Can you turn an external HDD into an internal HDD??

[schmally]

I need computer help. I wiped my laptop a few weeks ago while my ext hdd was still attached. I reloaded windows and my laptops works great. Now it wont locate the ext hdd for what it is.
It wants to see it as a normal drive. I cant open it and retrieve my files but I know they are there. So someone told me if I installed in into my PC it might locate all my files. Another option
I am to try is installing ubuntu and try searching for it that way. The reason I know all my files are still in the hdd is that I used a free software that scanned it and located them. I just would
have had to pay for the sotware to get the files backed up. Someone help me out with ideas and options. I have over 8 years of photos and pics of my newborn on there. Help me out egg heads.

[scot_w]

All your files are there. If you remove the drive from the external case and plug it into a Windows computer, the OS WILL write a new signature to the drive and might make it more difficult to recover your files. If you can hang tight I will elaborate further, but I have to follow some guys that are kicking in doors and seize some computers, but I will follow up.

Of course there are plenty of other people here that can help as well, so they might beat me to it.


Oh, and my oft repeated mantra: Backup early, backup often.

[schmally]

yes, that mantra is true. I still kick my self in my ass for leaving it attached while wiping my computer.

[Charles]

Did you make sure you went into Disk Management to confirm that Windows assigned a drive letter to it? If not, you won't see it in File Explorer.
Theoretically, an ext drive (USB, I assume) is just plug and play. I assume you've unplugged it and tried plugging it back in so Windows can recognize it as a mass storage device?

[schmally]

yes I have tried. It wont assign a number to it. I have tried both ways. And even a different comp.

[davis449]

Based on what you've told me, depending on what type of drive is in the casing, yes you can plug it into your PC and retrieve the files with little trouble. You'll have to be careful not format the damn thing when\if Windows comes up asking you to assign it a drive letter. It's possible that even after plugging it into your PC you will have to go to Computer Manager and assign it one manually. Most of the time, when you hook a random drive into a PC, it will just show up in Windows it will recognize and install it automatically and you can browse to it and retrieve your files. However, I had a shit load of problems with my external backup drive on my 2003 Server here recently where the computer just stopped seeing the drive all together and every time I was running my scripted backups, it was getting Windows Delayed Write Failures. After removing the external enclosure and plugging it into another PC in my house, I found that the PC wouldn't even recognize the drive. I was finally able to get the BIOS to see the drive and it failed Seatools diags after 10 seconds with sector errors. My drive, as it turned out, was toast. So I went out and bought another external and it was fucked after one day of being plugged into my server. I took it back and got an internal and called it a day because I really didn't want to go through the effort of troubleshooting my external drive via USB issues. What can I say? I'm lazy. The internal works great now.

[schmally]

thanks for the help

[CONTROL ONE]

What does it come up as in your device manager? an error?

Try clicking on it in the device manager once you plug it in and see if you can assign a drive letter that way.

[scot_w]

Your OP said Ubuntu. Are you comfortable in Linux? If so you can easily recover the files.

Have you burned Ubuntu? Do you know how to boot it to a live environment rather than installing it to your local HDD?