Accessing information from old harddrive

Hi,

My problem is that about a year and half ago, my old IBM/Lenovo, overheated and was never able to start again, since its been around for a while i decided to replace it instead of repairing... No i have a Toshiba running on Vista Home Premium, 32 bits, lately I have started to miss my old music stored in the old computer and tried to retrieve it, but since i know very little about computers I've got stuck... What i did was taking the harddrive out of the old computer and figured if i dismounted my external harddrive and replaced the harddrive in there with my old one it would work, but unfortunately what happens is that it registers it, but when i open up "computer" where i would normally see the device its not there. When i click on the USB icon with the green circle and white "V" that appears in the bottom of the page when i connect it it says that its installed and working well, in properties it even gives me a location C:\Windows\system32\drivers\USBSTOR.SYS, but when trying to access from there its just a 54kb file that does not open, says "it needs to know what program to use to open"...

Basically this is where im standing now, if someone could help with this would be nice, since i would love to get my music collection back and also access to my old emails...

Please, if you do know how to solve this, keep in mind that im a computer idiot and needs to be explained to as a child...


Regards

Paul

Hi Paul,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

Unfortunately, I'm not certain I can simplify this a whole lot, but I'll try. My guess is that you don't have the proper device drivers for that drive installed (it almost certainly isn't plug-and-play like most external USB devices that come with their own drives or drives made for them). But it could be other things as well, so we'll try to take this one step at a time.

You may need to make changes to the drive before it can be used properly in the USB enclosure. See the following article How to Install an External Hard Drive Enclosure for some examples and general instructions (though specific instructions would need to be for your hard drive). What is the manufacturer, make, and full model number of the hard drive you're trying to put into the enclosure?

Once you've installed the drive (check all the pins to make sure they are straight and not bent and make sure the connections are tight and secure), power up and connect it to the USB port and if it indicates it is connected but you still can't see it in Computer, go to Start / Control Panel / Device Manager and look for the drive (or specifically the drive's device driver). Here are general instructions on using Device Manager:

Check each device for a red x, yellow ! or white ?. These identify devices with problems (probably drivers, but also conflicts or something else). Specifically look for USB devices or Drives or anything that seems to identify the drive in the USB enclosure (whether they have a symbol next to them or not). Click on each for further details and troubleshooting tips. If you need to get drivers (and you may need to do so for this drive even though in a USB enclosure because it was not originally designed to go into one and may need special drivers to work or updated drivers even if it says it is working), do so from the computer vendor or device manufacturer (NOT from Microsoft Updates). Proceed as follows to get the drivers: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driverssupport/ht/driverdlmfgr.htm. Chances are good if you need them, you need them for the drive and not the USB enclosure (especially if the enclosure works with the normal drive in it). Once you have the drivers, you can install them through Device Manager as follows: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/193584-device-manager-install-driver.html. See if that works. If not, proceed.

With the USB drive connected and powered up, go to Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management. Press the PRTSCR button. Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories / Paint and double-click to open the program. Click on Edit and then click Paste. A screenshot of that Disk Management page should show up. Save it to your desktop as a .jpg file. When you next post, choose Go Advanced and you'll see a button Manage Attachments. Click on Browse and go to your Desktop to find that screenshot you saved there and click upload, go and post whatever else you want or need to say like normal (especially results of what you tried and what happened and answers to any questions I asked anywhere in this post).

The SYS file you noted is just the USB device driver - it isn't meant to be opened or used to help access the drive (well, it does the latter but you shouldn't need to do anything here to make it happen). I think that's fine and that it's the drive and not the enclosure that's the problem.

Run a System Health Report -
START | type perfmon /report - a viewer will appear | Save as an HTML file (default file extension). Then zip it up and attach the zip file to your next reply.

If none of the above worked (but you did everything including steps that were just reports and not designed to fix the problem but to identify it), then what is the manufacturer, make and precise model of your computer? Is it a desktop or laptop? If desktop, is there space to insert this drive into it as a slave drive (make sure it is set as a slave drive if there are any such settings or jumpers on the drive)? If so, we may try that instead of the USB enclosure - but let's just do these steps for now and see where we stand afterwards.

I hope this helps. Remember, I need answers to all my questions and the more information you give me, the more I will be able to help. You can see what's happening - I can't so I rely on you for all the details and explanations. Tell me everything you can that might help - I don't care how long your post is (I love long posts). Any questions along the way, just post them and I'll do my best to answer them.

Good luck!