Can't see HDD using USB to SATA/IDE adapter

zale

I just got one of the above adapters, an "IOMAX" to be exact.

I got it because the old laptop is no more, but kept the internal HDD from it (Toshiba MK1637GSX).

When I hook it up to the desktop (win7 pro) I can't access the partition with the OS (vista) on it (F) but can access the other side (H) no problem.

Is it a jumper issue? If so I have 4 pins with no little black plastic thing.

What do I do.

Cheers

hearny

If you can access 1 of the 2 partitions it could be a problem with the partition table on the drive.

If you right click on Computer -> Click Manage, click on Disk Management and take a screen shot of the drives connected and post it.

zale

hearny wrote: »

If you can access 1 of the 2 partitions it could be a problem with the partition table on the drive.

If you right click on Computer -> Click Manage, click on Disk Management and take a screen shot of the drives connected and post it.

Is this what I've to post. The Toshiba is drives H and I

duffman85

That's the one(the image you posted)

Windows has reserved the drive letter F for a removable disk or memory card reader or something else.

Right click on the partition that you want to access in Disk Management and Choose "Change Drive Letters and Paths"

A small window opens up - choose Add and select a drive letter that is not currently being used.

zale

duffman85 wrote: »

That's the one(the image you posted)

Windows has reserved the drive letter F for a removable disk or memory card reader or something else.

Right click on the partition that you want to access in Disk Management and Choose "Change Drive Letters and Paths"

A small window opens up - choose Add and select a drive letter that is not currently being used.

Changed the letter and when I tried to access it, it said Drive T needs to be formatted before it can be used.

I'm almost certain I backed up everything from that drive but wanted to access it just to be sure....so I'd prefer not to format it just yet.

hearny

zale wrote: »

duffman85 wrote: »

That's the one(the image you posted)

Windows has reserved the drive letter F for a removable disk or memory card reader or something else.

Right click on the partition that you want to access in Disk Management and Choose "Change Drive Letters and Paths"

A small window opens up - choose Add and select a drive letter that is not currently being used.

Changed the letter and when I tried to access it, it said Drive T needs to be formatted before it can be used.

I'm almost certain I backed up everything from that drive but wanted to access it just to be sure....so I'd prefer not to format it just yet.

There is a problem with the partition table making the drive show up as raw.

Is the computer it came from still working.


Your best bet is to use a data recovery program like:
http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/recover-raw-drive.htm

The trial version will at least show you what is on the drive.

Another free program might work like:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pcinspector.html

zale

Hi All, thanks for a the replies. Sorry about the delay.

I got the access issue sorted.
I ran chkdsk in DOS for drive H and it found & repaired 1 bad sector so now I can see everything on the HDD.......BUT

now that it's fixed I stuck it back into the laptop for the kids, it boots beautifully to the login screen where I have 2 profiles, Mine (admin) & Kids (standard) both password protected and you've guessed it none of us can remember what the bloody passwords are. Tried all the usual ones.

I've read removing the cmos battery may work but can't find it. Acer aspire 5920

Can anyone help or is help with login passwords not allowed.

Mark

hearny

Are you using vista xp or windows 7.

Download a program called ophcrack vista or ophcrack xp depending on your operating system on the laptop.

Burn it to disk and boot from the cd.

It might find the passwords for you.

If it's xp you could restart the pc in sage mode and see if you can log in using the administrators account. Often this password is blank on xp.

hearny

If you can log in as administrator you can change the passwords on the other accounts. It's better to use opcrack though.

Removing the battery doesn't clear the passwords.

zale

Sorry hearny, I don't seem to be getting notified about posts.

Anyway.. it's vista.

I've tried ophcrack and when it starts up It says, "no partition containing hashes found". When I'm searching for windows/system32/config, I only seem to be able look in the partition where I kept my music/movies and not the one with the os on it

I typed in "fdisk -l" and got the following.

Where do I go from here.

hearny

Did you try this youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEdBltFBCOc

Video is only really relevant after about 40 seconds for you.
You will need to download a copy of Ubuntu LiveCD
Download Ubuntu and burn it to a CD, when you are booting it make sure you Try it DO NOT install or you can overwrite things.

Basically what you want to do is create the dump of the passwords to sam.txt, copy it to the hard drive visible in ophcrack (The one that shows up as DATA in Windows).

Its not overly complicated just post ny questions you have.

bonzodog2

You can also change the admin password with this tool

zale

bonzodog2 wrote: »

You can also change the admin password with this tool

Yeah I tried this first but can't get past step 2. I think it says something like, could not find windows/system/config. And I can't mount the drive either?

zale

Big thanks to hearny & bonzodog2.

I couldn't get either to work as they should.

Ubuntu - when reloading repositories, I was getting a few fails & couldn't find samdump2 or even sam

Offline NT Password and Registry Editor - I couldn't get past step 2, cause the only partition it seen was the one without the os on it....

So I used ubuntu to copy the windows/system32/config files into the partition I could see with offline NT (obviously not all the files, just the needed ones)

Then ran offline nt and blanked the passwords.

Ran ubuntu again & copied the new blanked sam files back into the original config folder.

Restarted and it worked....that was probably an arse-about-face way of doing it but it worked for me.;)

Thanks again lads :cool:

hearny

Glad you got sorted, sometimes you have to go arse-about-face ways to get things done, good thinking outside the box though.