My first visit (gulp)!
My HDD has crashed after 7yrs of stalwart service. I was halfway through the process of backing up the family photos.
Have got a Inateck dock and have tried 3 different free recovery softwares (Recuva, EaseUS Data recovery and Mini Tool Partition Wizard).
Powering up the dock, the drive is spinning ok, it seems, but its not recognised through the USB connection. It only sees the replacement SDD and the other original Maxtor HDD still in place.
Now, the dock has a USB3 but my old rig only has USB2. This is only a question of transfer speed, is it not?
Only the picture and video files are needed off it.

Can any of you knowledgeable and erudite people help me out?

Cheers

Hello,

dock is compatible with USB 2.0 . Don't worry.
You can try to insert another drive into dock and try to see, if something is wrong with dock.

you can directly connect drive to motherboard

Well,
How About Connecting It Directly to a Computer And Then Checking [ It Can Be Worth The Effort ]

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

Thanks for your reply. I've already tried a direct connection to the motherboard. It wouldn't even boot even though Windows is loaded onto the new sdd.
I'll put the other hdd into the dock to rule out a faulty dock.
If that's not the pb, any other pointers, suggestions?
Many thanks

insert another drive in dock and try

if you connect drive to motherboard, check boot sequence, that ssd start first
otherwise ask some friend to help you, or outsource. Find some pro data recovery specialist to recover your data.
Everything depend from where you are

1


STM3500320AS MX15???

Probablemente Firmware. Busque en este foro "SEAGATE 7200.11 Busy", tendrá multitud de hilos con la explicación para solucionarlo

Yes, agree.

Connect to PC with serial connection to see the output from the drives serial port.

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

After switching the drives around, I've had the following results:
Plugged a good HDD into dock - not recognised
Plugged bad HDD to Mobo - computer wouldnt boot

Went into Standard CMOS Set up with bad drive connected to Mobo - doesnt appear on the list of drives

Computer doesnt boot when new SSD is the only drive connected, I need to connect the good HDD too.

Still cant rule out a faulty dock, but I think it's doubtful that it is the problem here.

Sorry, Spildit and pcimage, but my knowledge of these things is very limited and I don't understand your respective posts.

I think I've reached the limlit of what I can do. Looks like I may have to dig deep and hand it over to a recovery specialist.

Thanks for your help, all of you.

Yes, anytime a drive isn't recognized in BIOS it's best to seek the help of a professional data recovery company. Not generally a do it yourself situation.

_________________
Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

+Pastyman

nice to hear, that you reach your limitation and you quit with experimenting.

Could you write down from where are you to recomend you some DR specialist.

Whereabouts are you located?

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Yes Spildit....ummmmm thanks for that....
I have enough problems putting my shoes on in the morning so I think I'll pass on that.
Very informative and helpful but it's waaaay above my capabilities.

pcimage - I've pm'ed you

I agree with Data medics - it's gone beyond a DIY situation. The clue was when I couldn't see the drive in BIOS.

It was a case of trying the cheaper options first.

All in all though, I'm very glad to have found this forum.

jerovsek - I know my limitations and I stay within them!

Best regards to all of you

Pastyman, you can use the kit bellow to correct the Seagate 7200.11 FW bug yourself, if you would like to give it a try.
It includes all the nesessary stuff, full instructions and software to guide you through the process.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FW-FXR-Firmware-Bug-Fix-repair-Seagate-Barracuda-ST31xx-7200-11complete-tool-USB-/261364371655?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cda87d0c7

Thanks to your advice I bought FW-FXR from Amazon for less than 30Euro and a few clicks after I received it I got my DiamondMax 22 STM3500320AS 500GB back to life. I read a lot about how to do it with serial adapter and terminal window but giving commands on a black screen makes me really nervous... especially since the data were of high importance...