Hard Drive Help!

[PXUK]

I've recently been having problems with my secondary HD.
What has happened is my old pc motherboard screwed up, so ive took the secondary HD out and ive jus put it in my new pc but i cant go into it. it keeps saying please format HD. (which i DO NOT WANT TO DO) so if anyone can help me. please do
Many Thanks

PXUK

[TheReaFireblade]

Welcome to the forums PXUK

Unless the new system has exactly the same hardware in it as the old one, I'm afraid you can't just swap-out hard drives from one system to another, and expect them to work!
That's because the hard drive is expecting to find all the hardware which was in your old system - including the drivers for whatever hardware was in it.
It's throwing a wobbly, simply because it can't find that hardware!

You're going to have to either format the drive, or... since it sounds like it has important stuff on it... buy a new hard drive for the new system.
You can then either install the old hard drive as a 'slave' drive, or stick it in an external USB enclosure, to get all your important stuff off it.

Another possible problem... unless you've got a retail copy of the OS... is that you *may* have problems with activating the OS on the new system?
Officially... OEM copies are restricted to the system on which they're first installed!
But Microsoft are usually very understanding, so if you tell them your motherboard went to hardware heaven, they'll likely give you a new activation key, without any hassle?


[edit] I've just re-read your post again, and noticed you said the drive is now your secondary drive, so ignore all the above!
It may just need 'initialising' in Disk Management?
Right-click 'My Computer > Manage > Disk Management', then right-click on the drive in the lower of the two windows on the right, and you'll hopefully see 'Initialise' as an option? [/edit]

[peterb]

Otherwise get a USB vcaddy, install the drive in that and then connect it to a working system and you should see the data.

[vinnyT]

AS peterb said, get a usb caddy or, get one these http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...+%2b+2xUSB+Hub, makes things so much easier.

[arthurleung]

Since windows is offering you the option of formatting it, the disk is initialized already, and windows regonize there is a partition in the disk.
From what I see there are 3 different possibility:

1. The disk came from a RAID0/5 array on the old computer (and hence the disk set is not complete)
2. The MFT of the old disk is corrupted, many file recovery program can read the disk and allow you to recover the files. If there are physical damage (like bad sectors) in the harddrive, you may not be able to extract the data off the harddrive.
3. Unlikely, but may be the data cable is damaged (causing data transmission error)

Personally I believe that buying a USB enclosure will NOT solve the problem at all if the partition / disk is damaged.

[vinnyT]

Spinrite from http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm, has often fixed Hard drive problems for me,it's a bit pricey at $89 (£56.63) but if the data is important, it may be worth it.

[jamin]

All good info above. It is worth going into disk management as mentioned above as you can see what the drive is shown/detected as.

arthurleung mentioned raid the brainy blighter, if it is a mirrored drive it can't just be installed and read without rebuilding. Have you installed the same motherboard as went faulty?

Why did the motherboard go faulty mate? Is there any chance it has damaged this drive when it failed?

[peterb]

If you are going to try and fix this yourself, get a second drive and take a bit image of the suspect one. Then at least whatever is on the disk is preserbved, so if it all goes wrong, you can re-image from the copy and start again. (So you have a master caopy, and a copy to work on)