I recently purchased an HP laptop running Vista Home Premium Edition to
replace a desktop machine running Windows XP that died of a motherboard
failure. Naturally I would like to recover the data from the old computer's
hard disk. I purchased an external drive enclosure (SYBA) with a USB
interface for this task. However I could not assign a drive letter for this
drive, nor could Vista recognize anything about the drive other than the
Device Manager recognized it correctly as a "Maxtor 6Y160P0 USB Device". I
gave the drive and enclosure to my brother-in-law who had an XP machine to
see if he could read it. Again, a drive letter could not be assigned. He
suggested that I run the Seagate/Maxtor drive diagnostics downloadable from
the Seagate website. Using SeaTools for Windows, I was able to run both the
short and long generic tests on the drive with the drive passing both tests.
My brother-in-law then said he had once read something about drives that are
bootable not being able to be read by XP or Vista when they are used as
external drives; unfortunately he could not remember where he had read this.
In fact, my old drive was the boot disk on my old computer, and it was
partitioned into four logical disks. He then suggested that I try
partitioning and recovery software on the drive.

I am hesitant to try such software until I can confirm that a drive with
boot sectors cannot be read as an external drive by Vista. Since there is
considerable valuable data and software on the old drive, I do not wish to
be tinkering with the drive without knowing more. I am open to suggestions
from the experts on this newsgroup as to where to go next. In case it is
needed I also have a USB-to-IDE cable to use in case the Syba enclosure
might be the problem. Suggestions on which recovery software tools are best
would also be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help. If replying directly, please delete the
eights from my email address. Having been on Usenet since 1983, I am well
aware of the "harvesting" of email addresses by spammers. In the "dark
ages" I could read every message in every newsgroup in less than two hours!

Barry

Hooking the drive up as a slave drive, and scanning it with recovery
software that is run from a boot disk (not from an installed operating
system) is not going to change the scanned drive in any way. You will just
see what files are recoverable by that particular recovery program. Then -
act accordingly!

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"NoSPAM" wrote in message
...
I recently purchased an HP laptop running Vista Home Premium Edition to
replace a desktop machine running Windows XP that died of a motherboard
failure. Naturally I would like to recover the data from the old
computer's hard disk. I purchased an external drive enclosure (SYBA) with
a USB interface for this task. However I could not assign a drive letter
for this drive, nor could Vista recognize anything about the drive other
than the Device Manager recognized it correctly as a "Maxtor 6Y160P0 USB
Device". I gave the drive and enclosure to my brother-in-law who had an XP
machine to see if he could read it. Again, a drive letter could not be
assigned. He suggested that I run the Seagate/Maxtor drive diagnostics
downloadable from the Seagate website. Using SeaTools for Windows, I was
able to run both the short and long generic tests on the drive with the
drive passing both tests. My brother-in-law then said he had once read
something about drives that are bootable not being able to be read by XP or
Vista when they are used as external drives; unfortunately he could not
remember where he had read this. In fact, my old drive was the boot disk on
my old computer, and it was partitioned into four logical disks. He then
suggested that I try partitioning and recovery software on the drive.

I am hesitant to try such software until I can confirm that a drive with
boot sectors cannot be read as an external drive by Vista. Since there is
considerable valuable data and software on the old drive, I do not wish to
be tinkering with the drive without knowing more. I am open to
suggestions from the experts on this newsgroup as to where to go next. In
case it is needed I also have a USB-to-IDE cable to use in case the Syba
enclosure might be the problem. Suggestions on which recovery software
tools are best would also be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help. If replying directly, please delete the
eights from my email address. Having been on Usenet since 1983, I am well
aware of the "harvesting" of email addresses by spammers. In the "dark
ages" I could read every message in every newsgroup in less than two
hours!

Barry

You need to install that drive as a slave to your new drive .Using an outside enclosure with USB connection will not do for this. When installed as a slave (make sure jumpers are set correctly) you should be able to see the HD with the correct drive letter and then pull your data off from it

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"NoSPAM" wrote in message ...
I recently purchased an HP laptop running Vista Home Premium Edition to
replace a desktop machine running Windows XP that died of a motherboard
failure. Naturally I would like to recover the data from the old computer's
hard disk. I purchased an external drive enclosure (SYBA) with a USB
interface for this task. However I could not assign a drive letter for this
drive, nor could Vista recognize anything about the drive other than the
Device Manager recognized it correctly as a "Maxtor 6Y160P0 USB Device". I
gave the drive and enclosure to my brother-in-law who had an XP machine to
see if he could read it. Again, a drive letter could not be assigned. He
suggested that I run the Seagate/Maxtor drive diagnostics downloadable from
the Seagate website. Using SeaTools for Windows, I was able to run both the
short and long generic tests on the drive with the drive passing both tests.
My brother-in-law then said he had once read something about drives that are
bootable not being able to be read by XP or Vista when they are used as
external drives; unfortunately he could not remember where he had read this.
In fact, my old drive was the boot disk on my old computer, and it was
partitioned into four logical disks. He then suggested that I try
partitioning and recovery software on the drive.

