Hardware·18,997 discussions

I am unable to access a brand new external drive

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I bought an HP Simplesave 1tb external drive from a friend, plugged into my XP and was shown the typical new hardware found/drivers installed, successful, etc. but nothing in My Computer.

I checked the device manager and it was listed, but then went to disk management which had no new disks shown.

So I plugged into my Vista laptop, doesn’t show in my comp, but does in device manager and disk management, as seen in this image:

http://i42.tinypic.com/pps0z.jpg

When I right click on the unallocated to format it says I must initialize, but right clicking to the left of that and clicking initialize tells me the disk is write protected. This drive has no external switches, only usb and power port. And I am unable to get inside to the actual drive as the case seems to be impossible to open/has no screws. So other than it not even showing up in XP, my problem in vista seems to say that the disk is write protected. Does this mean that maybe the drive was stolen? Is there some precaution they take that idk about these days?

So after googling every error and trying everything I moved on to run ubuntu live cd and try on there. And still had a problem, this is my terminal input and output:

root@ubuntu:~# mkdir /mnt
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt’: File exists
root@ubuntu:~# mount /dev/sdb
mount: can’t find /dev/sdb in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
root@ubuntu:~# sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x37e1b1f3

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13073 105008841 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 13074 14593 12209400 7 HPFS/NTFS
root@ubuntu:~# lsusb
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 03f0:4607 Hewlett-Packard
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
root@ubuntu:~# dmesg | tail
[ 804.092940] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
[ 804.092949] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Data Protect [current]
[ 804.092958] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: Logical unit access not authorized
[ 804.092972] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 8
[ 804.092978] Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 1
[ 804.092986] Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 2
[ 804.094064] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
[ 804.094075] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Data Protect [current]
[ 804.094084] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: Logical unit access not authorized
[ 804.094098] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 0
root@ubuntu:~#

One other thing, on ubuntu, one thing does pop up in the drive area and it shows as a cd rom drive? But unable to access it. So not sure about that.

As much as I’d like to just return it to a store, there’s no receipt, I may be able to try Staples as they seem to carry it and they sometimes allow no receipt exchanges. But I would hate for this to be stolen and then get in trouble for it.

I’ve posted this because I’ve looked everywhere else and while everyone was able to resolve their similar problem, I have not been able to. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Clarifications

In reply to I am unable to access a brand new external drive

Clarifications

A 1TB drive? Is that a misprint?

In reply to I am unable to access a brand new external drive

It shows as a 2TB drive in your picture.

Yes I know,

In reply to A 1TB drive? Is that a misprint?

I thought that was weird also, forgot to mention. I mean I guess it could be, but the box says 1tb.

Gobbledygook

In reply to I am unable to access a brand new external drive

Your friend is where it’s at.

I have a similar problem with a USB drive

In reply to I am unable to access a brand new external drive

I have 10 Hitachi SimpleMini 250 GB drives that are giving me a very similar problem. I was able to use them initially, but now every time I plug one in to my Server 2008 R2 machine, it says the drive is not formatted. Device Manager recognizes it, but the storage manager freezes for about 10 minutes, recognized the drive momentarily, then loses the drive again.

I’ve tried disabling and re-enabling, uninstalling and re=installing it in device manager, but I still think that my problem at least, is some kind of corruption of Windows. My drive works fine in Windows XP, but not Server 2008 or Windows 7.

Try uninstalling in device manager. You may also want to check Disk Manager to see if there isn’t a conflict of drive letters going on. I find that frequently on my network because I have 2 CD drives and an “F:” drive mapped on my server which the USB drives also want to use. I ended up re-assigning my CD ROM drives to S: and T: to avoid the issue.

My lame attempt is to try ‘ejecting’ it from the Vista machine.

In reply to I am unable to access a brand new external drive

By clicking safely remove/eject hardware in the system tray. I often see a delayed write error if I remove a USB drive after forgetting to click that.
I often see folks recommend a Knoppix live CD, run right from the CD drive, maybe you could try that too.
I believe I’d try a partition manager. I’ve always used PartitionMagic so I’m unsure of what the free open-source alternatives are.
In the Vista machine that ‘sees’ it try taking ownership of the drive. There are several links in Google and likely here at TR on how to do that.

i had done that several times,

In reply to My lame attempt is to try ‘ejecting’ it from the Vista machine.

also, like mentioned originally, I did run linux (ubuntu) and still had problems, also the partition manager I used was in there (gparted) which gave me no success. I’m not sure what you’re talking about when mentioning vista seeing it try to take ownership then saying I will be able to find instructions for that, let me know, and I appreciate it.

Take your pick of what looks suitable.

In reply to i had done that several times,

http://www.google.com/search?q=take+ownership+of+drive&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=

Unplug all other USB devices and try it.

In reply to i had done that several times,

Can’t hurt.

Your fiend has run some software over this drive to erase it’s contents

In reply to I am unable to access a brand new external drive

By the looks of things here.

You’ll need to use a Utility like Boot & Nuke or Kill Disc to wipe the External Drive but you’ll need to be very careful or you may wipe the fixed drives/Partitions.

Boot & nuke is the better option and is available free to download here

Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN

But overall Kill Disc is easier for most people to use and is available for a free download here

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

[b]But you’ll need to proceed with caution.[/b]

The reality is that it would be easier to get your Fiend to wipe the drive and fix the mess that they made here.

You can get the Product Manual from HP here

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=au&product=4023092&#

Though you may have to search for your particular model a bit as I don’t know which one you have. 😉

Col

I tried this but..

In reply to Your fiend has run some software over this drive to erase it’s contents

DBAN wouldn’t work, the menu would come up but nothing would follow after trying to make a selection.

Killdisk was able to bring up the disk but after trying to click kill it stays stuck and makes absolutely no progress.

Friend said they didn’t use it at all, everything seemed pretty sealed up when I got it.

I’ve spent at least 12 hours on this issue, and can’t seem to get it resolved. If anyone has any more suggestions let me know, otherwise I think I’m just stuck with a brick.

What came with the drive when you opened the box?

In reply to I tried this but..

If it had a CD with it did you need to install any software?

If you got it new and sealed and it’s not working then it appears to be faulty.

Return it for Warranty. 😉

Col

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