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 !!!!!!!!!

 

[bert59]

What ???? Not sure why u are giving me instructions for Vista ??? This is all turning into a convuluted mess.

 

[flyboytim]

I'm not giving you Vista instructions - this is a hardware thread - and the problem is not limited to XP. If the XP stuff is not working for you, let us know when you've tried it.

 

[bert59]

I tried this but all i get see is and INF folder and in it is a sub folder called IEM and in that folder is a folder 0409 and in that folder are two files named inetcorp.iem and inetset.iem. I did a search for the INFCACHE.1. but come up empty...@#!!#@#%

 

[bert59]

Oops. disregard that last tranmission i just found the INFCACHE.1.

 

[flyboytim]

Sorry Bert59, I should have given you this microsoft link:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900

Specifically, you need to make sure you are running SP3.

click Start, then right-click My Computer, then properties.

If it says service pack 2 like in this image:

http://www.slp.k12.la.us/tech/System Properties SR2.gif

you need to run service pack 3 from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en

If the SP3 is installed, follow the instructions in the first link. Good luck!

 

[flyboytim]

sorry, image does not work, and is just over the size limit for img tags. However, copy the link to a new browser tab or window and it will show.

http://www.slp.k12.la.us/tech/System Properties SR2.gif

 

[goombawaho]

Let's stop chasing our tail here. I know your options and I've sorted them out for you above.

BERT59 - respond to my post 12 post up where I have steps numbered 1 2 3 4.

 

[cdogg]

Everyone should have the same chance to contribute in these forums. It's up to the OP to decide for him/herself what advice to listen to or ignore. In this case, if there is a chance bert59 is going to be able to restore the drive for free, well then I'm sure he/she is going to be more than willing to try it. Even if it doesn't work, it's certainly worth a shot.


bert59,
If you decide to format the drive and start over, there are several ways to do this. Actually on your ultimate boot CD, you can use CopyWipe to make a 1- or 3-pass wipe which completely erases the drive (You might want to do this in Windows if it's unable to see the USB hard drive when booting from CD. CopyWipe has a website if you need assistance or want to download the standalone utility). Then select the drive in disk management (back in Windows) and "quick" format it. I would choose NTFS as the file system.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[goombawaho]

Yo' Cdogg - everyone can contribute for sure (we can't stop that), but that doesn't mean that they are on the right track toward giving advice that will get the issue resolved.

The OP was off following some instructions that were not directly related to solving his problem in my opinion, so I'm trying to get him back on the direct path to either recover his data or just getting the drive back in service.

I deemed the advice given to be "tangential" - the whole INFCACHE.1 comment. I think this is a case where the OP is not really rushing to do anything but rather experimenting.