I am hesitant to try such software until I can confirm that a drive with
boot sectors cannot be read as an external drive by Vista. Since there is
considerable valuable data and software on the old drive, I do not wish to
be tinkering with the drive without knowing more. I am open to suggestions
from the experts on this newsgroup as to where to go next. In case it is
needed I also have a USB-to-IDE cable to use in case the Syba enclosure
might be the problem. Suggestions on which recovery software tools are best
would also be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help. If replying directly, please delete the
eights from my email address. Having been on Usenet since 1983, I am well
aware of the "harvesting" of email addresses by spammers. In the "dark
ages" I could read every message in every newsgroup in less than two hours!

Barry

"Peter Foldes" wrote in message
...
You need to install that drive as a slave to your new drive .Using an
outside enclosure with USB
connection will not do for this. When installed as a slave (make sure
jumpers are set correctly) you
should be able to see the HD with the correct drive letter and then pull
your data off from it

Thanks for your help, Peter, and also Richard. Your reply also answered the
question I had with Richard's answer: what is meant by a slave drive. I
doubt if my laptop will hold the drive but I can add it to my
brother-in-laws XP machine. And as a final demonstration of my ignorance,
why must I boot from a boot disk and avoid an installed operating system
when running recovery software?

Finally, does Vista recognize the boot sector on the old drive and prevent
it from being assigned a logical drive letter, and does anyone recommend any
particular recovery software?

Barry L. Ornitz

There is always a slim chance that hooking up the drive as a slave to a
functioning operating system "may" cause disk writes to the drive you are
trying to recover from. Will this over write that which you are trying to
recover? Why take the risk! If you create a boot floppy containing the
recovery program there is no risk whatsoever.

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"NoSPAM" wrote in message
...
"Peter Foldes" wrote in message
...
You need to install that drive as a slave to your new drive .Using an
outside enclosure with USB
connection will not do for this. When installed as a slave (make sure
jumpers are set correctly) you
should be able to see the HD with the correct drive letter and then pull
your data off from it

Thanks for your help, Peter, and also Richard. Your reply also answered
the question I had with Richard's answer: what is meant by a slave drive.
I doubt if my laptop will hold the drive but I can add it to my
brother-in-laws XP machine. And as a final demonstration of my ignorance,
why must I boot from a boot disk and avoid an installed operating system
when running recovery software?

Finally, does Vista recognize the boot sector on the old drive and prevent
it from being assigned a logical drive letter, and does anyone recommend
any particular recovery software?

Barry L. Ornitz

"Richard Urban" wrote in message
.. .
There is always a slim chance that hooking up the drive as a slave to a
functioning operating system "may" cause disk writes to the drive you are
trying to recover from. Will this over write that which you are trying to
recover? Why take the risk! If you create a boot floppy containing the
recovery program there is no risk whatsoever.

Thanks, Richard. This now makes sense.

Barry

"NoSPAM" wrote:

I recently purchased an HP laptop running Vista Home Premium Edition to
replace a desktop machine running Windows XP that died of a motherboard
failure. Naturally I would like to recover the data from the old computer's
hard disk. I purchased an external drive enclosure (SYBA) with a USB
interface for this task. However I could not assign a drive letter for this
drive, nor could Vista recognize anything about the drive other than the
Device Manager recognized it correctly as a "Maxtor 6Y160P0 USB Device". I
gave the drive and enclosure to my brother-in-law who had an XP machine to
see if he could read it. Again, a drive letter could not be assigned. He
suggested that I run the Seagate/Maxtor drive diagnostics downloadable from
the Seagate website. Using SeaTools for Windows, I was able to run both the
short and long generic tests on the drive with the drive passing both tests.
My brother-in-law then said he had once read something about drives that are
bootable not being able to be read by XP or Vista when they are used as
external drives; unfortunately he could not remember where he had read this.
In fact, my old drive was the boot disk on my old computer, and it was
partitioned into four logical disks. He then suggested that I try
partitioning and recovery software on the drive.

I am hesitant to try such software until I can confirm that a drive with
boot sectors cannot be read as an external drive by Vista. Since there is
considerable valuable data and software on the old drive, I do not wish to
be tinkering with the drive without knowing more. I am open to suggestions
from the experts on this newsgroup as to where to go next. In case it is
needed I also have a USB-to-IDE cable to use in case the Syba enclosure
might be the problem. Suggestions on which recovery software tools are best
would also be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help. If replying directly, please delete the
eights from my email address. Having been on Usenet since 1983, I am well
aware of the "harvesting" of email addresses by spammers. In the "dark
ages" I could read every message in every newsgroup in less than two hours!

