EXT HDD 1021 problem with vista

Clarifications

right click on Computer, click Manage and then Storage, Disk Management and then format the hard drive if it isn't already.

It first needs to be formatted. So do as suggested above and format it.

If it is a drive that has been used previously it all depends as to what it is formatted as and what was used to format it.

XP Original Partitions can not be read by Vista as the Formatting is different. This is to do with the improved Security used in Vista.

Any Drive that was used with XP needs to have been formatted by XP SP2 or newer and that doesn't mean to be used with XP SP2 it means Formatted.

If it's a Formatting Issue with the wrong OS being used to partition the drive you need to copy all of the data off it on a system that can work with that drive and that generally means a XP System then format the Drive with either a computer running XP SP2 or newer or Vista.

Also if there was data on this drive you could plug it into a XP System and copy it across the network to where you want it before formatting the drive again.

But if the drive is unable to be recognized by any computer it is because the drive has been corrupted by either low Power or incorrect Dismounting.

All USB Drives need to be dismounted before unplugging the drive or turning off computers.

Just pulling the USB Lead or turning off the computer doesn't shut the drive down and leave it to it's own devices attempting to park the heads and make the drive safe. The Partition Tables get corrupted sooner or latter when this happens.

If this is a 2.5 inch drive and only 1 of the USB Plugs is being used or there is only 1 USB plug on the Lead it's possible that the USB Socket isn't supplying enough power as they are supposed to supply 5 V DC at 500 Milliamperes. If the Voltage or Current is down even slightly the drive will be underpowered and suffer the same damage as any underpowered electrical device. The motors will eventually be destroyed.

Now if there is data on this drive that you need to recover it all depends on how [b]Important[/b] it is. If it is Critical that it is recovered you should pack up the drive and send it to a Specialist Data Recovery Company. It will be cheaper and you'll stand a much better chance of getting all of the data back this way. If you mess with the drive unsuccessfully the cost of a Professional Recovery and the chances of recovering all of your data drop dramatically.

However if it would just be Nice to recover the Data you can start off by running [b]chkdsk /the drive letter[/b] and see if that repairs the Partition Tables. With external Drives I prefer doing this on XP systems as they are easier to get to the Drive Management than Vista or 7 and seem to work better.

If that doesn't work you'll need to attack the drive with some form of Data Recovery Software. There are lots of this around so it's impossible to give a full list of what is available none the less here is a short list

http://tinyurl.com/273ay5

http://tinyurl.com/rmvrv

http://tinyurl.com/yvrsl

http://tinyurl.com/yyk8cm

http://tinyurl.com/382vm

http://tinyurl.com/ynwnel

http://tinyurl.com/nc4kx

http://tinyurl.com/2wox7l

http://tinyurl.com/374d8b

http://tinyurl.com/djw6u

http://tinyurl.com/f73se

http://tinyurl.com/8bd3f

http://tinyurl.com/afu2j

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

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