Question How to recover data from laptop drive ?

[Beachhead1985]

Had to give up on my old Acer Aspire ES1-523 laptop and now I am trying to pull data from the HDD.

The old laptop died due to a failed motherboard, I think.

Anyways; got the old drive in my external shell and it is telling me that it hasn't migrated in disc manager.

The Drive is either an NSI MQ01ABD100 or a Hitachi HDS723030ALA640. Either way, it's a 1 TB 2.5" drive.

Here is the info for the events:
\Disk&Ven_NSI&Prod_MQ01ABD100&Rev_3.01\0010101650000000W&0 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.

Last Device Instance Id: IDE\DISKHITACHI_HDS723030ALA640_________________MKAOA5C0\5&133A3851&0&4.0.0
Class Guid: {4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Location Path:
Migration Rank: 0xF000FE00E000F130
Present: true
Status: 0xC0000719

Disc Manager says the drive is healthy.

Thanks for your time.

PC Specs
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-D3H
CPU: AMD A6-6400K APU with Radeon iGPU
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super
RAM: 32GB
Windows 10

Edit
The whole sad story on the ACER is a series of battery issues, culminating with a failure to charge, which seems to be through the motherboard.

 

[USAFRet]

The Drive is either an NSI MQ01ABD100 or a Hitachi HDS723030ALA640. Either way, it's a 1 TB 2.5" drive.

The "Hitachi HDS723030ALA640" leads to a 3.5" DeskStar HDD.
https://www.hdsentinel.com/storageinfo_details.php?lang=en&model=HITACHI HDS723030ALA640

 

[evermorex76]

The "Hitachi HDS723030ALA640" leads to a 3.5" DeskStar HDD.

Yeah but MQ01ABD100 is an actual Toshiba model, too. Sounds like Toshiba may have rebadged a Hitachi.

Disc Manager

I assume you're referring to Disk Management in Windows.

Not a lot of really good results for this error. Mostly the usual generic stuff (uninstall and reinstall the device, delete the partitions and try again, update drivers, etc) from companies trying to sell you their partition management software, or users who never find a solution or at least never report it back.

Google Overview DID however give something that sounds sort of reasonable. "Typically indicates that the system is having trouble identifying or matching the device to a compatible driver." So it could potentially be an issue with the enclosure not properly identifying itself so that Windows knows it's an external drive device, or maybe the drive itself is the issue there. This enclosure has worked with your PC before?

It could be that the laptop motherboard failing even damaged the drive in some way. I found other references that similarly indicate it's an identification issue with drivers, but they and Google Overview are always in reference to migrating, like upgrading Windows and it not finding a driver for some reason.

Another person tried running diagnostics from Seagate and Western Digital and they came back with all sorts of failures. It's possible that the laptop failure damaged the firmware sectors of the drive itself so it's not able to fully initialize and be identified. This "migration" error can happen with pretty much any device of any type apparently, but I've never once seen it before.

If it's showing up in Device Manager and Disk Management, then you should be able to run diagnostic software on it. WD Data Lifeguard, Seagate Seatools, or third-party stuff to perform built-in SMART tests first, or even just something like Crystal DiskInfo to see if it will report the SMART data and tell you if there are errors. You might also try connecting it internally rather than through the USB enclosure.

Depending on how important the data is, you may want to simply stop doing anything and unplug it, and send it for professional data recovery.

 

[Beachhead1985]

The "Hitachi HDS723030ALA640" leads to a 3.5" DeskStar HDD.
https://www.hdsentinel.com/storageinfo_details.php?lang=en&model=HITACHI HDS723030ALA640

Hm. That can't be right. It's a 2.5" laptop drive for sure.

 

[Beachhead1985]

Yeah but MQ01ABD100 is an actual Toshiba model, too. Sounds like Toshiba may have rebadged a Hitachi.

I assume you're referring to Disk Management in Windows.

Not a lot of really good results for this error. Mostly the usual generic stuff (uninstall and reinstall the device, delete the partitions and try again, update drivers, etc) from companies trying to sell you their partition management software, or users who never find a solution or at least never report it back.

Google Overview DID however give something that sounds sort of reasonable. "Typically indicates that the system is having trouble identifying or matching the device to a compatible driver." So it could potentially be an issue with the enclosure not properly identifying itself so that Windows knows it's an external drive device, or maybe the drive itself is the issue there. This enclosure has worked with your PC before?

It could be that the laptop motherboard failing even damaged the drive in some way. I found other references that similarly indicate it's an identification issue with drivers, but they and Google Overview are always in reference to migrating, like upgrading Windows and it not finding a driver for some reason.

Another person tried running diagnostics from Seagate and Western Digital and they came back with all sorts of failures. It's possible that the laptop failure damaged the firmware sectors of the drive itself so it's not able to fully initialize and be identified. This "migration" error can happen with pretty much any device of any type apparently, but I've never once seen it before.

If it's showing up in Device Manager and Disk Management, then you should be able to run diagnostic software on it. WD Data Lifeguard, Seagate Seatools, or third-party stuff to perform built-in SMART tests first, or even just something like Crystal DiskInfo to see if it will report the SMART data and tell you if there are errors. You might also try connecting it internally rather than through the USB enclosure.

