Recovering Files From "f" Drive

Hi guys,

I need a bit of help:

Recently, I had to upgrade my computer from something pretty run down to something pretty decent. It wasn't until after, however, did I realize that I needed some photos off my old hard drives (and the rest of the computer was kaput).

So, I bought a USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE Cable to hook up the old hard drive to my new machine. When Windows 7 reads the F: drive, however, it says that in order to use it I need to format the drive, which erases all of my files. I have no access to the information on the old HD. I haven't formatted it yet, as I'd like to find some way to recover the files.

Do you guys have any ideas on how to recover the data I need? It has old wedding photos and such that are highly important to my wife and I.

Thanks for your help.

 

Hi swissmatt. Welcome to Computer Help Forums.
What volume of data are you guessing is on the drive?

There are programs which will recover the files for you.
Small amount of data a free program would most likely do the job.
Large amount of data you would be advised to use a paid program.

Have you tried this HDD in another Computer?

 

I don't think it's all that much. Probably 300 photos @ 2-3MB each, so less than a GB.

What software would you recommend? I just downloaded a program called "EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard", and am running it. Not sure if that does the trick, as it has another 3 hours til it finishes scanning the hard drive...

Thanks for your help - let me know if you have recommendations!

 

To be clear, I mean to say that I only need to recover 1 GB or so of data, but there's probably 300 GB worth of data on the disk that I don't need. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

Yes that makes sense.
Data Recovery Wizard performs non-destructive data recovery, automatically skips bad sectors and avoids any further damage to your data so that is a good program to use.

Be patient as these recovery programs are normally slow.
Let us now if your successful. :smile2:

 

Hi,

You could try the following:
Attach the drive to the USB port of the new computer.
Start .....type in .....cmd .....( do not hit Enter )
Right click on the cmd.exe that shows top left of screen > click on Run as Administrator

At the command prompt type ...... chkdsk F: /f ............Enter
[ F: is the drive letter and there is a space before and after F: ]

This will check the drive and attempt to repair any errors.