XP not found trying to recover data

I am not sure whether this is a hardware or OS question. I had problems with my hard drive on my acer lap top. (it would spin and not read) I replaced the hard drive and loaded my software and started fresh.

The laptop has been working perfectly since then but I now want to selectively pull some data/files from my old hard drive. I bought an adaptor cable that will run the hard drive through a USB port. When I plug it in the USB and IDE light turn on and my system acknowledges that new hardware was found however, I do not see anything connected from my USB port when I go to My Computer. Even under Disk Management the only things that show up are my drives that are within the laptop not the one hooked throught the USB. I can hear it spin and when I click "Safely remove hardware" then it stops. If I turn off the laptop and turn it on with the USB plugged in I get a blank screen. I have clicked F2 during start up at that time and it says OS not found. I have even removed the new hard drive and just ran the old hard drive but the results are the same. I put it in the freezer to see if that would do any thing but it did not help.

So the end result is that I have a spinning hard drive that is partially recognized but not readable?

Any suggestions?

Thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,
Living Life

 

cable

Thank you for your response,

I bought the adaptor and that is how I know that it spins but does not read. if i have it hooked up through the USB before I turn on the lap top then I get a blank screen and if I F2 i get the message OS not found. If I stop the UBS connection then my laptop will start on the new hard drive that is installed. When I plug it in after, the lights on the adaptor turn on and show that it is reading, but going to My Computer does not show anything read from any of my USB ports. I know that they all work as I can run any other device through them.

If i remove the new hard drive and install it in the original socket I have the same results and if i keep the new hard drive out and run it through the USB the same results.

I have even taken off the cover and I can watch it spin and the arm moving across to read the disk. (yes this was done in a clean environment)

There is some data on the hard drive that I want to recover (like my client data base and some pictures)

Is there a way to load the recovery disks and keep the data that is on there? That may be the only way to get the data off of it other than sending the drive to someone.

Thank you for your help.
Living Life

 

It is possible that the Partition table and the Master Boot Record are not in agreement with each other and XP does not know what to do with the hdd. I would try 'testdisk' to check the partition table and the master boot record. Be sure to read the How-To use .
http://www.cgsecurity.org

I do agree that the adapter might be better to use as per Steve R Jones post.

 

cable

Thank you Steve and Top Farmer,

I will try the other cable and your suggestion. I will not be able to get a cable until tomorrow, but I wonder if I unplug the dvd burner from my desktop and plug the IDE cable from that into the hard drive. Will that work? I noticed that the picture on the link you sent shows a separate connector for the 4 pins on the hard drive. The UBS adaptor that I bought covers those for pins so nothing could be attached to those four pins if I wanted to. Is that to jump it to change it from master to slave? The hard drive is configured so that it is in slave with the 4 pins left open. if that is the case then the IDE from the burner should work?

I appreciate all of your time and efforts with this.

Sincerely,
Living life