External hard drive not being read 1

[bert59]

I recently removed my 500gb external Hard drive and attached to another PC ( for what purpose I dont recall). I removed the HD using the " Safely Remove Hardware" feature located in the lower left hand tray. Yet when I put the harddrive back on the first computer it dosent show up when I click on My computer. I see the C: drive, the D: drive, the printer. Yet I dont see the HDD which was usually the E: drive. When I go to My computer/properties/device manager - i see the hard drive and indications say its working properly. If I go to
" Safely Remove Hardware" I can see the hard drive and everything indicates its working. yet i dont see it with a drive letter anywhere. so obvisouly i cany acess it. Oh and by the way I am using a USB hub. I removed the hard drive once again and attached it to my laptop which it was read and indicated the the device was ready, installed and ready to use. Yet I get the same problems as with the first computer. External HDD not shown when I open "My Computer" The Hard drive is getting power all power lights are on. Please help. This computer is drving me crazy. Arrrrrrgggh !!!!!!!!!

 

[Freestone]

Does the external drive show up in Disk Management (assuming XP, Start, Run..., diskmgmt.msc)? If so, try assigning it a drive letter from there.

 

[rclarke250]

If windows 7, go to start, right click computer, choose manage. Under storage you should see disk management, click on it. In the window to the right the drives will appear, scroll down to see if there is a drive with no drive letter assigned, If you right click in the drive area, you should be able to change or set the drive letter.

I have also seen on XP where something in the driver table gets a little flaky, and uninstalling and reinstalling the usb drivers sometimes fixes this.

 

[bert59]

Replying to Freestone.

The drive is present in disk mgnt as " Disk 2 basic-Online 465mb - unallocated. I tried a right click on it to assign a drive letter but I dont get the options like I do on my CD-rom and DVDrom drive. Instead i see three things.
1- Convert to dynamic disk, this option is grayed grayed out and is not an option.

2- Properties and Help.

What to do ?? ! ?

 

[goombawaho]

It lost its partition apparently. You can try GetDataBack to see what it can see in terms of recovering the data on the drive and then you can purchase it if your data is visible and able to be recovered.

It works like a charm for when bad things happen to drives.

 

[rclarke250]

OK, so I am clear on this. On the laptop it is detected and works as a 500GB drive, But on the desktop it is detected as 456 MB and no partitions,and no drive letter, and you can't give it a drive letter. GetDataBack won't help you if this is the case, it's an OS issue on the desktop, and nothing is wrong with the USB drive if it is able to work fine on the laptop.

If this is the case, try going to device manager and looking for unknown disk or something similar, delete the entry, and press F5 to scan for changes, it should see the drive and install the driver, and hopefully work.

Also if you are using a hub, and if windows is xp sp 2, than Microsoft has a hotfix for this here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892050/en-us

 

[goombawaho]

Does it work fine (data/folders is visible) on the laptop?? I guess I didn't read that properly.

You said "I removed the hard drive once again and attached it to my laptop which it was read and indicated the the device was ready, installed and ready to use. Yet I get the same problems as with the first computer. External HDD not shown when I open "My Computer"

If it works on the laptop, then YES, it's some type of O.S. issue on the machine where it's not visible. Let's get this straight.

 

[bert59]

My appologies if I wasnt clear on my first statement. When I attached the hard drive to my labtop i get the exact problems that I get with my desktop. I cant see the external 500 gb HDD. Yet device manager indicates its installed and is working proberly. I go to my computer and see he C:\ drive, D:cd rom E:dvd. But yet i dont see the 500 gb hdd which was usually assinged the next drive letter. Dazed and confused i am.

 

[rclarke250]

Pull the drive out of the enclosure and hook up to the desktop internal connectors. This will tell you if the drive is the issue or the usb enclosure.

 

[goombawaho]

Have you tried testing it with the manufacturer's hard drive utility yet??? That would be my number one suggestion. If you download and burn the ultimate boot cd, most major manufacturer's utilities are right on there on a bootable CD.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

Go down to where it says Mirror Sites to download


Then I would say what I said before. Download and install the trial version of GetDataBack and see what it can see!!

Then, you can try what bert59 said, but I wouldn't remove it until you tried a less physical approach. One level of troubleshooting at a time.

