my notebook laptop failed and i got a new one the other day. i had some stuff backed up on my western digital external usb, but not everything, and i want to get a few things from the failed hard drive, if possible. i came across a program called Lost & Found (by PowerQuest), and i tried it, and it recognized the failed drive. the problem was that it did not recognize the external usb drive (this program runs from DOS). but if i could make the usb drive bootable, then it would be recognized in DOS, along with the failed hard drive that the program already recognized, and i could transfer the files (i think), since it is already recognizing the failed one as the source. my question is, how do i make the usb drive bootable without deleting the information that is already stored on it. i was looking around and i saw that i could create a primary parition, but i dont want to delete the data on there. i also saw a program called parition magic. will that help? thanks

Ok, there's several ways to go about this and you're question is pretty complex so: First of all, to make your external USB drive bootable you have to have a BIOS that will support the "Boot to USB-HDD" feature in the boot menu. Generally, only newer gen BIOS's have this feature. I am assuming for a minute that you have a desktop or have a friend with one. I would really reccommend getting onto Google and searching for a laptop HDD to IDE adapter cable so you can mount your lappie HDD into a standard computer. This will help your diagnostics quite a bit. I got my mic-ide to ide converter from cables to go if memory serves. Next, I would really reccommend trying to get ahold of Easy Data Recovery Professional by Ontrack. If you can't afford it, there are other solutions although if you're drive is without an MBR, FAT, Boot Sector or any of those are corrupt there arn't many programs other than Easy Data Recovery Professional by Ontrack that are going to do much more than find a couple of random files you wont be able to use.

Ok, another thing to address is whether or not you're even able to get the drive to function properly. If it's not really spinning up or at random or maybe it's clicking after a while or it's reporting all bad sectors; don't freak, not all is lost. If it's data that's really important, contact your local computer repair shop (a specialist shop, not BestBuy or somthing) and talk with them about physical data recovery, or advanced data recovery where they will take your drive, dismantle it in a clean environment and wipe the data back off the platters (EXPENSIVE!!! $250+); then re-animate it and you might have somthing. If you can't find a place locally, look up Alert Micro in the Northwest here in Idaho. Talk to Don, he's a good guy, friendly and helpful. Hope this helps.

Butters