Maxtor One Touch II Problem...Please help before I pull my hair out!

[mofo91105]

So here is my dilema,

I let my buddy borrow my OneTouch to backup files on his computer. I get the hard drive back and it now won't show up in My Computer, but it is recognized by the computer itself. The I have installed the drivers and stuff but nothing still comes up. Nothing has been deleted or formatted, so I know all the stuff is still there. I know that there are probably a bunch of corrupt files/sectors, but I need to know how I can recover them. So I am asking a recomendation for a good recovery program and a good format program (something that actually erases every single thing on the hard drive, so even if I wanted to go search for anything, I couldn't). There is too much priceless stuff on this hard drive including school term papers and family pictures and videos to lose it all. I thank you all for your help, and welcome all suggestions

 

[Rick]

To ensure your drive's file system is in good shape, you can use Disk Manager (built into XP and 2000). Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc

It will show a list of drives, their partitions and their file systems. If the problem is bad enough (like a partition is gone or if your file system is hosed), it will show up.

Your drive should show up here no matter what, as long as it is working. If you don't see your drive at all, then that is usually a good indication of hardware failure. Perhaps the enclsosure is bad or even the drive itself went south.

If Disk Management shows your drive and lists your file system as healthy, then you have some sort of other problem.

 

[mofo91105]

Thanks for the tip. It shows that it is unallocated (probably meaning it needs to be formatted). I went to a previous post I made months ago and someone recommended EASEUS Data Recovery. I ran that and it found things on my drive, so I know its still there (it was only the demo version), now I just need to figure out how to back up all the stuff and clean the hard drive. Any Suggestions?

 

[Rick]

At face value, it sounds like you have a corrupted partition; this is possibly an issue with the MBR. Why this happened is still a mystery - It could be a sign of drive failure. You should definitely run a drive diagnostic on it and I don't mean chkdsk or scandisk... Get one from your manufacturer's website.

"Unallocated" tells us the problem lies with your partition tables, not necessarily the file system; it could certain extend to the file system though.

I've had much success restoring corrupted partitions using a wonderful little utility called Active@ Partition Recovery. It's DOS based and it won't support an external drive, but if you feel comfortable taking out the drive and installing it internally into your system, it may restore ALL of your data by repairing your partition table. There's a free demo version and it shows you what it is able to recover. The actually program is $30 or so, which is a great value when faced with the alternative...