I thought I knew how to do this, but I guess I don’t.  I have a working hard drive 
that has some information that I would like to retrieve.  The hard drive belongs 
to a friend whom has forgotten the password.  Efforts with password reset programs 
have failed, as has the usual work around where you use Safe Mode to log in as an 
Administrator to reset.  I guess it’s because it’s an older version of XP, maybe 
Service Pack 1?

In the past I have been able to simply hook the hard drive as a secondary drive in 
my own desktop.  By that I mean hooking it up to the IDE cable.  Usually it will 
show up as a secondary drive in “My Computer”.  But this one doesn’t even show, and 
I’m not sure why.

I’ve tried every possible jumper configuration.  Even leaving the jumpers off, but 
to no avail.

Am I missing something?  It is an IBM hard drive, if that makes any difference.

Thanks,
David

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Well, if the drive is not bad (does it boot on the original PC?), then you can be 
sure that it is merely a configuration problem with the BIOS or jumpers, or cabling. 
 Keep trying.  Before trying to access the drive in Windows, verify that your BIOS 
sees it.  It will save you time from having to boot into windows every time you try 
something new.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks for the quick reply.  Actually, I've tried it on a couple of different desktop 
computers, thus different BIOS settings.  I do know how to enter BIOS, but I am not 
sure what to look for in terms of settings.







On Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 9:59 am, appleoddity wrote:

>


>Well, if the drive is not bad (does it boot on the original PC?), then you can be 

>sure that it is merely a configuration problem with the BIOS or jumpers, or cabling. 

> Keep trying.  Before trying to access the drive in Windows, verify that your BIOS 

>sees it.  It will save you time from having to boot into windows every time you 
try 

>something new.

>

>
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Well, some times drives can be picky with what other drives they work with.  For 
the least amount of trouble you should be hooking the second drive to the secondary 
IDE cable with the original jumper settings that it had in the original PC.  Let 
the drive work as a stand alone drive (unhook CD-Roms, etc. from the cable obviously) 
just like it did in the original PC.  If you use the original jumper configuration 
in this method, you will know that they are correct.  Unless, ofcourse, the drive 
was not a stand alone drive in the original PC.

Ultimately, if you are doing this often, you should invest in a $30 USB-IDE/SATA 
adapter.. I have a few at the shop because they are absolutely invaluable for doing 
stuff like this.

Lastly, I hope no one complains, because this is not technically a windows XP problem.. 
:)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Oh, sorry about the posting in an inappropriate forum.  Guess I didn't think about 
that.  Thank you very much for your insight though.  Much appreciated.







On Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 10:34 am, appleoddity wrote:

>


>Well, some times drives can be picky with what other drives they work with.  For 

>the least amount of trouble you should be hooking the second drive to the secondary 

>IDE cable with the original jumper settings that it had in the original PC.  Let 

>the drive work as a stand alone drive (unhook CD-Roms, etc. from the cable obviously) 

>just like it did in the original PC.  If you use the original jumper configuration 

>in this method, you will know that they are correct.  Unless, ofcourse, the drive 

>was not a stand alone drive in the original PC.

>

>Ultimately, if you are doing this often, you should invest in a $30 USB-IDE/SATA 

>adapter.. I have a few at the shop because they are absolutely invaluable for doing 

>stuff like this.

>

>Lastly, I hope no one complains, because this is not technically a windows XP problem.. 

>:)

>

>

>
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I would definitely second the suggestion to buy and use a USB SATA/IDE adapter - these are a great way to recover data from a disk without having to attach it to your internal IDE cables.

On Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 11:32 am, ApprenticeDave wrote:
>Oh, sorry about the posting in an inappropriate forum. Guess I didn't think about
>that. Thank you very much for your insight though. Much appreciated.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Actually I have one of these and tried the drive before I tried anything else, and 
it still would not show up as a drive.  Anyone know what would cause that?






On Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 1:13 am, Malcolm Fowler wrote:

>I would definitely second the suggestion to buy and use a USB SATA/IDE adapter - 

>these are a great way to recover data from a disk without having to attach it to 

>your internal IDE cables.

>

>

>

>
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

With the drive hooked up to the test PC, look to see if it is recognized in the BIOS. 
 Or alternatively, use your USB adapter, then go into computer management (right-click 
my computer, click manage) and expand "storage" then select disk management.  See 
if you are able to "see" the device listed.

If the computer is recognizing the device but you can not get a drive letter, or 
do not see a valid partition on the drive, then you probably have a case where the 
original PC uses a non-standard drive geometry in the BIOS.

It is rare, and is usually a problem on much older PCs.  In order to get your operating 
system to recognize the drive properly, you will have to go into the BIOS settings 
on the original PC, and record the actual settings (heads, cylinders, sectors, LBA 
mode, etc.) and then manually set those same settings in your BIOS so that the geometry 
is identical.

Then the partition will be recognize properly and you will get a drive letter.  I 
must warn you that if you try to do anything on the drive with the improper drive 
geometry set, you will destroy data.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Wow!  Thanks for the info.  Very much appreciated!







On Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 8:49 am, appleoddity wrote:

>


>With the drive hooked up to the test PC, look to see if it is recognized in the 
BIOS. 

> Or alternatively, use your USB adapter, then go into computer management (right-click 

>my computer, click manage) and expand "storage" then select disk management.  See 

>if you are able to "see" the device listed.

>

>If the computer is recognizing the device but you can not get a drive letter, or 

>do not see a valid partition on the drive, then you probably have a case where the 

>original PC uses a non-standard drive geometry in the BIOS.

>

>It is rare, and is usually a problem on much older PCs.  In order to get your operating 

>system to recognize the drive properly, you will have to go into the BIOS settings 

>on the original PC, and record the actual settings (heads, cylinders, sectors, LBA 

>mode, etc.) and then manually set those same settings in your BIOS so that the geometry 

>is identical.

>

>Then the partition will be recognize properly and you will get a drive letter.  
I 

>must warn you that if you try to do anything on the drive with the improper drive 

>geometry set, you will destroy data.

>

>
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

• Search this forum
• Start a new thread on a different subject

• Report abuse of the forum