Depending on how important the data is, you may want to simply stop doing anything and unplug it, and send it for professional data recovery.

I guess I'll have to open the enclosure and again and look to be sure.

I just unplugged it and tried again and it's healthy-healthy-healthy across the board, but still doesn't read and shows the same errors. I think maybe what it means by "Last device instance" is that I have previously used it with that device.

Yes, disc management, in computer management.

I think I have SeaTools somewhere? Or have had it before.

 

[TerryLaze]

Start your PC with a linux live distro from a usb key and see if it can read the data on the disk.
Otherwise you will have to use a data recovery tool like recuva or testdisk to get the info.

Windows needs to initialize the disk to see it and that will make it blank.
(You can still use data recovery to get the files after that)

 

[Beachhead1985]

Okay, so developments...

Once again (similar experience with my WD Passport SSD external), plugging it into my GF's laptop works.

Issue:

It reads as literally MY LAPTOP. Therefor, my GF's laptop does not have access to *MY* files. It *SAYS* "Continue to gain permanent access. But that isn't working.

Is there a way to enter my password or something and get access?

Getting somewhere at least.

Thank you.

 

[JayGau]

You need to be patient after clicking on "continue". It might take a couple of hours before Windows finishes to change the permissions on all the files.

 

[evermorex76]

It reads as literally MY LAPTOP. Therefor, my GF's laptop does not have access to *MY* files. It *SAYS* "Continue to gain permanent access. But that isn't working.

What do you mean "reads as"? The volume (drive letter) name? That's just a label, has nothing to do with which machine it came from other than that OEMs will usually name it the model of the laptop or something like that. You can change it to Eat My Shorts if you want.

The reason her laptop can't access the files is simply because the NTFS permissions on that filesystem don't have any references to accounts on HER machine. It says things like YOURLAPTOP\Administrators and YOURLAPTOP\YourUserName and YOURLAPTOP\SYSTEM have full control over this folder, that folder, etc. (Using GUIDs that don't exist on her machine.) Totally normal. In order to access the folders on her machine, you just have to assign permission to the folders and subfolders you need to access. That is what happens when you try to open it and get that message and click Continue, although it doesn't dig down into subfolders so you often end up having to do the same thing folder by folder.

But mechanical drives, especially slower laptop drives, can take a REALLY REALLY long time for that to be processed, and that is assuming there are no faults with the drive. Even an SSD can take a really long time for it to apply, just because Windows sucks.

Instead of trying to open the folders, bring up the properties and go to the Security tab, and change the owner to her username and give it Full Control. You may need to first change the owner and save it, then go back and click the Advanced button to give the Full Control permission so that you can also select the option to "Replace all child object permissions" so that it propagates all the way down. Do this only on the folders you really need, like your name under Users, not just the entire drive, otherwise you'll be waiting forever to apply it to Windows OS files and application files that you don't need. This should result in a dialog box popping up showing all the folders and files as they're processed and the permissions are changed.

You can also use the command line tools takeown or icacls to change the owner, and icacls can be used to apply the Full Control permissions. There's also a tool called TakeOwnerShip Pro (free). Either of those methods might be a little faster than the File Explorer GUI.

 

[Beachhead1985]

What do you mean "reads as"? The volume (drive letter) name? That's just a label, has nothing to do with which machine it came from other than that OEMs will usually name it the model of the laptop or something like that. You can change it to Eat My Shorts if you want.

The reason her laptop can't access the files is simply because the NTFS permissions on that filesystem don't have any references to accounts on HER machine. It says things like YOURLAPTOP\Administrators and YOURLAPTOP\YourUserName and YOURLAPTOP\SYSTEM have full control over this folder, that folder, etc. (Using GUIDs that don't exist on her machine.) Totally normal. In order to access the folders on her machine, you just have to assign permission to the folders and subfolders you need to access. That is what happens when you try to open it and get that message and click Continue, although it doesn't dig down into subfolders so you often end up having to do the same thing folder by folder.

But mechanical drives, especially slower laptop drives, can take a REALLY REALLY long time for that to be processed, and that is assuming there are no faults with the drive. Even an SSD can take a really long time for it to apply, just because Windows sucks.

Instead of trying to open the folders, bring up the properties and go to the Security tab, and change the owner to her username and give it Full Control. You may need to first change the owner and save it, then go back and click the Advanced button to give the Full Control permission so that you can also select the option to "Replace all child object permissions" so that it propagates all the way down. Do this only on the folders you really need, like your name under Users, not just the entire drive, otherwise you'll be waiting forever to apply it to Windows OS files and application files that you don't need. This should result in a dialog box popping up showing all the folders and files as they're processed and the permissions are changed.

You can also use the command line tools takeown or icacls to change the owner, and icacls can be used to apply the Full Control permissions. There's also a tool called TakeOwnerShip Pro (free). Either of those methods might be a little faster than the File Explorer GUI.

I got it to work and I think I understand the why this time.

First of all; it read the drive like it was my whole laptop connected to hers. which makes a degree of sense; hers is also an Acer Espire, but a much newer model. So maybe not reading it in the enclosure was indeed a driver issue on my PC.

And it did just need more time to give me access. A lot more time, but I have the files now.