External To Internal HDD

[Drezzil]

Hello. I have a 2TB WD "My Book" and it started giving me problems tonight. So I thought perhaps the best idea would be to remove the hard drive from the "My Book" and install it directly into my computer... from there, I could copy the files onto another hard drive. I removed the hard drive from the "My Book" and placed it inside my computer without any problems, however my computer isn't allowing me access to the hard drive. When I first turned on my computer, it recognized the new hard drive and went through the "adding new hardware" phase on it's own. After the computer was fully booted, I opened "My Computer" and noticed the new drive wasn't there. Next, I opened the Computer Management window and selected Disk Management. The hard drive was in the list, but it wasn't initialized, so I initialized it and it was labeled "Online". The problem is, I still can't access this hard drive because it hasn't been assigned a letter... at least I think that is the problem. I have tried rebooting and that didn't solve the problem either.

The question is: How do I gain access to the information on this hard drive, now that it is installed inside my computer, rather than being an external hard drive? It has information on it that I do not want to lose and needs to be transferred to another hard drive already installed and setup inside my computer. Basically, I need to make this external hard drive work inside my computer without losing any data. I'm not sure if I properly explained everything... my sincerest apologies if that is indeed the case. Any help, thoughts, or opinions on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration... have a wonderful day.

 

[setishock]

Go back to disk management and give it a drive letter. Make it a high letter like Z.
If that model is like mine it hardware encrypts the info as it's written. Now they've released a version that doesn't do that. Disappointing. You might have to reattach the usb to sata interface board long enough to copy the data off. I'm about to rip my 3TB apart after I get the contents off of it just in case it is encrypted.
Good luck with that.

 

[strollin]

Whoa! In your post you say you initialized the drive. Do you realize that initialize is another term for format? You'd better stop what you're doing right now and start researching recovery options or your data will become irretrievably lost.

I'd install the drive back in the original enclosure and see if Recuva can recover the formatted drive. http://www.piriform.com/recuva/features/recovery-from-damaged-or-formatted-disks

 

[setishock]

Whoa I missed that. So I guess in my case retrieve then format from the external enclosure. Changed my game plan.

 

[WebSuccess4You]

Whoa I missed that. So I guess in my case retrieve then format from the external enclosure. Changed my game plan.

the old hard drive I have is external in a Sabrent USB 3.0 SATA hard Drive DOCK which I know works because it saw another hard drive. I cannot see this hard drive in Windows Explorer and when I see it i Computer Management it appears as Not Initialized,Not Formatted. Well,
it is a formatted NTFS with about 170 GB out of 320GB on it but I put a hard drive password on it and had a Dell technician replace it with a new 500 GB because I was going to clone the old hard drive with TrueImage14
and with the newest version of trueImage14 you have to have the new/destination hard drive inside the computer. But before he removed the
old hard drive I forgot to remove the hard drive password. I know the hard drive password but because (I think )it is on the old hard drive, Windows Explorer won't recognize it and Computer Management thinks it is
Not Initialized and UnFormatted. Please verify that this is the reason Windows Explorer cannot see it and Computer Management thinks it is
Not Initialized and UnFormatted.
I have a URL where I can buy HD Reset software but I have to sign a
waiver of liability because it might wipe out the info on it. Not what I want.

I read this: "Dell Inspiron BIOS Password Recovery

Each Dell Inspiron has a master password that clears the BIOS password. Call Dell Technical Support at (800)624-9896 to get this number.

Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of the Inspiron."

Does this apply because it is a hard drive password and not a BIOS because it is not affecting my installed new hard drive ?

How can I connect to the old hard drive to reset or remove the password ? I am copying this same post and emailing it to western Digital Support because the old hard drive is a WD Scorpio Blue.