Barry

I found a solution to a similar problem somewhere else I do not recall .My
thanks to the original author anyway. Try this solution:
-Do not plug the hard drive to the front USBs but to the ones on the back
of your desktop.
Problem is ,the front USBs do not have enough power to actuate the drive.
I hope this works for you

"NoSPAM" wrote:

I recently purchased an HP laptop running Vista Home Premium Edition to
replace a desktop machine running Windows XP that died of a motherboard
failure. Naturally I would like to recover the data from the old computer's
hard disk. I purchased an external drive enclosure (SYBA) with a USB
interface for this task. However I could not assign a drive letter for this
drive, nor could Vista recognize anything about the drive other than the
Device Manager recognized it correctly as a "Maxtor 6Y160P0 USB Device". I
gave the drive and enclosure to my brother-in-law who had an XP machine to
see if he could read it. Again, a drive letter could not be assigned. He
suggested that I run the Seagate/Maxtor drive diagnostics downloadable from
the Seagate website. Using SeaTools for Windows, I was able to run both the
short and long generic tests on the drive with the drive passing both tests.
My brother-in-law then said he had once read something about drives that are
bootable not being able to be read by XP or Vista when they are used as
external drives; unfortunately he could not remember where he had read this.
In fact, my old drive was the boot disk on my old computer, and it was
partitioned into four logical disks. He then suggested that I try
partitioning and recovery software on the drive.

I am hesitant to try such software until I can confirm that a drive with
boot sectors cannot be read as an external drive by Vista. Since there is
considerable valuable data and software on the old drive, I do not wish to
be tinkering with the drive without knowing more. I am open to suggestions
from the experts on this newsgroup as to where to go next. In case it is
needed I also have a USB-to-IDE cable to use in case the Syba enclosure
might be the problem. Suggestions on which recovery software tools are best
would also be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help. If replying directly, please delete the
eights from my email address. Having been on Usenet since 1983, I am well
aware of the "harvesting" of email addresses by spammers. In the "dark
ages" I could read every message in every newsgroup in less than two hours!

Barry

I bought a "Speed Metal 2.5" HDD External Case" for the stock 30-Gig
Toshiba hard drive from my old Dell Inspiron 1100. I put the drive in. I
plugged it in; light lights up, drive spun up and spun down. I said
"fine" and finalized the purchase (paid too much, too. The Little Shop
of Hardware in Baltimore, MD, are rather pricey. They seem to be nice
people, though. 25-percent restocking fee: bleah.).

NExT, I plugged it into another computer, a 32-bit Vista Home Premium
rig. Vista recognized a USB Mass Storage Device and assigned it a drive
letter, and it showed up in My Computer, but clicking on it to open it
brought up the message *"please insert a disk into removable drive E:\"*

Checking the Device Manager revealed a 'Generic USB Device' in the USB
devices with an exclamation point and the message "Windows cannot use
this hardware device because it has been prepared for "safe removal" but
it has not been removed from the computer (Code 47). To fix this
problem, unplug this device from your computer and then plug it in
again."

Which is bull**** because it was still plugged in; the drive LED light
was on.

But I unplugged it anyway and plugged it back in. Device Manager
refreshes, and no joy: still comes up with the error message.

Rebooted with the drive plugged in at bootup and tried again. The same
thing happened.

Step One Fix:

SO THEN I unplugged the drive, and then I moved "infcache.1" from
*c:\windows\inf* and renamed it "infcache.1back," and the file is
sitting on my desktop right now.

Rebooted with the drive plugged in at bootup and tried again. No joy.

HOWEVER, THIS TIME the error message in Device Manager went away.
PROGRESS!:geek: I still couldn't open the drive.

(BTW, at this point the infcache.1 file has been yet to be rewritten by
Vista.)

Step Two Fix:

So then I unplugged it from its original USB port at the front of the
computer and then I plugged it into another USB port on the computer. I
figured that maybe that port doesn't have enough power in it, right?

WRONG. It recognized an "USB-to-IDE Device" (which it is, it's an IDE
hard drive). Remember, it didn't do this before. So, since it never did
this before, and since it never recognized an IDE -anything- associated
with this before, Vista installed a driver for an USB-to-IDE interface
of some sort.

AND NOW _NO_ DRIVE LETTER COMES UP AT ALL, THAT USB ERROR MESSAGE IN
DEVICE MANAGER IS BACK, AND WARGARBL!


--
pauliewalnuts

I have rebooted and the USB drive is still unrecognized. However, the
USB device error message went away. How? I reconfigured the Generic USB
Drive in Device Manager for "configured for performance," meaning that
it must be 'safely removed' before I can free the port. When it
initially was recognized by Vista, it was as a Plug and Play, and this
classification seems to have been the only thing prompting the
exclamation point next to the Generic USB Device in Device Manager. So
that error's gone.

But it still won't open.

The HDD enclosure came with a disk with drivers. However, Vista doesn't
recognize any of them in a Device Install, and also the instructions are
written by Chinese people (yes, I mean literally: the CD's name is
"我的光碟", which is probably Mandarin for "HA
YOU'RE A CHUMP").

Instructions on the disk about possible problems:

::::1. Make sure the USB cable is properly connected to your
computer.::
::2. Make sure the power supply provides enough power.::

::3. For Windows 98 the driver is installation. ::
::*(?WTF?)*
::::4. Some hard disk must be set to master mode.::
::5. Delete the “USB Mass Storage Device” from the
“USB Controller”::
::
I'm going to try Number Five now because I have no idea how to do
Number Four. Of course, I'm going to restart.


--
pauliewalnuts