this thing


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

what is the best way to free up space and make the computer run faster. ie like new

I found this link but dont want to just go deleting files and end up doing more harm than good.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc750370.aspx


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

no dont do that. yer next step is to send it to someone like me.


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

To be honest the only way I have found to make a computer truly run like new is to wipe everything and reinstall.

Now if you want to free up some disk space and make it run a little faster this is what I would do.

To free up space get a program called ccleaner and run the cleaner option. This will empty all your temporary folders. 
Then I would get SpaceMonger and look on the drive to see if there are any large files that you forgot about.
And finally I would going to performance options by right clicking on my computer selection proporties then click the advanced tab and then press the performance settings button. On visual effects I would suggest uncheching everythign except the last three which are common tasks drop shadows and visual styles.

The other place I have seen a computer really bog down is with antivirus programs. I find AVG free is fairly light weight on resources and is the right price.


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## azavie (Feb 18, 2010)

Sorry Phreebsd didn't mean to go and take away your business but I will say if brute650i let Phreebsd stick bsd on your computer it will be faster then new


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

I took hard drive to local computer place and they say there is nothing they can do. says its a mechanical failure. it spools up when power is first applied then powers off about 10s later.Has some grinding and clicking while its doing it.


now im just trying to clean up my computer instead of taking it to them and being charged 90 bucks for something I can probably do.

I currently am running AVG free. Ive had that since 2006 when I first came across it.


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

azavie said:


> Sorry Phreebsd didn't mean to go and take away your business but I will say if brute650i let Phreebsd stick bsd on your computer it will be faster then new


no business bro. just helping him out.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

steve are you talking about sending you the external drive?


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

Yep. Let me try.


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

Ill see what my cousin wants to do.

Btw you must have been messing with the forum layout. Its way different looking on my blackberry now. 

Anything else to clean up my hard drive and speed things up. How many processes should be running when do CTR alt del. I think that could be slowing my computer down


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

just went and looked and had 61 processes running


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## Yesterday (Jan 2, 2009)

what version of windows are you currently running on the machine you're trying to clean up


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

XP service pack 3


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## Yesterday (Jan 2, 2009)

there are roughly ten processes that are required for windows xp to run. research what else you have set up to run at start up and identify those processes. then it's up to you whether or not you kill those other 45 processes or not

System Idle Process 
explorer.exe 
taskmgr.exe 
spoolsv.exe 
lsass.exe 
csrss.exe 
smss.exe 
winlogon.exe 
svchost.exe – There will be a few of these. 
services.exe 

that 10 isnt infcluding any network shiz or sound or graphic controllers, etc. though


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## Brute650i (Dec 17, 2008)

how do I find what all loads on startup?

I know avg, spybot S&D, wireless keybord and mouse. Thats all that I know of.


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## phreebsd (Dec 16, 2004)

Brute650i said:


> how do I find what all loads on startup?
> 
> I know avg, spybot S&D, wireless keybord and mouse. Thats all that I know of.


hold down the window key and hit R. this will open the run box.
type msconfig in the box and hit enter. go to the startup tab and everything checked is what will startup. uncheck to remove from startup.


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