 

[bert59]

Dear goombawahoo.
Apppriciate your help. Thanks. Im somewhat new to all this. I went to the website and I see where I can download the " Ultimate Boot CD ". But you also instruct me to go down to where it says " Mirrow sites" which I did. But Im not sure what Im supposed to download from there?? Sorry.
But again thanks for you help.

 

[bert59]

...and is this " Ultimate Boot CD " going to cost me any thing????

 

[goombawaho]

It's free. Pick one of those mirror sites and download it to a working computer with a CD burner. Burn the image to a CD, thus creating a bootable CD.

Boot with said CD and look for Hard Drive Diagnostics in the menu. Run Data Lifeguard Diagnostics.


Here's a direct link to one of the mirrors - paste in your browser.

http://ubcd.net-actuality.org/ubcd502.iso

OR

since you have a working computer, download it from WD without making a CD and run it from the working computer but have it check the external drive (not the internal one).

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

 

[bert59]

Hello gommbawhaoo.com

I dowmloaded something from this link you provided at

http//ubcd.netactualltiy.org/ubcp502.iso

and saved it my " My documents folder" but i cant open it when i try to i get a messgae asking me to choose a program to open it with but nothing works.

Please be patient with me this is all new to me and is very frustrating. what should i do next. Again thanks for all your help.

 

[kjv1611]

It's an image file, specifically an ISO image file.

You need to burn it to a CD, as goombawaho already mentioned.

But to make it easier, do this:
[ol][li]Download ImgBurn from download.com[/li]
[li]After the download completes, double-click on the downloaded file[/li]
[li]Go through the install process, accepting defaults, unless you see something you don't want. For instance, I don't remember, but there may be a toolbar option in it - many free apps have one of those[/li]
[li]After that program is installed, find the ISO file you downloaded earlier, right-click on it, and select "Burn with Image Burn"[/li]
[li]When the Image Burn application loads, make sure there's a blank CD-R (writable CD) in your CD/DVD burner, and click the "Burn" button. It's the big button at the bottom left, as shown in the image at this link.[/li]
[li]Let the process complete.[/li]
[li]When it's finished, close out of everything, and reboot your computer - I'm assuming that it's the same machine of reference, as I forget the earlier discussion at this moment...[/li]
[li]When your computer boots, make sure it's set to boot from CD. Either check/change in the BIOS settings (F2 for Setup or F1 for Setup or Del for setup or whatever...) or go into your system's boot options. Some systems will have a boot options menu at F11 or F12.[/li]
[li]Your system should boot from the CD, giving you all the options from that CD right then and there.[/li]
[li]Post back with your progress[/li][/ol]

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, maybe we are asking too much of you or assuming that you know how to do these things. My second idea would require no burning CDs from an image.

I would try that to save you grief.

 

[bert59]

Hello KJV11

I finally downloaded and burned the bootable cd. When I use it I am just not seeing the external drive I see my internal 80 gb hd drive. But no reference to the external connected through the usb hub. I even took the external from the usb hub and connected it directly into a open usb port and it is just not anywhere??? What to do next????

 

[BadBigBen]

But no reference to the external connected through the usb hub. I even took the external from the usb hub and connected it directly into a open usb port and it is just not anywhere???

Of course not, as most of these, if not all, programs work through IDE, SATA or SCSI, no USB as it does not carry all signals needed for diagnosing a drive...

now it is rclarke250's suggested troubleshoot way to do it:

Pull the drive out of the enclosure and hook up to the desktop internal connectors.

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[goombawaho]

The manufacturer's utility will "see" the drive connected via USB if you install it on the computer with the hard attached.

Tell us exactly the drive brand and model and let us give you a link to the proper utility for the external drive.

Try that before you pull it out of the case to avoid voiding the warranty.

 

[bert59]

goombawhaoo.

I downloaded the " Getdataback" software ( trial version) for now. It is running and it does see my external drive !!!! I'll let it run and see what happens. From what you said the trial version will tell me if my data is there but then I have too purchase the software?????

.........or....... the name on the external hard drive case reads " Elements" but this may just be the name of the case. However on the back of the case it reads
" Elements powered by WD ( Western Digital, I presume ) there is a serial number that reads # WCAS80960092 with a serial number of WD5000C035-000