SATA drive + USB connector = not initialized out of system

[urbanriot]

I've seen this problem before and I don't remember what my resolution was...

I have hard drives that work fine inside a PC. Plug them into an external USB connector and they show up as "unknown" & "not initialized" in disk management. I obviously don't want to initialize them as I'll lose my data.

Any suggestions?

 

[alamone]

Reconnect them back internally and see if you can access the partition again.
If not, probably the USB bridge chip on that external enclosure is dodgy and
fubared the partitioning information. You'll want to look into data recovery software.
Personally, I use R-Studio NTFS and Active Partition Recovery,
but there might be free alternatives as well.

 

[urbanriot]

As I said, drives are fine. This is happening with two of my USB / SATA connectors... ah well, I got around the problem. Maybe both chips have flaked out... thanks.