My WD Caviar SE16 HDD crashed a couple of months ago. I replaced the PC and once I got it up and running, I set about trying to recover the dead HDD. I initially tried to replace the controller board, which didn't work because I probably didn't have the right firmware, but I noticed that the contacts on the original controller board were oxided so I cleaned them, reinstalled the controller, and then I was able to recover all of the data off of the HDD. Even though I was able to recover the data, I would like to try to boot up the HDD so that I can do a couple of things with it before putting it away for good. I wasn't able to recover my Outlook E-mails, so I would like to start up outlook and then export those files. Also, I would like to open up iTunes so that I can deauthorize the computer associated with it (three friends of mine had authorized that PC and instead of asking them to deauthorize all five of the PCs, I thought that it would be easier for me to free up mine and then have them reauthorize my new PC).

As I said, I am able to view the HDD when it's connected and I can move or delete files without any problems. When I connect it to my new PC as the primary HDD, I get an "invalid system disk" error when it's booting up (in safe mode). I ran the diagnostics and it passed all of the tests. I also ran the Startup Repair and it passed all tests except it gave me an "unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem" message with a 0X2 error code. At the end of the Startup Repair, I also got a "Boot Status indicates that the OS booted successfully" message.

I downloaded a diagnostics tool from Western Digitals site and the HDD passed all of the tests.

Is there something in the system configuration that could be causing this? Any chance that this HDD is uncompatible with the new PC?

no need to export outlook files- the data is in a .pst file in your user directory:
with drive as data disk: set folder options to see all files.
In XP the path would be:
(drive):documents and settings/(your user name)/local settings/application data/microsoft/outlook/ (outlook.pst or and .pst file there)

in vista its simular- (drive) users/(your user name)/app data/local/microsoft/outlook

More than likely you can not use this again on the new configuration of your system. In Windows it is configured for your material of your older PC. If you have the install disk you can try and use this one and do a reinstall on your system using the R function on it. Note there you will see a R for repair when you first start the setup progam. Do not use this one. After you will see before the window where the partition are on a R function use this one. This can reinstall windows and leave your original configuration so that you can then install the new drivers to your HDD and read it again. Before doing this one I would make a clone of your HDD. I have seen this one fail and not work on many occassions. Windows can be touchy but if you want to try this one it is possible you can do this and get back access to your HDD. Other than this you will need to go to the directory and find your outlook files and they are .pst for Outlook and .dbx for Outlook express. Note that the address book is stored in another location and you will have to download this one and take it separately.

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Iorana Haraharaini

you could try liveview, http://liveview.sourceforge.net/ what operating system are you using.. sounds like you might have an MBR problem ... it would require some tinkering, but like poehere said, look for the files copy out. outlook is .pst outlook express is dbx, copy the folder that has all of the dbx. & mount int out look express

I was able to get my outlook e-mails, so I think that I'm just about fully recovered from the HD crash.

I was hoping to be able to deauthorize the iTunes accounts associated with the PC from the HD crash, but I'll have to find another way to deal with this.