External Hard Drive showing up as Local Disk (J:)

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mmccreesh1

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Nov 28, 2012
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Hi everyone.

First of all, I know there are a lot of threads on this but I checked loads of them and none of them seem to have a solution.

The drive is called: Buffalo DriveStation 1.0TB USB 2.0 External Hard Disk Drive. I got it in November 2012 from Amazon.

This has happened before (a few months ago) and I just formatted the drive because there was nothing extremely important on it, there isn't anything important on it this time either.

Here is a screenshot of My Computer:
dvouae.png

Also, a screenshot of Disk Management:
2mhhds8.png

I usually keep the ext HDD plugged into the computer so maybe the problem lies with the HDD powering up and down with the computer?

The reason why the drive letter is J is because it was suggested that changing the drive letter might work, obviously didn't.

Please ask if you need any more info or screenshots. Thanks.
 
Solution
Check the HDD with vendor's diagnostics tools or some third party software for health/performance/S.M.A.R.T values. I think the HDD is dying slow death by the symptoms your are talking about. If it's under warranty RMA it. Good luck.

mmccreesh1

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Nov 28, 2012
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I was trying so hard to get everything right and figure out this new Tom's layout that I forget to describe the issue lol

The issue is that it won't let me access the drive. When I double-click the drive in Computer, the green loading bar at the goes for about a minute then an error message pops up saying:

J:\ is not accessible.
The parameter is incorrect

It then tells me I must format it before I use it.

Thanks/
 

mmccreesh1

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Nov 28, 2012
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Hi, thanks for the link. I tried that software. I think the last time this happened, I used that software to recover a few files too. However, since it can't recover the structure of the files (folders, names etc.), it isn't useful to me.



Yeah, that's all I done last time too.

It's not even the losing of the files that I'm concerned about, it is that this has happened twice within a few months. Do you think there is something wrong with the hard drive?
 

mmccreesh1

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Nov 28, 2012
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Hi, yes that's exactly what's happening. Except it's months rather than weeks.

I have actually ran into a new problem today though. I tried to format the drive like I did last time and after a few seconds, an error message pops up saying Windows couldn't complete the format. That didn't happen last time, it just formatted like normal.

Thanks.
 

mmccreesh1

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Nov 28, 2012
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Hi, I used Seagate Seatools. It passed the short generic test and failed the short drive self test.

I also contacted Amazon to find out if it is still under warranty because I didn't see anything about it on the item page.

Thanks.
 

mmccreesh1

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Nov 28, 2012
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Hi, Amazon told me to contact the manufacturer so I checked Buffalo's website and it seems that all products have a two year warranty.

So I contacted them and just told them I want to RMA it because it won't let me access the files and has converted the file system to RAW for no apparent reason.

Thanks.
 

Ansirent

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Jun 21, 2014
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Guys same thing happening with me. I can't even touch my hard disk. If i right click on my comp it just stops. Help i have same problem with my WD MY PASSPORT ULTRA 1TB External hard disk
 

Aditya_123567

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Nov 25, 2015
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Follow these steps it might work for you... Works for windows Vista/7/8/8.1
Might work for windows XP as well... Do try and give me the review for windows XP
Step 1: Open start menu and search for Command prompt.
Step 2: Right click on the command prompt and give it as RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR
Step 3: When command prompt opens give the command as "chkdsk (DRIVER LETTER){like C, D, E etc etc whichever driver letter is assigned for the hard disk} DRIVER LETTER:/f
Here f is for FIX
Once this is done the Hard Disk must work perfectly fine then....
 

Chris_316

Commendable
Jul 25, 2016
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is this how it should be?
chkdsk E:f/
I do that and nothing happens and nothing else can be entered, I have to close it down if I wanted to try again.
 

Galang_1991

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Oct 5, 2016
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Thankyou so much my fellow country man , the solution is workin for me , simple yet very2 help full , thankyou again bro
 

vegatroz

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Jan 16, 2017
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Thanks, it really works for my Seagate HDD... For those who get confuse, just type below
chdsk[space]drive letter:/f
 
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