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Hard Drive not detected by BIOS or Windows

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Sadoj - Jun 27, 2010 at 02:22 PM
Sadoj Posts 5 Registration date Sunday June 27, 2010 Status Member Last seen June 30, 2010 - Jun 30, 2010 at 02:55 AM
Hello,

I know this is has been addressed before; however, the responses did not solve my issue. I will include more detail about my issue in hopes of a better diagnoses.

I accidentally changed my external hard drive from NTFS to HFS when prompted, while connecting via USB to a macbook. Now I can no longer see the hard drive via USB or direct connection to my PC.

I took it out it's case and noticed it has an IDE connection for a motherboard that only has SATA connections. I purchased an IDE to SATA Adapter and installed it into my computer.......nothing. The BIOS and Windows still does not see this drive.

I am aware I have two separate issues. In order to correct the file structure issue I have to gain access to the drive.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Information:

The hard drive powers up both in the external case and with the adapter.

OS:
1. Windows 7 Professional x64 (with all updates)

Mother Board:
1. ASRock 880G Extreme 3 (with latest bios)
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

BIOS:
1. BIOS is set to IDE mode

Hard Drive:
1. Western Digital WD2000JB-00GVA0
(single or master pin setting)

Adapter:
ULTRA SATA to IDE 100/133 Adapter #ULT40322
Related:

2 responses

Answer 1 / 2
xpcman Posts 19528 Registration date Wednesday October 8, 2008 Status Contributor Last seen June 15, 2019 1,824
Jun 27, 2010 at 02:45 PM
I would download Partition Wizard from this site:

https://download.cnet.com/3001-2094_4-10962200.html?spi=44c52bbf87a60f186cd86aa27ae58ccf&part=dl-6285158

Install Partition Wizard and see if it detects the hard drive either using the USB adapter or the SATA adapter. If it detects the drive - delete the existing partitions and reformat it.

Good Luck
Sadoj Posts 5 Registration date Sunday June 27, 2010 Status Member Last seen June 30, 2010
Jun 27, 2010 at 03:10 PM
xpcman:

Thanks for your response. Formating is out of the question for now, as I have important data on that drive that I am trying to recover. I had the same issue on an older system that had connections for both IDE and SATA. Any other suggestions?

Sadoj
xpcman Posts 19528 Registration date Wednesday October 8, 2008 Status Contributor Last seen June 15, 2019 1,824
Jun 27, 2010 at 04:08 PM
If the hard drive was converted to HFS then it was reformatted and the data is lost. I know of no software package that can reverse the formatting that the Mac did. It might be theoretically possible to recover the data as RAW strings of data and reassemble them into data files. You might contact one of the commercial data recovery companies if your data is worth a few thousand dollars that they will charge.

Good Luck
Sadoj Posts 5 Registration date Sunday June 27, 2010 Status Member Last seen June 30, 2010
Jun 27, 2010 at 04:29 PM
xpcman:

Thanks again for your response. You're focusing on formating; however, i'm focusing on trying to see the drive. I'll deal with the data issue later. Any more advice?
xpcman Posts 19528 Registration date Wednesday October 8, 2008 Status Contributor Last seen June 15, 2019 1,824
Jun 27, 2010 at 05:09 PM
I would go back to the original USB drive adapter as it might have the best chance of reading the drive.
The drive will not be visible in the Explorer (the "Computer" icon) window until it is formatted. To see a non-formatted drive (or HSF formatted drive):
right click the "computer" icon
select Manage
select Storage
select Disk Management
You should be able to see any drive connected to the computer (including any that are formatted in HSF) you might need to scroll down to see all the drives.

There is software that will allow Windows to read HSF disks. You can find it here:
https://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/index.html
Sadoj Posts 5 Registration date Sunday June 27, 2010 Status Member Last seen June 30, 2010
Jun 27, 2010 at 05:15 PM
This appears to be more than a Windows issue as the bios of my PC does not see the drive attached. To the best of my knowledge, if the BOIS does see the drive, no software will help. I am not sure how to over come that. Thanks again.
Answer 2 / 2
Sadoj Posts 5 Registration date Sunday June 27, 2010 Status Member Last seen June 30, 2010
Jun 30, 2010 at 02:55 AM
[solved]

I have solved my problem!!

I had to exchange the SATA to IDE adapter for an IDE PCI Controller. After updating both the BIOS and Driver of the Controller, my computer's BIOS and Windows 7 was able to see the drive. I then used TestDisk to recover the partition (it saw the remnants of the original NTFS partition). I had been dreading this task for some time. It seemed so daunting; however, it was quick and somewhat painless. Thank you all for your help.

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