'USB Device not Recognized'

I recentely transferred about 65 GB of data on my 80 GB Portable USB 2.0 based Hard Drive. I then attached drive on my cousin's computer, and accidentally bent the USB plug (the one at the end of the cable that goes into the computer) really hard. This hapenned when the plug was attached to the USB Port at the back of my computer. A few seconds after that, Windows XP displayed an error message saying that the USB device is not recognized, and that I should unplug and reattach the device to check if it works, or replace it. Now, windows XP displays the same message everytime I plug the drive into my computer, and two other Windows XP - based computers too.

After performing a google search, I found tons of topics relating to this issue, but no solution that worked for me (not that I was patient enough to find and try out all the solutions that came up).

I unscrewed the harddrive and found out that this 'External Hard Disk' is basically a standard LAPTOP IDE harddrive, and some sort of circutory that converts the IDE interface into a USB one.

My question: Is there any possible way to recover all the data that I have transferred on the harddrive, preferrably by myself? Or better, fix this problem alltogether?

Here are a few facts:
- My system is a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz on an Intel D865GBF Motherboard having 4 rear USB slots and 512 MB RAM running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
- I repartitioned/reformatted and reinstalled everything on my harddrive after this incident (the very reason that I transferred the data on the external drive)
- I don't have access to a laptop, not even a spare one that I could attempt to plug in this harddrive into
- The drive in question is of the HITACHI make, spinning at 5200 RPM, and as I mentioned above, with the USB 2.0 interface/converter

 

get a new hard drive enclosure off of ebay and put the drive in that. they are cheap and they work. that should work

 

cut the wire head off and get a new usb wire, then re-attach the wires.

 

I agree with mikeh0303, there is only like 4-6 wires in a USB cable. Its a small risk to take, and if done correctly, you save yourself about $30 from buying a enclosure.

 

Im with these guys mate it does not seem to be a hard drive problem just the cable needs to be replaced try this and you should be back on top again.

 

You can also purchase a simple IDE to USB cable......It doesnt come with an enclosure...

 

Thanks a lot for the reply, guys. I've replaced the enclosure with a new one and everything was fine.

YesYou,
Do you have any more info on that type of cable? I've not ever heard of one.

 

EDIT: Double post