I'm trying to put my some pictures and songs I saved on an external hard drive onto my new laptop, but I get a recovery partition warning...
"Recovery Partition
Warning!
This area of your hard drive
(or partition) contains files used
for your PC Recovery.
Do not delete or alter these files.
Any change to this partition could
prevent any recovery later."
I really, REALLY need to try to get these files back. My wedding pictures are on there and my other laptop that had them on it died.
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M$9 Answers
C:/ is your main drive
D:/ is your recovery partition (should be very small)
Your new external drive should show up with a higher letter. So, hypothetically,
E:/ might be your CD/DVD drive
F:/ could be your new external hard disk drive
So my suspicion is that your new computer is not seeing the new drive.
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M$Boot from this CDROM. It will load Ubuntu Linux (but not install on your computer). After it's loaded, you should see an icon for your laptops hard drive right there on the desktop. If you plug in the external hard drive after the system is loaded, you should see another icon show up for that drive. You should be able to drag an drop folders from the external to the other drive.
This might not help you use your external drive in Windows, but it might help you get your wedding photos back and copy those to the new laptop.
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M$
actually, if the HDD is failing and its NTFS, I have much better luck reading the drive in Linux or Mac than I do in Windows. When it comes to NTFS, I'll say that Linux and Mac are "dumb". All they can do is look at the file system, read, write, copy, delete. They can't access the ACL and all of the extra features of NTFS. Which in fact turns out to be a benefit because Windows tries to act "too smart" and fix things. Like if something Windows views is critically wrong with NTFS, it won't look at the files at all and will ask you to reformat the drive. Whereas the same drive in Linux or Mac will just open up and let you copy files off.
This will help solve some Windows issues, but if the HDD is failing, this may not work. But I like the train of thought.
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M$Next check disk management. D:\ on this new computer is set by the manufacturer as a recovery partition. It sounds like from your experience that D:\ was your external USB drive on your old computer and some finicky USB storage devices will stubbornly keep the same drive letter even across computers. If this is the case, you should see something in Disk Management that looks like your external hard drive (probably Disk 1, but the easiest way to tell is to match the drive size).
If you see the drive in Disk Management, right click on it and click on Change Drive Letter and Paths. Choose a new drive letter for it. Typically the drive letters that are already taken will not be available, but you might want to double check. If it's there and it allows you to change the drive letter to something that isn't already taken, then you should be in the clear.
If it's not showing up at all either in Device Manager or Disk Management, then stick the drive in the freezer (no I'm not kidding). A good overnight freeze has saved many failed hard drives for me. If it works but then disappears again after you copied some data, stick in in there again. You can't hurt a hard drive by freezing it, but I usually wrap mine in a paper towel or a plastic bag to keep it from getting condensation on it.
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M$
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M$
Does your computer make a sound when the drive is plugged in or removed? If not, then your computer is not detecting your external hard drive. Make sure it has power and that you are plugging it correctly. Also, if you aren't sure, check to make sure the port on your computer that you are plugging it into is working. If it is a brand new computer, it could have a defect.
If it does make a sound, then check disk management. The external hard drive should be listed as a physical device and it should have at least one partition mounted with a drive letter assigned. Follow the instructions here to do this: http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-vista/how-to-use-disk-management-in-vista/ (I don't have Vista so I can't give you personal instructions). If it is listed but no partition is mounted, right click on it and select Mount Partition.
If it does not show up in disk management, then check the device manager. Open it up using the instructions here: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/2d8d5582-c5bc-4395-945f-5c6a273c5afa1033.mspx
Check to see that your external hard drive is listed and not malfunctioning. If it is listed and has an exclamation point icon by it, it is malfunctioning and you need to take further steps to get it to work. Double click on it to bring up its properties and error code. Use that to figure out what's wrong.
Reply if you need more help and good luck!
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
The same drives show up either way. Ok, now I have a whole new problem. Haha. Any idea why that would be?
Just E:/ and C:/
Hmm, right-click on My Computer, then goto manage. In the window that appears click on Disk Managmenet. You should see a graphical representation of the hard drives. It's possible you might see the external drive and be able to assign it a drive letter from there.
You could also take the external drive to another computer and see if it has the same problem recognizing the disk.
What drive letters show up when you disconnect the external drive?
Then try i think this should work.
Note: use only original window for this
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M$
I was not trying to be a Mac Fanboy, just offer sound advice from a professional photographer. I even suggested that an Apple Geek employee would be happy to help you, showing you what kind of customer service Apple is known for. Knowing that, you might be convinced to switch at some point in the future. Macs just work for photos. If the hard drive is damaged (or memory card), I also recommend a program on the web called FileSavage. It just works!
Actually plugging the external drive into a Mac has a high chance of success - higher than Windows actually - as long as the Mac has the NTFS-3G program installed. Voting this unhelpful is short sighted.
Yea, your computer is not seeing your new drive. Most drives will need to be plugged into the wall for power and it might have a power switch, then USB out to USB in on your computer.
I am unclear: you already copied your files to the external drive using the old computer, right? Now the files are on the external drive, but you want to copy them back to the C:/ drive on your new computer?
Do you have another computer to test the external drive on?
The only drives that show up are E:/ (DVD RW Drive), C:/, and D:/ (recovery) drives are showing in My Computer even though the external hard drive is connected.