Recovering Data
 

I have an 80GB (MHT2080AH) laptop drive that I use with an BAFO (BF-2043) drive enclosure, that connects to the PC with USB cables. This drive was setup with the EXT2 file system on it so I could read/write to it in Linux and use the EXT2IFs driver so I can read an EXT2 file system from windows. This was working flawlessly. The problem is that I had it connected to a PC that was about to be formatted and have windows put on it, and the person doing this also removed the partition on this drive (done with the windows xp install). Now the drive can't be accessed and the lights on the BF-2043 drive enclosure don't even come on. With the lights not coming on the drive is not detected in windows and any tools I can find won't work. When I connect it to Linux (Slackware 12 with default kernel (2.6.21.5-smp)) and do a tail -f /var/log/messages I get the following (I recreating it for it on another machine):
Kernel: usb 1-7: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
Kernel: usb 1-7: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Kernel: scsi4: SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage Devices
Kernel: usb 1-7: USB disconnect, address 3
Kernel: scsi: 4:0:0:0: SCSI: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery

I have tried this with another drive and the lights come on and it does show up and I can access it in windows and in Linux I can mount and copy files from it (not to it because it is a NTFS drive). Is there a way I can restore the partition and the information on the drive?

I'm a little concerned about the errors you posted, but you can try using the testdisk program to recreate the partition table.

I have tried this in Windows and it didn't work also tried in Linux with same result. I think the problem here is I can't get access to /dev/sda1 (or whatever sda# that Linux wants to assign it) I just get the previously posted errors in the /var/log/messages file and if I run testdisk it is not in the selection of disks if I try and mount it (mount /dev/sda1 /mountpoint) I get "mount: special device /dev/sda1 does not exists" if I can get access to the drive in either Windows or Linux I could run testdisk and get it fixed so I could retrieve the data on it. I know the drive enclosure works because it works with another drive in it.

One possible cause for that kind of errors is that the USB doesn't supply
enough power ... can you hook the enclosure up to a power-supply?



Cheers,
Tink

I have 2 enclosures but since this happened only been using the one until I get it fixed (for simplicity and correct diagnoses) the one I am using has a cord to go from the enclosure to the PC and a second one that is that has end like a power cord on the enclosure and the other end goes into usb port on PC (so 2 USB ports). If this is the case then something has caused it not to get enough power because it worked until the partition was deleted with the Windows XP install.