All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 26 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 19th, 2018, 2:54 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
Hi,

I’ve a old WD5000AAJS where I’d like to retrieve data’s (I don't have anymore the computer on which it was connected).

1. Connection with USB adapter
I tried to connect using my USB adapter.
Image

At the beginning my Windows 7 install the driver, but then I don’t see it in the file explorer.
When I look in the devices, I can see it few seconds and then it disappear.
Image

I also tried on other computers without any success.

2. Connection internally
Then I tried to connect it directly in my computer.
It’s quite strange, because, I can see it in the Bios:
Image

also visible in the device manager:
Image

and in the disk management (but not with the correct size ??)
Image

But still nothing in the File Manager:
Image

Do someone would have an idea to solve my issue?

Thanks

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 19th, 2018, 8:21 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: November 24th, 2013, 18:13
Posts: 419
Location: Poland
Heh, it's simple.
You don't connect +12V and +3,3V.
USB Adapters can't have +12V and +3,3V and that's why you cant detect your drive via USB Bridge.

_________________
Hello everyone, sorry for my poor english, because i using google translator.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 19th, 2018, 10:32 
Offline

Joined: October 16th, 2013, 13:21
Posts: 713
Location: Brazil
That usb cable is only for notebook drives.

If you absolutely need to connect the disk via usb, you will need an external enclosure, with its own power supply, designed for 3.5inch hdds.

The size of the hdd in disk manager is correct, and it is showing you the partitions. Depending on the way it was formatted/partitioned in the other computer, it may not show drive letters. Were you using linux or some other kind of OS ?

Try with dmde and see if it can identify the partitions and file tree.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 19th, 2018, 15:58 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
Hi,
Thank you both for the time taken to try to help me.
I understand now, why it's not working with my adapter. However, why doesn't it work when I connect it in my PC as my other hard drives?
Thanks

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 19th, 2018, 16:41 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
Hi,
Thank you all for your interest to my issue.
I now understand why my USB adapter is useless.
Not sure how to use MHDD/Victoria (http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.03-Victoria/)
Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 2:31 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: January 28th, 2009, 10:54
Posts: 3445
Location: Greece
Just a long shot.
On Disk Management go to the large partition of your drive, right click on it and select "Assign Drive Letter".

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 4:37 
Offline

Joined: January 8th, 2008, 5:21
Posts: 925
Location: uk
The usb adapter won't work with a 3.5 drive because the usb port you plug in to is unable to supply enough current to reliably power up the drive. Remember the usb port will typically supply 5v at between 0.5 and 1.0 amps which then has to be raised by the adapter to 12v to spin up the drive.

There is a simple solution which I use on a pc desktop system.
You need to buy in a sata extension cable. Modify the male end plastic connector to fit the adaptor. Then you need to connect the pc power connector to the drive with the modified sata cable. Plug the cable in to the usb adapter and then plug the adapter in to a usb port. Voila!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 10:24 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
northwind wrote:
Just a long shot.
On Disk Management go to the large partition of your drive, right click on it and select "Assign Drive Letter".


Hi,
I tried.
I connected again my HDD in my computer and I can see again in the disk management
Image

Unfortunately, when I right click on the largest partition, I don't have the option to assign a letter:
Image

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 14:15 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
I installed the free version of MiniTools Partition Wizard.
There also, I can see my HDD
Image

Then I performed a Surface test
Image

There, I've been able to assign a drive letter to the main partition
Image
but still not visible in File manager
Image

Here are the other options of MiniTools Partition Wizard:
Image

Any other thing I could do?

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 16:39 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
Not sure why, but seems that the partiton is Linux
Image

Should I change it ?
Is there a risk to loose all the data's?

