External Hard Drive Detection - gone like a fart in the wind.

[cuckoo4]

I re-installed Windows and encountered a host of problems, but the most serious by far is that my external hard drive, a Maxtor 80G cannot be seen. But this is also the case on another computer.

I've installed the One Touch software & USB drivers, it just doesn't show up...not in Disk Manager or wherever.

If the data was erased somehow, I would still expect to see the drive icon when I go into My Computer.

Any help/suggestions is greatly appreciated.

* The drive isn't too old, it was working just fine before I decided to screw up my computer and install Windows again...

 

[mainegeek]

cuckoo4,
Did you format the hard drive and install windows or just re-install windows over itself?

What OS are you running?

You may need to re-install device drivers for your motherboard either from the motherboard utility cd or the restore cd provided by your pc mfg.

You should also run windows update and install any critical updates for your os.

 

[cuckoo4]

I did quite a bit of stupid stuff.

For instance, I ran Maxblast software because my internal drive wasn't being located. I did re-format a drive, but now I'm not sure if it was the external/internal.

Question: Is it possible to format an external drive when it is switch 'off' but is stilly plugged into the USB port? I wouldn't have thought so...

Also, even if I did format the exernal that way, wouldn't I see the empty drive or detect the drive in some manner regardless of it being formatted?

I am on Windows XP Pro SP2.

Everything else seems cool less the external drive.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[mainegeek]

cuckoo4,

"Question: Is it possible to format an external drive when it is switch 'off' but is stilly plugged into the USB port? I wouldn't have thought so..."

No.


"Also, even if I did format the exernal that way, wouldn't I see the empty drive or detect the drive in some manner regardless of it being formatted?"

Yes. It should be present through Disk Management where it could be partitioned and formatted.


"I ran Maxblast software because my internal drive wasn't being located"
Are you confidant that you got the issue with the internal drive sorted out?

What model is the Maxtor external drive?
Are you sure all connections to this are snug and it is powered on?

Are you sure you are using the OneTouch drivers for XP Pro?

 

[cuckoo4]

Mainegeek:

The drive:
OneTouch 80 GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM, External, USB 2.0
Mfg Part #: A01B080
Product Number: 50460451

I installed the One Touch drivers from the CD, then downloaded the updates from Maxtor for XP.

All connections are solid + powered on.

However, in 'System' > 'Hardware' > 'Device Manager'
...I have a yellow circle/question mark for USB Device under 'Other devices', same with 'RAID Controller'. I tried installing the drivers from the CD for this but none would be used by the Wizard? Not sure what's up with this.

Well, I was unable to remove RAID from my system so it seems. My internal hard drives (120G in total) still only allow 80G of space total...for ex, the C drive s 40G and E: drive that I created and formatted is 40G.

I wanted to get rid of RAID so I could use both internal drives at full capicity again.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[cuckoo4]

Hi,

I got a new computer, and still have the same issues.

I just need to know if there is a way to get this data.

MT