USB HDD not found in my computer list

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WySi

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I have a Maxtor 160GB PATA HDD in an AC powered USB box.
The USB box works ok with other hard disk drives, however I need the data on the Maxtor.

THE PROBLEM is the Maxtor drive is not shown in the 'my computer - removable storage' list and cannot be opened or accessed.

The drive is detected as a USB disk with 160GB capacity and 2 volumns in system hardware manager.
The drive is shown as a USB storage device in the system hardware USB list.

The drivers check ok

The USB ports all work ok with other drives/devices.

I would be very grateful for any help in solving this.
 
Solution
F
I think I see the structure now.

The partition table contains a single extended partition of type 05 beginning at sector 2046 and with a size of 320172031 sectors (= 164GB).

This extended partition contains two logical volumes. The first is a 71.5GB Linux ext3/ext4 partition while the second is a 92.4GB Linux swap partition.

The NTFS partition at sector 63 appears to be a remnant from earlier times when the drive was partitioned and formatted under Windows.

I suspect that you may be able to see the data under Windows if you use a tool such as Linux Reader for Windows (freeware):
http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

Alternatively, you could try a Ubuntu Live CD.
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fixer762

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Make an Ultimate Boot Disc
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html
burn the disc with this http://www.freeisoburner.com/

Restart your computer with the disc in your CD drive and your hard drive plugged in. Launch the application called Parted Magic, towards the bottom of the top menu. See if you can see the files in parted magic. If you can't there is a disc tester in parted magic, run it and it will tell you if your disc drive is bad or good.
Other thought is your disc formatted? Does it show up in Disk Manager in Windows?
 
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WySi

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That may be it. But the system hardware manager does show the correct capacity for both the drive and the 2 partitions and says the drive status is ok. If the MBR was corrupt would that prevent the drive from showing as a USB storage device?

BTW it's connected to a Dell D820 with XP SP3. A USB mouse is the only other USB device in use.
 
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WySi

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fzabkar

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Even if the HDD were blank, it would still show up as a USB mass storage device.

Sector 0 appears to be OK. That's where the MBR and partition table live.

If I were troubleshooting this drive, I would use a disc editor (eg DMDE) in readonly mode to locate the FAT32 boot sectors and examine them for consistency with the partition table.
 
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WySi

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Thanks for the DMDE tip -- I DL'd it but now I need to find a tutorial to use it, can you point me to one?
 
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fzabkar

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I don't know of any tutorial, but if you can upload sector 0, then I can help you locate the boot sectors. In fact, you could locate them by selecting Tools -> Search for Special Sector -> Boot Sector.

BTW, DMDE starts up in readonly mode so you can't do any damage to the file system.
 
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WySi

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I used DMDE to replace/repair the boot sector on the drive. Following that I was able to boot the drive to a blank screen - no OS - by setting the BIOS for USB boot (the drive was definitely accessed/read). But when I changed back to HDD boot (c:\) the Maxtor still is not seen by My Computer - removable, and not accessible. What else can I try?
 
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WySi

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I can't find a way to copy the text listing of the boot sectors. If I use the DMDE copy function it only writes a binary file. What am I missing?
 
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WySi

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I ran the disk tester -- the drive test shows ok and the files seem to be intact -- still doesn't show up as a USB device but does show as a USB disk in XP hardware manager, including the 2 volumns.
 
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fixer762

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While you are in in Parted Magic copy the files from the external drive to your hard drive or another back up. Then boot into Windows and reformat the external drive, then reinstall your files on to the external drive. I had to do that to my external drive one time when it got hit by a bad virus.
 
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fzabkar

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The partition table in sector 0 is showing only a single partition. Its type is 05 which is an extended DOS partition. This partition begins at sector 2046 (= 0x7FE) and has a size of 164GB (= 0x13156802 sectors).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_type

The MBR code appears to be a Linux GRUB boot loader, not a Windows MBR.

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

000001B0 CD 10 AC 3C 00 75 F4 C3 E5 D0 0B 00 00 00 80 20
000001C0 1F 00 05 FE FF FF FE 07 00 00 02 68 15 13 00 00

As you say, the boot sector at sector 63 is an NTFS boot sector. Its BIOS Parameter Block (BPB) is telling us that the NTFS volume begins at sector 63 (= 0x3F) and has a size of 40GB (= 0x04A89181 sectors x 512 bytes per sector).

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00007E00 EB 52 90 4E 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 ...NTFS
00007E10 00 00 00 00 00 F8 00 00 3F 00 FF 00 3F 00 00 00
00007E20 00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00 81 91 A8 04 00 00 00 00
00007E30 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 18 89 4A 00 00 00 00 00
00007E40 F6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 EB 97 01 B0 C8 01 B0 EE

It is not clear to me what has been "repaired". Obviously the partition table does not have the two volumes that you mentioned earlier, so it does appear that it has been modified. However, you also claimed that the volume was FAT32, yet we are now seeing an NTFS boot sector.

Can you tell us precisely what actions you have taken?
 
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WySi

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This is an approx copy of current partitioning tables view showing ext 2/3/4 type (83) and swap type (82) partitions in addition to the Extended (05) one. Hope it helps.



Partition tables


part f.syst size ind 1st last
phys 164G T 0 320173055


" ext(A)(05) 164G ET 2046 320172031


" logic,disk ext 3/4 71.5G EBC 2048 130649023

" table (05) 92.4G ET 139649024 320172031

"logic,disk swap 92.4G E 139651072 320172031
Sorry about the formatting - everything goes to crap when I post it

I thought I had toggled the bootable partition status although I don't know what it did (maybe nothing). As you can tell, I'm not very knowledgeable about this, so that was all I wanted to try.

Do you know what the My Computer display function looks for or needs to find when the USB ports are queried for devices? What ever it is, this drive apparently isn't providing it.
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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I think I see the structure now.

The partition table contains a single extended partition of type 05 beginning at sector 2046 and with a size of 320172031 sectors (= 164GB).

This extended partition contains two logical volumes. The first is a 71.5GB Linux ext3/ext4 partition while the second is a 92.4GB Linux swap partition.

The NTFS partition at sector 63 appears to be a remnant from earlier times when the drive was partitioned and formatted under Windows.

I suspect that you may be able to see the data under Windows if you use a tool such as Linux Reader for Windows (freeware):
http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

Alternatively, you could try a Ubuntu Live CD.
 
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Solution
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WySi

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It looks like that will work - great idea! Since I've found that the needed files are stored in linux volumes, I'll be installing a new mint distro to copy the files into.
Thanks for the help!
 
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WySi

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Linux Reader will work to move the files I think but I will install a new linux distro on a good hdd to copy them to - Thanks for the excellent help!
 
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