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 18:34 
Offline

Joined: January 29th, 2012, 1:43
Posts: 982
Location: United States
First, it would help to know the health of the disk from SMART. You can use CrystalDiskInfo to get the SMART from the disk:
https://crystalmark.info/en/download/

Second, as already mentioned in a previous post, use the program DMDE to see if it can recognize the partitions:
https://dmde.com/download.html

The drive is showing 3 partitions in windows disk management, but none of them are recognized by the type. This could be due to logical data corruption, the disk failing to read data due to bad health, the partitions are encrypted, or windows does not know how to read the type of partition (such as if the disk came from a mac computer). My vote is the drive came out of a mac (or maybe from a Linux installation), and windows just doesn't know how to read the partitions.

_________________
http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 19:00 
Offline

Joined: January 29th, 2012, 1:43
Posts: 982
Location: United States
A couple more questions that could help understand what is going on.

Did the drive come from a a computer running windows?

Was the drive removed from the computer after/because the computer quit working?

_________________
http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 20:06 
Offline

Joined: January 29th, 2012, 1:43
Posts: 982
Location: United States
Please ignore my previous posts, as they were made while your posts were under review and were not visible yet.

Was the drive originally in a Windows computer? If so, then at some point in time it would appear that someone installed Linux on it. Don't change the partition type. Don't do anything that would alter data on the drive at all. You will likely need to perform logical data recovery, and if you make any changes you will make your recovery chance less successful. I will let others that are more familiar with logical recovery software advise you further.

_________________
http://www.hddsuperclone.com
Home of HDDSuperClone


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 20th, 2018, 22:28 
Offline

Joined: August 18th, 2010, 17:35
Posts: 3636
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Seems like the drive used to be on a machine that was running some sort of Linux distro (likely), or the drive is coming out of some sort of NAS box.

It makes sense that Windows can't recognize the volumes, as Windows does not natively support Ext4 file system.
To access the files:
- need file recover software (e.g. R-Studio), or
- connect the drive to a Linux machine, or
- boot your a computer using a Linux bootable flash drive (e.g. Ubuntu) with this drive connected.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 22nd, 2018, 16:54 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
Hi,
I started a Linux session on a USB key.
I've been able to see the hard drive, but it's completely empty.
Very very strange.

I installed R-Studio, but then it asked to also install something else "R". As I don't know what it is, I'm a little bit afraid to put in on my machine.

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 22nd, 2018, 17:52 
Offline

Joined: October 16th, 2013, 13:21
Posts: 713
Location: Brazil
Ok, Fabio,

Do not change anything in the partitions yet.

Lets first try to understand better the situation.

Where was the drive being used ? Connected to a Mac, a linux machine, inside a NAS , some other strange computer ?

The MiniTool screenshot show it as a correct linux partition scheme ( swap plus two data partitions ). Understanding from where the hdd came can help to diagnose and eventually fix the problem.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 23rd, 2018, 16:24 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
Hi,

It's coming from a normal computer (tower) where windows 7 was the OS.

It was the computer from my brother in law. And he received it from a friend few years ago.

I don't understand why miniTools is saying that it was running on a linux system. However as it was visible when I boot my computer with Ubuntu ...

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 23rd, 2018, 18:57 
Offline

Joined: October 16th, 2013, 13:21
Posts: 713
Location: Brazil
And what was the problem that happened to the computer ? Has your relative done something to it ? Or taken the computer to someone else before you ?

The partition scheme seems correct to a linux installation. Maybe he tried to install linux on the computer , didn´t work or didn´t like it, then remembered to ask you to recover his already deleted data ?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 23rd, 2018, 19:09 
Offline

Joined: August 18th, 2010, 17:35
Posts: 3636
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Or maybe there is just a drive mixup. It happens.

_________________
Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Can’t connect my WD5000AAJS
PostPosted: May 24th, 2018, 1:38 
Offline

Joined: May 19th, 2018, 2:31
Posts: 12
Location: Switzerland
Hi,
No, nothing so special.
It was old, slow and took place => I offered him a laptop that I installed.
For sure, I connected both to transfer data's he wanted to the laptop.
But some time ago, he realized that he forgot to transfer some files. As he kept both hard drive, I bought him a hard drive case. With it he was able to read the first hard drive, but not the second one.

Fab


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 26 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google Adsense [Bot] and 41 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group