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external hard drive problem

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by kmtatzenith

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Hi Guys,

My external hard drive suddenly disappeared from the disk management. I worked on it in the night and in the next morning the drive is seen in 'my computer', but when open it no files are seen. I verified it in the disk management and it's not seen there. I googled all the available solutions, but in vain. I am using a seagate 250 gb hard disk as external with a case to my HP Compaq nc 6400. I can not format it as I have important data in it. I have been this hard disk over 2 years with different computers and it never showed up like this. I had this kind of problems to some of my pen drives, then I could resolve them by formating them. I could see some of the discussions in this forum relate to my problem, but not the solutions. I'm desperately waiting for the solution. I hope u guys would definetly come up with a solution for this. Please ping me up for further details and ur efforts are highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

10 replies

by oh smeg

Without using the Safely Remove Option or you have left it running all the time and it has finally died.

If it's appearing in My Computer but not the Drive Manager I';m not sure at all what is happening as that doesn't make any sense but then again I never expected Windows to make any Sense.

If you need to recover your Data you first need to check the function of the drive so go here and follow the directions

http://tinyurl.com/2dn49k

If the drive has lost it's Partition Information which happens when unplugging without using the Safe Remove Option you need to either take it to a Data Recovery House or use some Data Recovery Software. I have posted a few links for Data Recovery Software below.

http://tinyurl.com/273ay5

http://tinyurl.com/rmvrv

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http://tinyurl.com/382vm

http://tinyurl.com/ynwnel

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http://tinyurl.com/374d8b

http://tinyurl.com/djw6u

http://tinyurl.com/f73se

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While the last 2 are from the same company they are very different products. Win Hex should only be considered foe use by someone who knows Hex Inside Out while Davory is a great cheap General Purpose Application.

Personally I prefer the On Track Option but it's anything but cheap. However because I use this type of software a lot it's paid for itself many times over by now, for a cheaper option Spin Rite from Gibson Research or Stella have both very good reputations by other TR members.

Col

by kmtatzenith

Hey OH Smeg,

Thanks a ton bro. What u said is right, generally I don't unplug it whenever I am done. But, the funny thing is whenever I connect my hard disk through USB port it is recognized as 'F' drive in 'My Computer'. And, when I open it , nothing is seen. This 'F' drive is not seen in 'disk management'. When I connect another pen drive, it is recognizing properly and showing up in the 'disk management'. I have already tried seagate trouble shooter to check the function of the drive, but nothing in that site is handy with respect to my problem. I am working on the data recovery softwares which u mentioned. I am bit surprised to know that this is not a general problem. I would like to send the screen prints of this issue, so that it would add up to ur knowledge of the intricacies of Windows and may enrich ur syntax to decrease ur chances of becoming Scapegoat in ur organization.

Wishing u all the best in ur business.
Thx once again.

by Former member

Sometimes the "usb" ports are shut down to save power, so if the drive is not working then your best bet is to locate your motherboard drivers and install them again, or go to your "HP" site and download the drivers to your motherboard. Once this is complete and your drive is live then you can right click onto it and select " properties" then look for "power" in there, there should be a box with a "tick" untick this box, then your drive will be live for as long as your computer is on. Hope this helps you.

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

by kmtatzenith

Hi Peconet,

Thank you very much for ur reply. I have verified USB drivers and they are fine, but the problem still persists. Please suggest me another option. I come across this problem many a times with my pen drives. The hard disk is getting recognized as 'F' drive in 'my computer' and not in 'disk management'. When I cheked the properties is says disk is full, but in fact, it is not so. Earlier I could manage this problem by formating them. This time I can not do it so. Once I checked with an IT professional regarding this issue and he said this is a general problem. I really hope that people in this forum can come up with a solution for this.

Thanks once again for ur time.

by Former member

Put in your pen drive and then go into "disk management", find your pen drive and if if says "F" then right click on it and change the drive letter to say "H", this might be enough to get your external hdd to show up in your "my computer" icon. Hope all works out for you.

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

by dr dij

a mini-ups for the external drive. I had a large capacity external USB drive get scrambled when power went out while I was backing up from my PC.

also as previous posters said, be sure to shut down the external drive. If it won't shut down for some reason, shut down the whole PC before unplugging / unpowering it.

by kmtatzenith

Hi,

My pen drive is recognized as 'G' not 'F'. But, I tried the other way. I changed my pen drive's name to 'F' and then I inserted my hard disk. They fall back to their original names. My external hard disk is recognized in 'my computer' as 'Local Disk(F:)' and in the properties disk space is shown as full, when I open it nothing is seen. When I tried to copy something in to it, it is not allowing. Earlier my hard disk was recognized as 'HDD'. Now it is recognized as 'Local Disk'. It was like I used it in the night and didn't unplug it and in the morning this is the problem. I generally do not unplug it, but it used work fine. I have around 200gb data in that and in no way I can loose that data. I strongly believe that data is not erased. I can hear the sound of disk head rotation when I connect it and it seems my disk is also fine. Though I don't have much knowledge about hardware I sense that some interplay between laptop and hard disk is disturbed and that might be a cause of this improper recognition.

Thank you very much for your time.

by oh smeg

First have you tried to access this drive in another computer? I can't remember if you've said anything about this but it may be helpful to try.

External HDD should always be turned off when not being used. They get very Hot and the heat can kill off the HDD or the USB to IDE Interface in the Enclosure.

Have you also checked the Power Supply for the External Drive it could have gone bad and not be working correctly?

Sorry but because it used to work in no way implies that it should work now all it says is that it used to work. So remove the Drive from the Case and either plug it into another Enclosure or a computer to test the drive. If you like I can give you a 160 GIG 2.5 Inch Seagate drive that worked perfectly when I powered it down and placed in my NB Bag. The next time that I came to use it the drive was dead and destroyed as well as the enclosure.

Also run the Drive Makers Testing Utility on the Drive to see if it shows any errors. Run it in the Enclosure First and if it fails that test remove from the enclosure and connect to a computer and test again. Of course it goes without saying that whatever you plug this into needs to be able to read that size drive.

Is the HDD making any noises? If it's clicking power Down and take directly to a Data Recovery House to get them to recover your Data before the Platters get totally destroyed.

If the Data is really Important don't even bother messing around with the Drive take it to a Data Recovery House and get a quote on what it's going to cost to get the Data Recovered. The more that you play with the drive the more likely you are to do more damage which may make it impossible to recover any Data at any Price. Remember the more work that a Data Recovery House has to do the more it's going to cost you to get back what can be recovered.

Hope that is of some assistance.

Col

by Former member

How much memory does your laptop have? If possible update your memory to at least 2gb.
It could be down to "memory" usage, if you have a small amount of memory then your computer will come first and then any other components come second, so there for not enough memory to access your hdd.

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

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