HELP! PLEASE! Maxtor One Touch

[picturelady]

Hello,
I'm a photographer and I'm going NUTS right now! HELP! I really need some assistance! I'm in a panic! I purchased a Maxter one touch. Bought it home and plugged it in and as it said on the box as simple as 1,2,3. No problems, but I did not format it
Now I have added a internal USB port and when I went back to see if everything was ok. I found that my Maxtor was now called drive O instead of my pix drive L. When I go into this O drive which is for a fact the Maxtor none of my images are there! OH, someone be a GOD and help me! A message comes up and states this drive has not been formated do you want to format now and I click no and the computer goes out of the drive all together.
Oh my what have I done?
Picturelady

 

[G0AOZ]

Well if you were able to load your pictures on it initially, then that drive must have been partitioned and formatted before you bought it.

I take it nothing else is currently showing up as the L:\> drive?

First of all I'd remove the Internal USB port that you say you added subsequent to getting the Maxtor drive going. After doing that you ought to be back to where you were before although I doubt that will really bring back your L:\> drive. But worth a shot...

I suspect not. You said "When I go into this O drive which is for a fact the Maxtor...". How are actually "going into" the drive? Explorer or what?

I'll guess your operating system might be XP. Check in Disk Management that you have the correct drive - does it clearly show up there as the O:\> drive, and not formatted?

Assuming worst case scenario, it looks like the whole partition on that drive has popped out. You will probably need data recovery software to pull back your pictures. I have successfully used GetDataBack and Easy Recovery Pro v6 to do just that job...


ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[picturelady]

Thank you for answering so fast Roger,
I've had to Maxtor for awhile and honestly I don't remember if I formated it or not. I just figured I didn't because Windows wants to do it again.
Yes I'm working in XP Home.

When I go into my computer and click on the O I hear the Maxtor starting up. So I know windows is looking for the information. My hear and stomache just flopped because I right clicked on the O drive and clicked on properties and in the General area it states that all the space is used totally blue. Then I clicked on the Hardwaer and it states it is working properly.

I went into Disk Management and it states there is 233.76 It can hold 250 GB, Layout-Partition, Type- Basic, File System- Blank, Status- Healthy, Capacity- 233.76, Free Space- 233.76, % Free- 100% ,

Oh MY!

 

[G0AOZ]

Did you try removing the internal USB port you told us you'd added? No matter if you haven't - I don't see why it should make the partition and data magically come back... But just a thought.

Regrettably it looks like the partition has gone, so I think your only option now is a data recovery prog similar to the ones I've suggested. I have personally used both of these to good effect.

Just out of interest, what procedure are you using for connecting and disconnecting this device? The procedure ought to be:-

1. Power up external drive.
2. Once disk is spinning, connect USB cable between device and laptop.
3. Read/write/copy data as required.
4. Click on System Tray icon and stop appropriate USB device.
5. Once "safe to Remove Hardware" message appears, pull out USB cable from port.
6. Remove power from external USB device.
7. Physically move device only when disk has stopped spinning.


Good luck, and hope that helps...


ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[mainegeek]

picturelady,

"Now I have added a internal USB port and when I went back to see if everything was ok. I found that my Maxtor was now called drive O instead"

Adding an internal usb port by itself isn't going to change the drive letter assignment. What do you now have plugged into the added internal USB port?

If you added an additional USB device such as a camera, with out the usb drive being attached/turned on, then the camera may have grabbed L:

What is using M: and N: ??

 

[bygeek]

If I'm not mistaken, the Maxtor One touch is designed to be a backup system by default, as opposed to just additional storage. Did you install the Maxtor software when you installed the drive? If so, it probably formatted the drive for you. If not, and you're just using it as extra storage and not for backup, you don't state whether you were ever able to verify that you had infact successfully stored data on the drive and were able to access it before this happened. In other words, is it possible that the data was never really there even though you thought it was?

 

[picturelady]

Hi everyone and Thanks for the advice.
I am still in trouble, but the good news is that I down loaded a trial of the Easy Recovery Pro v6 and this program found absolutely everything, but I couldn't retrieve it because it was a trial software I went into the site to purchase the software, but it is 1,499. I can't afford that program. I used Media recover which cost me 30.00, but most of my images were half an image or given a file extension of Excel (not a good program at all).
So the good news is that the images are there the bad news is that they are 95 GB, I have no place to store the 95 GB if I were able to retrieve them and the best software cost too much. What a pickle.
To answer some of the questions the sales man in our Post Exchange here in Vilseck, Germany installed the Hama USB 2. card, 5way, PCI and ever since he installed it I have had problems.
Each of the USB ports automatically once installed took a letter for the port and made the Maxtor which was at one time called my pix drive(L) and now the Maxtor is letter O.
31/2 floppy (A), Zip (C),Removable Disk (D),CD drive (E), CD-RW (F),Programs (G), Documents (H), Card reader (I),Removable Disk (J), Removable Disk (K), Removable Disk (L),DVD-RW (N),Local disk (O), Lexmark X74-X75, Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000,
I have been using my Maxtor for a couple of years with NO problem. I use it for a photo drive and that is all I have on it. I thought it would be the safest way to store my images.
I my have to take my PC back to the PX and get the sales man to take out the USB port and maybe everything will go back to normal. I just don't understand why the addition of this single port should make this happen.
Is there any other program any of you can think of that I may be able to download that won't cost me an arm, leg or my unborn grandchild?

 

[Freestone]

Many users have reported good success with GetDataBack (

http://www.runtime.org/)

with no reports of missing arms, legs, or granting of unborn children.

 

[picturelady]

Thanks Freestone! GOAOZ told me about this site also, but I was so blown away by Easy Recovery Pro v6 that I just shut down and went away from the computer for awhile.
I'm not very wise in the tech part of the computer world, but I love my digital photos.
Could someone tell me how to find out if my O drive is Fat or NTFS. When I right clicked on properties it states that my Maxtor is RAW and when buying GetDataBack you have to buy Fat or NTFS.
What do I do please

 

[Freestone]

GetDataBack has trial copies so see which, if either, works with your file system. I suspect your drive is FAT32.

Be sure to heed their warning; "Do not install GetDataBack on the drive you want to recover the data from!"

This is true of any recovery software, though.

 

[bygeek]

You said:
"So the good news is that the images are there the bad news is that they are 95 GB, I have no place to store the 95 GB if I were able to retrieve them and the best software cost too much. What a pickle."
If you don't have a partition large enough to recover all the data, the recovery software won't do you any good.

 

[picturelady]

Thanks to all. I did buy GetDataback and it has worked. I recovered a small amount at a time and have been making CD's and then I will format my Maxtor after I'm finished and put the images back on the hard drive. I'll turn off the drive when I'm not using it.

I appreciate all the help.

 

[Freestone]

I'm glad you are able to recover your photos. Perhaps I shouldn't have to say it, but I will. Remember to backup any new photos you add too. And if these photos are really important, and they seem to be, I suggest you also keep additional backup copies off-site. A hard drive, whether internal or external, will fail. It's not a matter of if, but when.

Putting gigabytes of backups onto CD's is going to be a long haul for sure. A dual-layer DVD burner would ease backup a bit. But you may be better off with two external drives, using one as a backup. I myself would add an internal drive.