How to access external USB drive from a windows 7 recovery command prompt

I think Mark is right but you could try the following.

From the recovery command prompt type

DISKPART

LIST DISK

This will give you a list of the disks that the recovery console can see. To see what partitions and volumes are on a disk you have to select the disk

SELECT DISK 0

LIST PARTITION

LIST VOLUME

SELECT DISK 1 etc.

This will give a list of what disks, partitions and volumes you can see from the recovery console. To exit DISPART type

EXIT

If you can see the needed disks in the above lists you can use copy or xcopy commands to copy the files between the disks and volumes. Note that the drive letters will probably not be the same as when you were running Windows.

If you can't see the disks or volumes then you have probably lost the data. The next step would be to try some third party disk repair tools or send the disk to a data recovery specialist.

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Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

This is exactly what I was trying to remember, but forgot the DISKPART command.

Andre Da Costa http://adacosta.spaces.live.com http://www.activewin.com

Thanks ... using DISKPART helped.  The usb drive is accessible via a drive letter.  I had thought I went through all the drive letters one by one yesterday.   But I had missed the letter; in my case, it's 'j'.   After I saw the drive listed by Diskpart, I went back and found the correct drive letter.   I'm able to copy the "Users" folder off with xcopy.

I've also discovered that I can get a USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE cable to access the internal drive via usb so there is no need to put the drive into another machine.   Although, I'm happier copying the stuff off before I take out the drive.

Any pointers on how I can restore the "Users" data once I get a new drive formatted?   There were multiple user accounts on the machine.  I'm especially concerned with the three itunes accounts on the machine.  Thanks for any further pointers.

You would have to reinstall the programs then copy the data. Don't try to copy the whole User folder, just the data files.

Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

I think you waited too late to try backing up to an external disk you cannot access without a running system disk. My approach would be to put that data from the Vista partition on another internal partition, then do the repair, then copy to external from the running Vista system. You just need hardware that the prompt cannot see, and the repaired Vista OS, restored, would. Without a second partition in the Vista system, I don't see a way to do it from the repair prompt. Putting the drive in another machine possesing a running system or extra drive may do it.

Rating posts helps other usersMark L. Ferguson MS-MVP