External HDD in device manager but not in My computer

JayMan_Nel

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Oct 18, 2013
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Hi everyone

I have a HP External HD in my possession which someone asked me to check out. It's been tested on a few different machines and always delivers the following results:
1) Does not show autoplay when plugged in
2) Does not show in My Computer
3) When I right click My Computer and Manage, the disk shows as Disk 1, unknown, not initialized but when right clicking the disk, Initialize is there but grayed out.
4) The icon for "Safely remove usb device" shows up in the toolbar.
5) It shows up in device manager
6) When trying to update the driver, it says that the driver is up to date.

My questions are as follows:
1) How do I access this drive and get it showing in My Computer
2) If the drive has given in, how do I recover the data as it's very important.
3) Is this hardware or software related?

Please note that no physical damage has been inflicted on the drive.

Thank you in advance
 
Solution
lonewolf7 has pointed you in the right direction.

The fact that the external unit shows up in Disk Management does not prove that the HDD inside the unit is OK, but it MIGHT be. What Disk Management is really telling you is that it can communicate with the USB system in the external case. However, the info it gets back makes no sense. That could mean that the HDD unit itself is faulty, OR it might mean that the USB-to-HDD interface inside the case is faulty. If you do as lonewolf7 says and remove the HDD from the case and install it in a desktop machine as an internal drive, you will be able to see from its behaviour there whether the HDD actually is faulty in some way. Moveover, you MAY be able to run some diagnostics on it...

JayMan_Nel

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Oct 18, 2013
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I also thought it might be. Any suggestions on whether there might be a way to get the data back? It's quite important. Btw the HD spins and the light comes on.
 
Does the HHD of windows platform or of any other ? Can you see the HDD in BIOS ? If so then there is a chance of recovering data. Do the drive makes some clicking noise or not ?

If it's not under warranty, then you can try to attach the HDD directly to the MB by opening/breaking the caddy/enclosure. Or sometimes it's not getting detected by windows due to faulty USB cable, so you can try to replace the cable to see what happens.

Here are two decent data recovery software's :

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

http://download.cnet.com/Zero-Assumption-Recovery/3000-2248_4-10061981.html

There are tons of free software's out there to try with.

If nothing works then a data recovery company will be the last resort. They will charge plenty, so go by the route if the data is extremely important to you.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
lonewolf7 has pointed you in the right direction.

The fact that the external unit shows up in Disk Management does not prove that the HDD inside the unit is OK, but it MIGHT be. What Disk Management is really telling you is that it can communicate with the USB system in the external case. However, the info it gets back makes no sense. That could mean that the HDD unit itself is faulty, OR it might mean that the USB-to-HDD interface inside the case is faulty. If you do as lonewolf7 says and remove the HDD from the case and install it in a desktop machine as an internal drive, you will be able to see from its behaviour there whether the HDD actually is faulty in some way. Moveover, you MAY be able to run some diagnostics on it (NON-data-destructive) if necessary, and you MAY be able to run data recovery software on it if that is needed.
 
Solution

JayMan_Nel

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Oct 18, 2013
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Thanks for your help. It does show in the BIOS. No clicking sounds. The light starts flashing when I plug it in but that's it. Just keeps flashing. I'll try some of the recommended data recovery programmes. Or as you said plugging it into the pc directly. I tested other cables on it, but sadly got the same results. So its not the USB or power cables.

Thanks
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
Before starting with data recovery software, I suggest you use diagnostic utilities to test the HDD unit. For this you should do 2 things.

1. Remove the HDD from the external case and mount it in a desktop machine, if you can. I realize that's a bit of work, and will void any warranty on the external unit. However, having it inside a desktop and connected directly to a SATA port will eliminate any problems with the USB connection system and interface; moreover, it will be much faster to do the job - USB2 is much slower than any SATA connection.
2. Examine the HDD unit and identify its manufacturer. Go to the manufacturer's website and find / download / install their HDD diagnostic utility package. For example, Seagate has their Seatools, but I don't know whose HDD unit is inside your HP external case. These will tell you if anything is wrong with the unit and, if so, what. Such tests normally are non-destructive of data. The package usually also has some simpler repair tools you can use that also are non-destructive. In addition there are likely to be more aggressive "fixing" tools that DO destroy your data and will warn you about this. Do NOT use any of them before attempting data recovery.

If you use data recovery software on the drive, you will find that almost all of them do NOT write to the HDD in an attempt to repair it. Instead they offer only to COPY all your data off to another spare HDD safely. AFTER that you can decide what to do with the faulty drive. But this means that you will need a spare HDD to put the copied data on, at least temporarily.
 

JayMan_Nel

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Oct 18, 2013
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I'm contemplating how to remove it at present. At least the warranty has expired. I will come back with the results soon.

On a lighter note, I only have an old XP box so keep your fingers crossed that it works. Haven't fired it up in a year.
 
Ok we are eagerly waiting for reply. And fingers crossed. Just one question : Does the HDD showing the actual size in BIOS ? I am asking you this to not to frighten you, but I have experienced some faulty drives showing with incorrect size or with no size specification at all in BIOS. Anyways good luck.
 

zmitrauskas

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Mar 26, 2014
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Go to device manager, and uninstall (NOT UPDATE) HP External HD devise driver, and windows will search from new this driver and install, then you computer will see the drive.