Hi.
I am struggling since yesterday with my external drive (SATA laptop USB disk).
I tried with many computers.
when i plug it, I can see the new diveice on the computer but not letter is assigned to it.
When i got to XP Device Manager, I can see the drive but the status is unreadable. Is there anything i can do for it?
This dive contains all my data and i have to access them.
Disk Management says: Status:Unreadable, File system: Unknown
I tried testDisk but testDisk cannot see the drive.

Help please

Don't run any test disk on it- especially the windows xp versions. Dont format it or initialise it.

Does it report a correct size? Is the model number displaying correctly? If so,

You will need to first run a program like R-Studio and scan your hard drive for lost files/partitions.
That should help you.

What make and model is it? Possibly the model number you can see in the device manager can help us too not just the enclosure model number

_________________
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Here it is:
Initio USB Device


USBSTOR\DiskInitio__________________1.06
USBSTOR\DiskInitio__________________
USBSTOR\DiskInitio__
USBSTOR\Initio__________________1
Initio__________________1
USBSTOR\GenDisk
GenDisk


ppumkin, waiting for instructions

Not much information there. It seems like its not getting info from the HDD.
Im to bed now.. 1 am mate for me.. somebody else might help you shortly to further diagnose.

_________________
It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
Free Solutions
Picasaweb- Pictures and movies | Dropbox - Documents and other..

Please Don't go to bed.
what about the brotherwood?
-:)
What shou i do now?

The Initio device is the USB-SATA bridge IC on the little bridge board inside the enclosure. Windows is detecting the bridge rather than the hard drive behind it. If you don't mind voiding your warranty, you can remove the drive from the enclosure and install it in another USB SATA enclosure.

You can see the Initio device using Microsoft's UVCView utility:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_ID ... ew.x86.exe

Some Western Digital drives incorporate the USB port on the drive itself, in which case this will pose a problem for you.

Can you show us photos of the insides of your enclosure?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

ok. Will find a case and test it and give you feedback. I will do it in 6 hours time.
Thanks

Hi guys.
I put the disk in another box.
Now the partion is show Not Allocated (previously it was not showing anything).
It is displaying a size too.
But the disk status is still Unreadable and Partition Type is Unknown.
Help please

Model and SN of the original enclosure?

Initio USB Device
Can't see no SN

Brand and Serial number of the hard drive itself?

WESTERN DIGITAL WD Scorpio
SN WXEY07F23158

Hmm, not what I was thinking,, did you try running TestDisk on the drive connected through the new enclosure?

yes. it is saying : read error

Hard to remotely diag for me, but I am going to say this one isn't a DIY

what is a DIY?

You probably need professional help with this one

With respect, I think this problem is beyond your capabilities. :-(

However, as a last gasp, could you upload the output of the following SMART utilities?

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows / Linux):
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:
http://hddscan.com/

I suspect that your drive has a physical rather than logical fault, but could we see the partition table and boot sector with Microsoft's Sector Inspector?
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/SecInspect.zip

Extract the above archive to the one folder and execute the SIrun.bat file. The procedure will generate a report file named SIout.txt which you can then upload to this forum.

For an explanation of DIY, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself. :-)

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

--------------
Date and time:
30/09/2010
00:05

0001.033

Sector Inspector Copyright Microsoft Corporation 2003


Error 5 was encountered while opening \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0.

Accès refusé.
SectIns


Error 5 was encountered while opening \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1.

Accès refusé.



Error 5 was encountered while opening \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2.

Accès refusé.

WESTERN DIGITAL WD Scorpio
SN WXEY07F23158

Does it have XXXXXs on label ... ?