Why can't I see the files?

Toxteth_OGrady

Having given it a little more thought, I suspect it's not the caddy as Windows has full file access to two of the three partitions on the disk.

Still worth a shot to try it internally though.

I'd hazard a guess that it's a file system problem (possibly corrupt MFT). CHKDSK in read only may shed more light.

aliasojo

onzey wrote: »

I know you are confident of your caddy but personally I think I would now follow Toxteth's advice and attach it inside the PC. It might be interesting to see if the Bios has any problem with the drive.

Boot up once the drive is installed and enter the bios and check the drive is recognised. Make sure the first boot device is the desktop's usual hard drive and not the laptop drive.

You probably know this but I keep meaning to say that while trying to resolve this problem if Windows requests to format anything, DON'T!

Also, is the latop drive making any odd noises or giving you any reason to believe it's on it's last legs?

Ok, I'll do this too but it will have to be later as it will be a job to get into the desktop simply because of the way it is sited.

Laptop drive itself in the caddy is not making any noise but last night the laptop (whilst drive was still inside it obviously) was making a fast ticking sound when it was first switched on. This went on for a few seconds before the Windows screen appeared then everything hung thereafter.

I suspect the drive has become corrupted. I don't know if this is reversible/fixable or if it's now unable to be accessed/used no matter what.

I'll try it internally and will report back later.

closed

you could try a bootcd to get your data off, and rule out any windows problems, and double check the fan is clean and keyboard ribbon cable is seated properly, and run chkdsk from safe mode

aliasojo

closed wrote: »

you could try a bootcd to get your data off, and rule out any windows problems, and double check the fan is clean and keyboard ribbon cable is seated properly

The laptop itself is now in the bin. (I harvested it for parts, lol....memory modules, hd, even took the internal battery out.)

All I have to go on is the drive itself.

onzey

aliasojo wrote: »

Laptop drive itself in the caddy is not making any noise

It is spinning up still I hope?

aliasojo

onzey wrote: »

It is spinning up still I hope?

Actually, since reading your post, I've paid more attention to the noise.... it is very quiet (but the drive is touted as near silent so that's ok) but it does make a very rhythmic noise.

Kinda like a very quiet click then a whirr then a click...then it repeats this over and over.

Either that is normal or it's 'stuck'. I have no way of knowing.

aliasojo

Small update: It looks very much as if it's a corrupted file system problem.

I have managed to recover some things from the drive by using TestDisk and also PhotoRec.

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a way of searching for the specific things I need, like xlsx files for example and although the PhotoRec search was good at finding and recovering things, it was apparently going to take over 5000 hours to finish searching. It was recovering ALL files, even such things as bmp pics from the windows system, like an arrow pic etc.

Since the drive is obviously accessible by data recovery means, I just now have to find a program that will search and recover for Excel files from a corrupted system. (Rather than finding corrupted Excel files, which is the type of programs I'm finding so far.)

There are programs that apparently rebuild the file system but I'd rather try to get the files I need first before trying this just in case I make things worse.

So if anyone has any knowledge of data recovery progs that might fit the bill.......

Toxteth_OGrady

A useful guide here on data recovery using a Ubuntu Live CD (as previously suggested by Closed).

Apparently Photorec and Foremost will allow you to recover by file type (e.g. *.xls).

Toxteth_OGrady

Btw, as previously mentioned, running CHKDSK on the partition in read-only mode will help pinpoint the problem without putting your data at risk as CHKDSK does not carry out any actions in this mode. You just need to be careful that you invoke read-only from the command line when you run CHKDSK.

However I agree it's best to try get your data back first in case your disk has a hardware problem and is on its way out.

aliasojo

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

A useful guide here on data recovery using a Ubuntu Live CD (as previously suggested by Closed).

Apparently Photorec and Foremost will allow you to recover by file type (e.g. *.xls).

How annoying! I searched last night for .xls and .xlsx files (the program lists the file types alphabetically) and there were few entries under the 'x' section so I assumed I couldn't search specifically for Excel files.

I've just gone back to check again and now see that there is a .doc listing that includes Microsoft Office files under this heading so Excel files are listed here.

I could have done a simplified search last night instead of leaving it for 10 hours recovering rubbish.

I'll search now and try the chkdsk option later if I'm successful in recovering any files.